Installing Solid Oak Floor Over Concrete ?

[jedmc571]

Hello all,
Anyone got a suggestion for installing over concrete ?
My father-in law got some oak cheap from some installers, they told him to fit it right up to the perimeter of the room ? sounds wrong to me ? surely you need an expansion gap ?
I suggested a vapour barrier, fibreboard underlay, leave a 10-15mm gap around the edge and glue the tongue and groove with woodwork adhesive creating a floating system ? similar to laminate install.

Any ideas welcome

Jed

 

[mahking51]

I think that you are spot on!
I fitted a Kahrs real oak floor two years ago 15mm thick oak over 10mm substrate. Put in a 1/8" foam and plastic membrane overlapping joins by 6". Glued the T&G as per instructions and left at least 10mm all round room as expansion gap, more in some places. All gaps covered by skirting boards.
No problems two years on.
I did leave the wood in the room for three weeks before fitting to acclimatise.
I think that fitting tight to wall is asking for trouble.
Regards
Martin

 

[Steve James]

Hi Jed

I`ve fitted out loads of pubs and bars with oak flooring, usually there is some sort of sub-floor or grounds to fix to.
Could you afford (in terms of lifting the finished floor height) to screw either plywood or timber grounds (battens) to the floor?
Or would this cause problems with cutting doors, skirting etc?
One good thing about ply/grounds is that you are able to secret nail the boards to the ply. Which if one of the proper floor nailers is used has the effect of "cramping" up the floor, helping to minimise the effects of shrinkage.
I want to do a similar job in my dining room and had exactly the same method in mind, in theory it should be successful.
I would suggest some self levelling compound on the floor first to try and "flatten" it a bit.
Good luck and let us know how you get on.

Steve

 

[ProShop]

Jed,
You've got it spot on, if your not going to fit skirting to hide the gap, you can buy a 10mm cork infill strip, and as they floor spreads with use and climatic change the cork moves with the change.

I've lost count on the number of those lovely public building wooden floors you see around the country that I've done. AaahH.. Memories....

 

[Anonymous]

Hi, don't know if this helps but recently i helped to install a hardwood floor at a property with a concrete floor, we used self levelling compound first, then glued the floor using a 5 minute wood glue then used sash clamps to close up the joints ( the glue actually takes 30 mins to go off fully )as has already been said an expansion gap was left which was later covered by the skirting boards.
The glue we used actually expands and needed removing from the surface of the floor but once sanded and varnished was not visible.

 

[CYC]

It's not semi-solid according to the title.
Gluing Solid floor!?!?! this is the first time I hear of it.


As Steve said, you should put battens down and nail the floor boards to them. I have done so in my house and the floor is immaculate 3 years on.