Worried about floating a solid timber floor

sas

I've purchased a solid elm floor from Coillte (www.irishhardwoods.com). The salesman was wary of telling me that it could be floated. He was more keen to have it nailed. He did admit however that the vast majority of people that buy their floors are floating them. Their website states clearly that it can be floated.

Its unfinished tongued and groove flooring.
The flooring itself is not too keen to stay together when 2 boards are pushed together. The tongue is wedge shaped and is exerting some pressue on the groove. I was prepared to push ahead however.

My carpenter is not too keen though. He feels that the glue may not be able to hold the floor together. Before I go ahead and waste this flooring I'm wondering if anyone else has had any success/failures floating similar floors.

Borzoi

sas wrote:

My carpenter is not too keen though. He feels that the glue may not be able to hold the floor together. Before I go ahead and waste this flooring I'm wondering if anyone else has had any success/failures floating similar floors.

The vast majority of solid wood floors are nailed on battons.

The vast majority of semi solid and laminate floors are floating.

WHile I've plenty of experience of both the above I've never laid a solid floating floor - though, like yourself I've been told it's possible

Personally if your carpenter is not keen then don't force the issue,

Lex Luthor

the general rule is a floating floor is glued together. If you put two boards together without glue and they slide in & out of eachother easily, then it will be a nightmare to fit floating when they are glued. It will have to be clamped every few feet cos the glue won't set fast enough.
You will be better off on the battens.

We went for sheets of 8x4 marine plywood cut into 1" strips and used as battens to keep costs down. These are glued to the floor with panel adhesive approx 1 foot apart and the boards secret nailed on to them.

Go with the carpenter on this one. He's not spoofing ya.

towbar

Although I would generally agree with the views expressed it can be done if absolutely needed. I floated a prefinished maple floor as it was in a kitchen\living room which was half tiled and floating the floor meant no step between the two as the levels worked out exactly.

It was extremely slow and you could really only do about 3-4 rows at a time as the boards tended to move about as you are putting it together. Short boards are essential, it would be very difficult if the boards are longer than 2-3 feet. The glue will set enough to cintinue in about 20-30 minutes.

The rest of the house is on battons and there is no comparison in time taken - also the floating floor is slightly more gappy and it did lift at one edge although this was because I didn't leave enough space at the finishing edge and the problem was cured by replacing the last two rows of boards. Make sure to use a foam underlay.

On the rest of the house I used 3.5" strips cut from 8x4x3/4 sheets of shuttering ply at 8" centres nailed with hollow nails every 1'. My supplier cut the strips for me. Many people put down full sheets. I am curious Lex Luthor - do you have any squeaks with 1" strips at 1' spacing - it would have saved me a lot!!

sas

Thanks for all the feedback .

Given that I had little choice but to proceed or try to resell the floor I "convinced" the carpenter to go ahead and float it. It so far has been a complete success, the carpenter himself is very pleased with the result.

Time will tell I suppose.