flooring, door saddle and floor tiles

jd

Hi All,
We have decided to floor our apartment with semi solid merbau, except for the kitchen and bathrooms (which will be tiled). The kitchen is open off the living room/lounge.
Should I use a saddle across the division? In other words, should I try and run all the connecting wooden floored rooms without saddles, just using saddles where it joins the tiling?
Any thoughts?

Victor

Does the manufacturer have a stated maximum length? If between several rooms / areas you are exceeding this, then the floor saddles are probably a must. With expansion / contraction at the doors, you might find the joints opening up and a door saddle will make this less obvious.

It wouldn't be essential at the break with the tiling, it being a natural break, although you would want a solid edge. If there is a level difference, you might want to use a solid piece of the same timber that you can trim / sand down.

Plan what direction(s) you are going to lay the boarding properly - you don't want to end up cutting it all over the place. I think parallel to the main direction of travel in the room is best. This becomes an issue in the hall corridor, where the joints will be parallel with the door when the door is closed. A deliberate break is better than a "gap".

Lex Luthor

If you're running semi solid over more than 3 rooms, I would not try to keep them all one floor. You will have to break it somewhere between one room to the other just to allow some movement. You get get T-sections to match your wood so that if you have to have a break between one room and the other, these just fit to the wood floor and it looks seamless enough. The t-section will normally go at a door so it hardly ever gets seen cos the door will be closed.

I would remove all the saddles, even between wood floor & tiles. If you put the wood floor up to the saddle, it will eventually expand or contract and you'll have gaps when contracting and it will push the saddle when expanding. Use a t-section between the wood & tile if they are at the same height or use a ramp from the wood floor down to the tiles. That way all the movement of the wood floor happens under the t-section and is never seen.

I recently put down solid floor and had to mate it with existing tiled floor in the kitchen. The tile height off the concrete floor with adhesive was 10mm and the wood floor with the battens was 30mm high. The wood ramp was matched to the wood floor and ramped down over the tiled floor and it was a seamless join.

Is the semi solid going to be floated or secret nailed?

jd

Lex Luthor wrote:

Is the semi solid going to be floated or secret nailed?

Tx..
It will be floated.
jd

Lex Luthor

JD,

The place where you buy the wood will be able to supply you with all the t-sections & ramps.

jd

Lex Luthor wrote:

JD,

The place where you buy the wood will be able to supply you with all the t-sections & ramps.

Thank you very much- they have them in mahogany to go with the merbau.
Hopefully it'll look the way we (she!!) wants it to. merbau and cream...

jd

should the tiles be laid on plywood- or directly to the sound insulation matting on the concrete?

Lex Luthor

jd wrote:

should the tiles be laid on plywood- or directly to the sound insulation matting on the concrete?

Floor tiles can go directly onto the concrete floor with the adhesive. No need for plywood unless your floor is uneven.
Whats the sound insulation matting?

Is this to do with the fact you are in an apartment on the first floor or higher?

jd

Lex Luthor wrote:

Is this to do with the fact you are in an apartment on the first floor or higher?

yip..

Victor

jd wrote:

should the tiles be laid on plywood- or directly to the sound insulation matting on the concrete?

The "resilient layer".

Eh, I'm not sure what procedure is, but I'm not sure how well it would stick / stay.

Borzoi

jd wrote:

should the tiles be laid on plywood- or directly to the sound insulation matting on the concrete?

Directly onto the cork matting is fine. Just be sure to check for hidden lumps as you go, as builders have a tendancy just to cover over those - and if they rise up you'll break tiles on them eventually.

As for gaps, you need to leave them between rooms. You can get a thin metal saddle, that's about 2" wide, and rises 3mm approx, and self adhesive on half the under side - so you stick it to one section of floor, it covers the gap, and laps over the other section of floor. Allows for expansion . no bother, and the strip is mostly covered bu the doors when closed.

As for the tiles, go with the lads on the wedge sections.

jd

Borzoi wrote:

As for the tiles, go with the lads on the wedge sections.

I'm a bit confused about the ramps..

I assume they would have to be planed down ?

Borzoi

jd wrote:

I'm a bit confused about the ramps..

I assume they would have to be planed down ?

Doors and Floors, for one, have these ready shaped to suit a drop from wood level to a lower (tile) level. However you're getting the floor should be able to supply also

yop

Definately lay the tiles on the cork matting. As said check for stones under the mats first.

I tiled a kitchen there last week, where kitchen and dining room and sitting room were open plan.
What the lad doing the flooring did was put a metal strip, it was 14 mm inside and 17mm outside along the edge of the tile so that the wooden flooring was housed inside the strip. In simpler terms the houseing looked like the letter C. The back of the C was placed against the tiles, the last tile was rose higher at the end to meet the top of the C so that it was level. Then the timber was slipped into the inner part of the C.

hope this helps