Floor

torrentum

Hi all

Can someone take a look at this pic and tell me if its semi solid or engineered?
I'm pretty sure it's semi solid but the guy in the shop who is selling it tought it's engineered.
Also, the man selling this tells me it needs no glue or nails. It's a tongue and groove system and just needs clicking together. Could he be right?
I was looking for a floating floor held by elastillon with no glue/nails. Would this be OK? It's going on a concrete subfloor.
The wood on top is a smoked, oiled, oak.
Im totally confused by this salesman and could do with some help from people in the know.

Many thanks.

MrThrifty

Well it ain't solid anyway! If semi-solid and engineered are not the same thing, I'd say engineered.

Word of warning regarding Elastilon - it's a great idea in theory but I'd have big issues after laying a floor myself with it.

Firstly, you end up with a floating floor - the whole floor can shift around after. I found this to be problematic as I'd left expansion gaps which were then showing near some skirting boards. Maybe some cork sqaushed into the gaps may have been useful but this somewhat defeats the purpose of the them...

Secondly, the floor sinks slightly after when you walk on it due to compression of the Elastilon. Doorway thresholds then become more interesting...

Thirdly, our floor splits in two during wintertime when it contracts. Issue is a joining of two Elastilon sheets to get more length. Room was a quirky shape so you should be able to avoid this.

Finally, you can't start peeling the stuff till you have a few rows down and aligned across the room. This is actually quite messy - you'll prob need clamps and bungee cords to hold them together as you peel. Be careful when peeling that you don't rip the plastic backing, especially if the side of it has been cut by hand. You can end up then with unpeeled stuff under some boards!

If I could go back in time, I'd secret nail on battens. Solid out in the long term. Just make sure you can handle the increased height of the floor after and that you leave an expansion gap between each row.

slimjimmc

Certainly doesn't look like a click joint more like a standard T & G which need to be glued.

A click joint would have a profile with a ridge to lock ('click') the boards together. When fitting you would insert the tongued board from an angle then push down and forward. This is not quite as simple for a novice as advertised, you generally have to wait until you've lined up the whole row before you can push the boards down fully, meanwhile some boards can pop back out before they're fully locked and you might have redo the entire row again. Very frustrating until you get the knack. Even when flat, you still may need to gently tap the boards together to close the joint tightly. The last row is usually fun too and often you need to shave the lip off the tongue and use good old glue.

A glued T&G is often a simpler and just as fast if not quicker to fit, imo. All my floors are floating floors and I've had no problems with movement or skirting not covering the 10-12mm expansion gaps. 15mm-18mm skirting seems to cover that comfortably.

torrentum

Thanks so much for the replies and advice. Much appreciated.