Engineered Flooring Advice

[Grain88748]

Hello. I'm planning to tear up a creaking poorly-laid chipboard upstairs bedroom floor and replace it with engineered flooring. The flooring is 22mm thick and can be laid across joists. It's mdf with a 6mm oak layer and tongued and grooved all round. It comes in three varities, unfinished, brushed & oiled and lacquered. Any advice on which type to opt for? If I glue/screw/nail the flooring through the tongues, would this type of flooring need an expansion gap round the wall as I assume MDF is completely stable? Last question, could I lay something like rockwall in the floor void to provide some sound insulation? Would there be any benefit to doing this and is it allowed in building regs? Thanks for any advice.

 

[andersonec]

Grain, I haven't much experience in laying the stuff but do know a chap who makes it, he uses Birch ply as a substrate and personally I have reservations about mdf, e-mail him here with your question [email protected] and see the website here http://www.billinghaysawmill.co.uk/ he is a very helpful sort and I'm sure he will offer some advice.

Andy

 

[Grain88748]

Thanks Andy. I got my wires crossed in my original post - the substrate is HDF not MDF - Any opinions as to PLY versus HDF?

 

[Allylearm]

HDF: High Density Fibreboard Good for machining as it does not fibre up and keeps a profile cleaner.

MDF: Medium Density Fibreboard the basic materials used in all types of things. I Found the French made was tighter particles.

Choice between backing on flooring, the same as Chipboard both the above and chip hate water or damp. The ply or solid types would be my choice. As for expansion gaps yes I would no matter the flooring, your joists and house/room can move for varied reasons and a gap is most important to stop the dreaded raised bubble in the middle of a room or creak of loose flapping floor under your feet as you walk.

 

[scholar]

Hello Grain

A few points from my own experience and thoughts on future plans.

We have some engineered oak flooring that sounds just like what you describe; in this case it is a big expanse on a Ist floor suspended floor (in an old chapel) and the boards are 300mm wide. It looks fabulous and seems to wear well.

The construction is 6mm top layer of oak, core of mdf/hdf whatever and a very thin balancing veneer underneath. From memory we had the boards delivered unfinished and finished them with Osmo Hardwax.

They were installed on a 22mm chipboard substrate, covered with a 6mm plywood layer screwed down and the boards were then glued down with a flooring adhesive. This appears to have performed well. A few offcuts of boards that I have lying around (in a damp garage) have warped dramatically, no doubt due to the differential movement in the 6mm oak and the paper thin balancing veneer. If I look at our floor, I think there is some small tendency to crowning of the boards, but not really an issue or noticeable as this is kept more stable and is of course glued down all over.

For the above reason, I would be wary of relying on just nailing through the tongues etc as I would be concerned about crowning/cupping of the boards. I would definitely look carefully at any very thin balancing veneer.

I am looking for some engineered oak flooring for our dining room and sitting room and intend to get something plywood based with a more substantial balancing veneer. In that case, I have already installed Rockwool insulation in the floors (again on a Ist floor), primarily for sound insulation.

The fixing method I propose to use is this system http://www.epms-supplies.co.uk/admin/pr ... System.pdf which should provide good sound deadening with the underlay mat. It does of course need to be laid on a substrate, so might not be ideal if you have height issues (although perhaps you would not need 22mm thick flooring.

Anyway, just a few points from my own experience etc.

Cheers

 

[chippy1970]

Ive laid lots of engineered flooring but never seen it with HDF backing . I think I would personally give it a miss and use the regular stuff which is ply backed very stable stuff.