Wood You Like F.A.Q. & News

'Old-fashion' wood mosaic available on-line

Renovating/restoring an old property and in need of renewing, replacing, adding on Old-Fashion wood mosaic tiles? The so-called 5-finger of 7 finger blocks of thin strips of wood in easy to install tiles?

We now have various wood-types available from our Charing Showroom and on-line for you to finally complete any project. The wood-types are the most 'commonly' used in the old days.

All wood-types are unfinished, so you can use your own matching colour or leave it natural with HardWaxOil, and come with mesh or felt-backing for easy installation with normal parquet adhesive (like Lecol5500 or F.Ball B92 - Stycobond)

More questions on underlayment (and gaps)

Underlayment is one of those items where we receive many questions on (and that's no wonder, there are so many different products around - all with their own benefits, instructions and promotion slogans).
Last week we had the following (on-line) conversation:

Freddy asked:

Sorry in advance if this is going over old ground. Have recently bought bamboo flooring and will use the "floating method" to install, the underfloor is all old concrete.
Could you give me some guidance on underlay etc. Is it better to use foam and hardboard or the all in one "feltboard type"? Also what kind of expansion gap should I leave as the suppliers told me it is minimal 5/6mm as bamboo is virtually shrinkproof.
Thanks very much for any advice you can give me.
Cheers Freddy

We answered:

Dear Freddy

If your concrete floor is level (may have a gentle sloop of 1 - 2 mm per meter, but no sudden drops or 'hills') it's bes to use a combi-underlayment. We always recommend to leave 10mm gaps all around, no natural wooden flooring is 'shrink' or 'expansion' proof.

Hope this helps
Wood You Like Ltd

Which resulted in the next question from Freddy:

Thanks for the guidance,(the underlay I mean comes in blocks/slabs and you just cut to fit.The floor is not too bad a little slope running down the hall about 3/4mm over about 2 metres.
I do have to be careful with not gluing the boards to the underlay don't I.
Also do I need to use cork expansion strips?
Thanks again for the help, it's much appreciated.
Cheers Freddy

Our answer:

Hi Freddy

On concrete underfloors it is best to use an underlayment that contains a DPM. The underlayment you mean I don't think will create a continues barrier. Another option for you would be the ticker Timbermate Excell (5mm versus the standard 3mm of the combi)

You're right about having to be careful when glueing the T&G's, any spills on the underlayment can 'strop' the floor when it 'moves' during the seasons.

Cork expansion strips just fill up your expansion gaps! You don't need them.

Hope this helps
Wood You Like Ltd

Freddy replied as follows:

Thanks very much for the advice, it's very much appreciated.

Cheers
Freddy

Feel free to ask your own question, either by leaving a comment underneath this post - or any other, or in our category 6 - in the relevant FAQ post your query is about:
Benefits, Preparations, Installations or Maintenance and After Care

Did you install your wooden floor yourself and are you darn proud of it? Enter our DIY-Triumphs contest!

Guest post: Preparing a subfloor (underfloor)

Wood You Like not only gives out FREE advice on this FAQ-blog, you can also frequently find us doing so on various (UK-based) DIY-forums (DIY-not, E-build, Trust Experts, Green Building Forum etc). Other professional and dedicated to quality and service trade-persons are doing the same.

It's with great pleasure we can announce a first guest author post by one of these professionals:

Preparing a sub floor (underfloor)

Wooden sub floor

Floorboards, you need to use a long straight edge to determine how smooth your floorboards are. If they are reasonably smooth, i.e. 1-2mm run out, you need to over board with exterior grade plywood of 6mm thickness. If you have bad cupping of the boards you need to step up the thickness of plywood to bridge across the cupped boards. I.e. 12mm +. You can also sand the cupped boards flat and refer back to using the 6mm plywood.

Chipboard This type of sub floor should be over boarded with minimum 6mm plywood.
(Note Wood You Like: if you plan to install a wooden floor using the secret nailing method)

How to install plywood

Plywood should be left to acclimatise in the area to be prepared for a minimum of 48hrs. To fix the plywood to the sub floor it needs to be stapled with divergent staples, nailed with ring shank nails or screwed down. If thicker than 6mm it must be screwed. Always fix the boards working from the centre out wards. Your staples, nails etc should be at 100mm centres and 50mm apart around the edge + no more than 10mm from the edge. You should leave 5mm gap between the board joints. 

Concrete/screed

Use a long straight edge to determine dips and high spots of the sub floor. Any high spots should be ground down. Any low spots should be marked out on the sub floor. If the dips in the base are deeper than 3mm they should be filled with repair compound. All sub floors must be primed! Next you need to apply a suitable levelling compound. All compounds should be laid at a minimum of 3mm thickness and no deeper than 6mm. Mix all compounds as instructed on the bag.

Which smoothing/levelling compound should I use?

Water based: Very good levelling and flow. Also dries to a very hard surface. Down side is that it’s not forgiving with mistakes when mixing, damp or poor priming. This will result in failure.
Acrylic based: Dries to a very hard surface. It’s also difficult to make mistake mixing. Down side is that it does not flow as well as water based compounds.
Latex based:  Easy to mix and very forgiving but not as strong as other compounds, poor shear strength and does not flow very well.
Water based flex: Designed for problem floors which flex. It can be used over floorboards. Down side is the price and must be kept above 3mm deep.

Testing for sub floor moist.

To British standard the amount of moister in a concrete base you wish to lay on, must not be more than 75% relative to humidity. To test this you need a working damp proof membrane and a cured concrete base if new. The test should be done with a hygrometer. This is a box which is sealed to the floor for on average of 48-72hrs. Different mixes and depths take different times to take reading. More than one area of the sub floor must be tested. New concrete will need at least a month per inch to dry! I.e. 6” needs 6 months drying time.
(Note from Wood You Like: other moist measure equipment (tested and approved to be used for floor installation preparations) the mentioned above measures the percentage of moist content in the screed.  If this type of equipment is used the reading should not exceed 2% moist content.)

Surface epoxy dpm.

If your underfloor has a failed damp proof membrane or no damp proof protection at all, you can install an epoxy coat to act as a surface damp proof. This will work up to about 92% relative to humidity moister content, depending on which product is used. You can also use a surface membrane to fast track fitting your new flooring on new concrete sub floors. Make sure you follow instructions supplied with the product you choose.

Matt Bourne (August 2007)

BEST BUY Maintenance product

As all of our clients know we always include a maintenance leaflet - filled with tips and advice to keep your natural wooden floor healthy and 'good-looking' - when we deliver the floor or when we have completed the professional installation of it.
Our showroom stocks maintenance products for any type of finish, be it oiled or varnished, of course of the highest quality.

One of our products: the Lecol/Leha Wax-Polish - StepStop OH36 - has been named BEST BUY in maintenance products for natural wooden flooring by the Dutch Consumer Union (the Dutch 'Which' organisation).
Our price: only £ 13.30 per tin (including VAT), which can cover 70 - 80 sq m!

The StepStop is a liquid polish, easy to apply and when regularly used - every 5 - 6 months - will feed the wood and protect your oiled floor against dirt and drips.
Regular maintenance always enhances your floor. If pressed for time, we can even do the maintenance for you (in the East-Kent area)

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When to install a wooden flooring during renovations - DIY-SOS

During renovations or redecorations a lot of work has to be done; like cabling, plumbing, screeding, plastering, wall-papering, painting etc. When you also plan to have a new wooden floor installed it is very important to schedule this job at the end of the 'line'.

Basically you first have to do all the 'wet-work' in and around the room(s) you plan to have wooden flooring in, plus allow sufficient time for the excess moist of plastering and/or painting to evaporate.

We advised BBC's DIY-SOS team the same when we were asked if it would be possible for us to install one of our quality wooden floors (on short notice).

The short notice wasn't the problem, the fact we would have just one day to install it neither. The fact that there was going to be a lot of plastering and painting in the days before was the problem.
You really shouldn't install a wooden floor (wood-engineered included) straight after the last day of plastering or painting.

Since DIY-SOS is always working on a very tight time-schedule we advised the team to source another type of floor-covering. Of course, in the future we are more than happy to help them out - as long as their project doesn't involve massive plaster work beforehand.

In renovation projects like this it comes in handy when you have a hygrometer in the room(s) you're working in as a guide to when the moist of plastering and painting is gone. You can speed up this process with sufficient ventilation, where the excess moist in the air is drawn out of the room - even in winter, just open the windows for 5 - 10 minutes every hour.

For screed work (or new concrete) there is a practical 'rule of thumb': every inch (2.5 cm) of screed/concrete needs 30 days to dry-out naturally before any floor-covering (but especially wooden floors) can be installed without causing problems of expansion or cupping straight away. The moist in the screed/concrete should be around 2% - 2.5% tops before you can start the installation of a wooden floor.

When you install a wooden floor on a still too wet underfloor you will notice this pretty soon. The wood will absorb the moist of the screed/concrete (even when a combi-underlayment is installed) and expand very quickly.

So be patient and prepare your 'when-to-do-what-task' list carefully but practically.
Better safe than sorry.