Laying solid wooden floors on concrete base.

secman

Hi all,

A small dilemma .

We are looking to lay solid flooring on a concrete floor in living /sitting rooms. Problem is of a height issue. If we use 18ml ply and an 18ml floor, we have issues with levels of other area's ie hallway and kitchen which will be tiled. Also height of floor to fire hearth, and the doors too. Chippy no 1 suggested floating the floor, which i thought was a major no no, and chippy no 2 agreed with me. Chippy No 2 suggested using 12 ml ply and a shorter secret nail, but chippy No 1 says this will not work. " Doctors differ and patients die " springs to mind !

Now I know i can opt for semi solid and float it , but would prefer to use solid.

All suggestions would be welcome.!

hopalong_ie

Hi,

The other option apart from the ply and cross battons and the one i'm currently in the process of doing is to glue it to the subfloor. you spread the glue and notch it with a trowel exactly as you would tile adhesive except this is glue for wooden floors and then just lay yout floor into it.

secman

Have heard varying opinions on the glue method too ! Have you done it before ?

Secman

hopalong_ie

No, I glued my kitchen first about a month ago as it needed to be done for the units to go in and ive had no issues with it, the jist is that your subfloor must be clean no dust etc and that their must be no more than 3mm per meter inbalance in the level. But the floor feels very solid. There is some excellient information on the net re this, youtube.com has several videos detailing how to do it. You must ensure that there is 100% coverage or the floor may lift due to a weak point.

You have twenty mins to work when you lay the floor into the glue in which it can be adjusted.

the chippie

no 1
use 12mm ply for solid floor , which will give 12mm + 18mm floor board gives you 30mm , then use 18mm ply for where you want to use tiles ,18mm + tile will give you 30mm when tile is laid down , i did in my own house sitting and dining rooms have solid oak and hall has tiles in it .

sharonl

We're doing the same thing at the moment, laying solid wood onto concrete which is already covered with cork underlay. Heard so many different ways of laying solid wood from so many different floor layers and each saying you can't use the other so we decided to make our own mind up since we'll be laying it ourselves anyway. Floor place tried to sell us elastilon to put down solid acacia, but gonna go with floor master self adhesive underlay as its the same stuff but nearly half the price in B&Q. Designed for solid wood and means no glue or nails so seems easy enough. Have a look into it, its another option anyway other than gluing or nailing. Think some of the pro's are a bit dubious of it cos its new, but hey here to progress.

Good luck

ircoha

secman wrote: »

Hi all,

A small dilemma .

We are looking to lay solid flooring on a concrete floor in living /sitting rooms. Problem is of a height issue. If we use 18ml ply and an 18ml floor, we have issues with levels of other area's ie hallway and kitchen which will be tiled. Also height of floor to fire hearth, and the doors too. Chippy no 1 suggested floating the floor, which i thought was a major no no, and chippy no 2 agreed with me. Chippy No 2 suggested using 12 ml ply and a shorter secret nail, but chippy No 1 says this will not work. " Doctors differ and patients die " springs to mind !

Now I know i can opt for semi solid and float it , but would prefer to use solid.

All suggestions would be welcome.!

The fire place is all I want to comment on here: if the fire is an open fire that is used and u go with nearly any timber floor, u will need a bit heavy duty mat to stop the excessive heat drying out the boards around the fire place. I have seen them split when glued, not pretty