DIY Wooden floors kitchen concrete floor

ntlbell

I've never lifted a finger with regards DIY and we were planning on doing up our kitchen this year but due to the "current climate" it's either wait a year or two or I do it myself.

I was wondering if anyone could point me in the right direction of what type of flooring would be best for a kitchen and also the easiest for a DIY newbie to install.

Some questions.

Would I need to insulate the floors?

Is there some sort of "kit" I could buy that would have all the required tools?

what would be easiest type of flooring for me to install?

would i have to put in new skirting boards?

I have 0 tools for a job like this.

any other handy tips would be much appreciated

Carpenter

Hi
By the time you buy the tools and do the job it will cost you more than you think (not looking for work here just a word to the wise)

ntlbell

I'd say I can borrow the tools if I have an idea of what I need to do it.

I don't mind buying them too much as it they can be used again if I want to do more rooms in the house

Carpenter

ntlbell wrote: »

I'd say I can borrow the tools if I have an idea of what I need to do it.

I don't mind buying them too much as it they can be used again if I want to do more rooms in the house

Ok so fair play
you will need
1 Tape
2 Jigsaw
3 Handsaw
4 A pull bar (buy it in Brooks its for closing the last few boards)
5 Hammer
6 Stanley Knife
Off hand thats all you need
Keep the first board about 6----8mm off the wall make sure your first line is straight (if not you are giving yourself a nightmare getting all the joints spot on )
Are you going to remove the skirting or put a slip to cover the joint after removing is a bit more work but looks better and when refitting skirting board if thats the way you are going make sure there is room for a peice of paper under it so when you are repainting you can slide a newspaper under it and get no paint on your floor .
Any questions just ask .

gsxr1

I would recommend a water restaint laminate for the kitchen. If there is a wet accident with one of you appliances (which happens to everyone at some point) you will be glad you did not put down timber.

If you do go laminate. You should get if fitted by a tradesman. Laminates are very cheap in installation costs.

You would need an underlay . Very cheap.

SpitfireIV

ntlbell wrote: »

what would be easiest type of flooring for me to install?

The laminated, semi solid and solid floating floors are all pretty easy to install, you'd be surprised, I think a lot of people assume that they are difficult to install, but they really arent. They just take a bit of common sense and patience. Personally I'd be looking at semi solid, or solid floating floors, the laminates are a bit flimsy and 'will' begin to wear down after a while, especially in a high traffic area as a kitchen, at least with the semi solid, or solid boards you can give them a bit of a sanding after a few years and give them another varnish (they usually come prefinished so you wont have to worry about varnishing or such for now).

Some of the boards will be the old style, or have a V groove in them, personally I'd be avoiding these too, especially for a kitchen, they're a hure to clean as all the dust and dirt gets caught in the groove. So if you want something thats easy to clean avoid these type boards. After that just go for something that you like, depending on color etc, light colors like beech or birch, or dark like walnut or oak.


The first row or two that you put down will be a bit of a headache, thats for sure, put plenty of spacers between the wall/skirting for the first row, because when you start knocking in the next row the end joints on the first may begin to open a little. Once you get past the second row though you'll get into a rythem and fly through it!

Things like radiator pipes will require a little precision cutting so that it looks neat and also you will have to give a few mm's around the pipe. I believe you can buy little thingy's that fit onto the pipe though and cover the cut, but if the cut in the board is done carefully and neatly you wont need these.

Get yourself waterproof adhesive (Evo stick is a good brand, the waterproof one is the blue bottle), that goes without saying, ie its for a kitchen so you dont want spills affecting the glue! You will need an underlay membrane too, that should be supplied with the floor and is needed if the floor is going down on a concrete floor.

Happy DIY'ing

gsxr1 wrote:

I would recommend a water restaint laminate for the kitchen. If there is a wet accident with one of you appliances (which happens to everyone at some point) you will be glad you did not put down timber.

Ah, good point, I wasnt aware of the water resistant floors, makes sense I suppose for a kitchen. I pulled up a normal laminate floor recently and the boards next to a leaky radiator pipe were a bit of a mess underneath.

gsxr1

CroppyBoy1798 wrote: »

Ah, good point, I wasnt aware of the water resistant floors, makes sense I suppose for a kitchen. I pulled up a normal laminate floor recently and the boards next to a leaky radiator pipe were a bit of a mess underneath.

yeah there is some really good quaity lamanates out there.

DublinDilbert

CroppyBoy1798 wrote: »

Things like radiator pipes will require a little precision cutting so that it looks neat and also you will have to give a few mm's around the pipe. I believe you can buy little thingy's that fit onto the pipe though and cover the cut, but if the cut in the board is done carefully and neatly you wont need these.

I just use a nice size wood bit to drill a hole in the laminate where the pipe will be, then do 2 cuts from the edge to make it into a U shape....

When you drill out the hole, it will be a nice neat circle, so it doesn't matter if its over-sized. Cause the circle is neat it looks grand.

Git101

To keep the timber square is it better to start in the middle of the room and work out to the walls or start at a wall and hope the room is not too much out by the time you get to the other wall?

gsxr1

Git101 wrote: »

To keep the timber square is it better to start in the middle of the room and work out to the walls or start at a wall and hope the room is not too much out by the time you get to the other wall?

No. Start at one wall

Kashkai

We had solid wood floors in the last house but they were scratched in no time at all. Having sanded the floor boards upstairs, I know that this is a filthy rotten job, so I was in no humour for sanding the wood floors downstairs.

So when we built the new house, we went for a top quality laminate (thats fooled most people who have come in to the house as they have assumed its solid wood). I have laid about 2,000 sq ft of this laminate now and its a piece of urine to do. The hardest part is starting off where you have to get it as level to the wall as possible and then measure off to make sure that you'll be as level as possible with the far wall. Another point worth mentioning is that you should lay a strip of planks across the room to guage how much you'll be left with on the final row, i.e. you don't want to end up with a 1 inch strip as that would look awful so you might have to cut your first row in half to end up with equal proportions on each wall, time consuming but worth it in the end as it'll look a hell of a lot better than the row of "sticks" that you might end up with otherwise.

Put down a good quality underlay if you are laying on concrete. Laminate floors are usually supplied with a 3mm foam thats ok if using on top of existing floorboards/plywood but terrible if you lay on concrete as it will be compacted in no time and you'll end up hearing the crunch of the floorboards on tiny bits of concrete when you walk on them. I used 6mm polystyrene foam boards on top of a pvc underlay (for the moisture barrier) and it was great for levelling out minor variations in floor height and it feels better for walking on too. I got it in B & Q and it was very easy to lay.

Finally, get some knee pads as you'll spend a lot of time on the floor putting the strips of planks together. Otherwise you'll be very sore getting up when you've finished.

Laying laminate floors is very easy once you start out right. The hardest part is the first line and after that you will fly through it. It makes no sense to pay someone to do it for you as it will be easy money for them.