Laying a new floor

[garethharvey]

I have just ordered some engineered oak flooring, it's 20mm thick with a 6mm wear layer. I laid some about 2 years ago over a sub-floor. On this I screwed down through the tongue every 400mm.

I am about to lay the same flooring over a concrete floor. Am planning on gluing it down but struggling to understand what glue to use.

Any advice?

 

[novocaine]

float it and don't bother with the glue.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

... On this I screwed down through the tongue every 400mm ...
I assume you thought someone was going to steal it?

 

[MusicMan]

+1 for floating. Unless the floor is extremely flat and dry, lay a polythene sheet as a damp proof membrane, bringing it up over the outside edges, put T&G chipboard over the whole floor (floating), then lay the engineered oak on top of that. You can glue, screw or nail the T&G to the chipboard. The skirting board then covers the gap at the edge and hides the polythene.

The pro installer I used about 15 years ago used this method, with glue on the tongues. I don't think the glue was special but don't recall what it was.

Floating is good, but if you don't glue the tongues, isn't there a danger of gaps opening up between the "planks"?

 

[garethharvey]

float it and don't bother with the glue.

My only concern here is the noise, a fixed floor is usually quieter.

 

[garethharvey]

... On this I screwed down through the tongue every 400mm ...
I assume you thought someone was going to steal it?

lol

 

[garethharvey]

+1 for floating. Unless the floor is extremely flat and dry, lay a polythene sheet as a damp proof membrane, bringing it up over the outside edges, put T&G chipboard over the whole floor (floating), then lay the engineered oak on top of that. You can glue, screw or nail the T&G to the chipboard. The skirting board then covers the gap at the edge and hides the polythene.

The pro installer I used about 15 years ago used this method, with glue on the tongues. I don't think the glue was special but don't recall what it was.

Floating is good, but if you don't glue the tongues, isn't there a danger of gaps opening up between the "planks"?

Have considered this but it would create small steps in to and out of the room.

 

[Doug71]

I stuck my engineered flooring to the screed, it was a few years ago but think this was the stuff I used

https://www.sourcewoodfloors.co.uk/item ... wood-floor)

You can buy it in sausage packs to do 1 square metre

https://www.sourcewoodfloors.co.uk/item ... loor-700cc)-1m2-trowel-sausage

Messy job, have some big wipes on standby.

Doug

 

[HappyHacker]

The supplier/manufacturer should be able to provide guidance on the type of product to use with their flooring. I have only laid floating floors, PVA adhesive was recommended for the tongues where it was not a click type join.

 

[Homers double]

I've recently had a job that was similar, we had to over lay the 2 upper floors of the house with 22mm solid oak boards (reclaimed from French oak beams) this was about 90sq meters altogether, i laid a 6mm foil backed foam over the existing floor boards and the glued all the boards together along the tongue & groove,we had removed the existing skirting so that was refitted.
Secondly I can really recommend Sika bond T 54 that Doug has already put a link up for. At the moment we're close to finishing 135sq meters of parquet flooring, we prepared the screed using sika primer MB, it's a epoxy resin floor preparation that also acts as moisture barrier, then the flooring is laid using sikabond T54, once set it has a bit of elasticity about it, as Doug said it's a messy job but after 15 tins you become pretty good at keeping clean, disposable gloves and lots of wipes are completely necessary.

 

[skipdiver]

Either lay it floating on a good underlay, gluing tongues and grooves together, or stick it down with adhesive and a notched trowel. I have used both methods successfully in the past. The adhesive i got was in tins from Howdens. Think it was Sikabond.

 

[garethharvey]

Many thanks, that's great

 

[chippy1970]

Google Sikabond I've used it loads of times, pretty easy to use either by trowel from a tub or you can buy it in sausage packs for use in a gun. By all means float it as others have suggested but stuck down is a far superior job.

 

[Jake]

FWIW I think glue down is a better floor as others more experienced above have said. But you'll need to use a good self leveler (Stopgap 300 would be my go-to) first if the concrete isn't properly flat and smooth. The trowels for a proper (economical) bed are only 3mm triangular toothed so give very little room for gap filling (too costly!). I preferred MS polymer glue over polyu type just because of stinkiness, but there are arguments both ways over which is overall superior.

 

[skipdiver]

Good advice Jake. Should have said that the floor needs to be pretty flat for good results.

 

[Alexfn]

Never float a floor thats worth doing right. All the stress is transferred to the t&g the glue will eventually fail with the tension strain, it will then make a cracking sound. Glue down with sikabond. If you do it that way any problems will be your grandchildrens

 

[timber]

Never float a floor thats worth doing right. All the stress is transferred to the t&g the glue will eventually fail with the tension strain, it will then make a cracking sound. Glue down with sikabond. If you do it that way any problems will be your grandchildrens

Not true if you have a water pipe burst under the concrete floor, Then it's my problem------ being a great grand father.
It was a hot pipe and a lot of the boards have lifted, what a mess.
Life is full of problems to be solved ! ! ! ? ? ?

 

[garethharvey]

The floor does need levelling, we currently have a carpet over it at the moment. I was going to level it myself, but as it's so critical I will probably get someone in to do this for me.

Timber: fortunately for me, there is nothing running within the floor.