Solid Oak flooring in a sun lounge ?

[Uncle Brou]

Hi,

I have recenlty purchased some solid oak wood flooring from B&Q to lay in my sun lounge which I was looking forward to seeing layed, however, I bumped into a good friend today who told me it is not a good idea to lay the solid oak in the sun lounge as the temperate movement is between 40 degrees in the summer compared to about 15 degrees in the winter and it will end up possibly failing and having to come out in a few years time ?

I have been advised to take it back to B&Q and then have been advised to buy Tuscan Elite engineered wood flooring as I won't have issues with it ?

Can anyone confirm or deny the advice please as I have no idea to be honest ?!!

Also, I will be laying whatever flooring I end up with on a new screed, I know to leave it for 6 weeks approx to let the moisture out of it and to leave an expantion gap of at least 10mm, however what is the best method of laying it ? floating on an underlay or glued to the screed ?

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me.

Uncle Brou

 

[soulboy]

Hi Uncle, the issue is more about humidity, which is effected by temperature.
Other considerations are; size`of the room and the amount of expansion/contraction the manufacturer specifies, the substrate and method of laying.
I have never heard of 'Tuscan Elite' but even the most expensive flooring could fail if the conditions are wrong. Is the B&Q stuff engineered wood or laminate 'cos they are two different beasts.
Do you have a DPM underneath your new screed, if not, this could also effect your installation.
But onto more positive stuff, if you are worried about the movement, use the floating method and be sure about your expansion gap around fixed points, in a room around 10metre sq, the recommended 10mm gap is usually enough, over that 12-14mm would be prudent, what will you use to cover the gap? Standard mouldings from B&Q et al are around 12-14mm but you could use skirting board (18-21mm) make or buy specifically bigger to allow for a larger gap/more movement.
HTH chris

 

[miles_hot]

it also depends what you mean by "fail". We have a solid oak floor in the kitchen and the has reasonably large gaps between the boards in Winter (as the central heating is on so humidity is low) which close up in the summer. This isn't "failing" it's just a natural consequence of having a solid floor. The boards do not warp etc which is the only "fail" mode I can see.
In terms of the 6 weeks that would seem to my inexperienced eyes to be too short. You need the concrete to have dried out completely before you can start to acclimatise the boards. We judged this point by leaving a plastic bag (black sack) spread open on the floor and when there was no moisture under it after a day / night to floor was judged to have dried out. We then brought the boards in and left them in situ for weeks to get them to the same moisture point as the room. Damn inconvenient to keep stepping over them (make sure that are fully separated by sticks so that they all have equal exposure to the room).
The pay off is that we were able to reject the long boards which had warped (they were used in either very short runs or for a shelf I built in the shed) and so the chap laying to floor had less hassle and we have a reasonably stable floor.
Engineered wood will have less hassle but it would have been a lot more expensive (we got the oak from Vasterns at a price far below the high street)
HTH
Miles

 

[ProShop]

Uncle, if your not familiar with wood floors, here's my take on them after 40yrs exp.
Most good quality solid wood floors will have the temp & humidity range stamped on the packaging somewhere or on a leaflet.

Basically your good friend is right in what he says more or less. If the floor is to be laid in extreme varying temp & humidity and your not familiar with this I would opt for an engineered oak floor (if oak is your choice) which will float around as it pleases. leave the recommended gap all round (usually 10mm) and fit your skirting afterwards to hide the gap leaving you with a very professional finish.

 

[Uncle Brou]

Thanks all, I have now returned the solid oak to B&Q and got my refund and will be heading to a local supplier tomorrow to order the engineered floor.

Once again, thank you for your help and advice.

Unle Brou