Wood You Like F.A.Q. & News

How to restore a Parquet floor - what to be aware of

This week we received another question on the subject of a rediscovered parquet floor:

Good Afternoon,

I wonder if I could pick your brains a little.  We have just uncovered a parquet floor - 6 bricks @ 4.5"x7/8" in blocks at 90 degree angles to one another. Floor area is 14'x11' & rectangular - no cupboards or inaccessible areas.  Mahogany wood or so I'm told - the wood is certainly very dark all the way through.  The floor has had some previous repairs after two rooms were knocked together & plumbing works (around 6 years ago).  We are planning on restoring the floor to leave it exposed now.

To do so we need to sand the floor & then seal & varnish it (need a pretty heavy duty finish as the only back door to our garden is through the living room & we have a dog with a number of very scratchy nails on each corner).

I wondered if you could answer the following questions:

1. Assuming that the floor is prepared & suitably coloured already would it be correct to say that I would need to seal the floor first (~4 hours to dry) then varnish 2-3 times (~ 8 hours to dry between each coating).  Is this about right (depending on the specific instructions on any manufacturers products of course)?
2. I am planning on having some quotes for professionals to do this work as well as costing it to do ourselves but I wondered could you give me some sort of 'ball park' idea of the cost of such a renovation?
3. What sort of time frame would you expect such renovations to take?
4. I cannot seem to find anyone registered with the BWFA in or near Wiltshire.  Are you able to recommend (or warn me to avoid) any companies local to me?

Hope you can help me - I'm trying to educate myself sufficiently as I have invited a couple of companies to quote to me.

Thank you so much,

Kind Regards

Mrs S N

Our tips on what any company quoting for a particular job like this should do/use and products we recommend:

Thank you for your question. Nice find a floor like that!

Who ever is going to restore this floor should note the following: any loose blocks? If so with what material were they glued to the floor - presumably bitumen. Any loose blocks should be cleaned off this black stuff as best as possible, likewise with the any visual residue on the underfloor. Then the blocks can be glued back to the underfloor with modern adhesive, but bitumen residue will have an effect on the bonding time (normally 4 - 8 hours, with bitumen involved it could take upto 24 - 36 hours!).

Also, when sanding the floor use a belt-sander not a drum-sander (ask any company who's quoting for this work what type of sander they're plannig to use and insist on a belt-sander).
A hard wearing finish could indeed be varnish - modern varnish sometimes include this so-called sealer - but we ourselves prefer HardWaxOil natural which brings out the natural character of the wood better than varnish, is hard wearing and small damages can be easier repaid than when varnish is used.

It's hard for us to give you a 'ball-park' figure without having seen the floor in situ - i.e. not knowing exactly the amount of work it would involve - but between low-end and high-end of work needed: between £ 35.00 and £ 50.00 per sq m ex VAT including the finishing materials.

Hope this helps

Kind Regards
Wood You Like Ltd

Hi Karin,

Just a quick note to thank you so much for you immediate reply which was much appreciated & which very definitely does help.  I also would like to compliment you on your extensive website which I have found fabulously useful & informative.

Kind Regards

Mrs S N

(If you have a question on this subject, or any other wood flooring related issue, fill in this simple form and we will personally give you our best advice as quick as possible)

Read also our Wood Floor Guide: "7 Easy Steps to Repair/Restore Your Parquet Floor"

The ongoing battle of the floor installation methods: which is best?

Like "which is the best finish type for a wooden floor", this is a question that 'pops-up' frequently in our inbox:
Why does one professional (camp of professionals even) says:

"NEVER try to float a t/g glued solid plank floor. Whether you use slip membranes etc and gaps at edges there is a good chance it will eventually split in a zig-zag fashion following the line of least resistance of a board or a joint. Stresses within the floor do this and makes no difference that the whole thing can move. Apparently called "rafting"

and the other professional (again a whole camp of professionals) says: no problem.

Mr Ray Turner ends his questions with:

"I have 4 months to wait for concrete to dry so hopefully will they have this sorted out by then?"

Afraid not Ray - this is one of those 'battle of the methods' - which one is best? One camp will always follow one method - through own personal experiences with the method that gives them and their clients the least problems and/or the way they have been taught by their mentors during their apprenticeship - and the other camp will keep following their preferred other method of installing solid floorboards.

The best method? As long as the chosen method is done the correct way any method is fine, depending of course on the circumstances, the product and the preference of both fitter and client.

The example above on floorboards splitting when using the floating method is mostly down to incorrect glueing of the T&G's. Wood works and will indeed find the 'weakest' link in the whole construction. T&G's should be glued completely, not just with drips and drops. (See our own article on "The correct way of glueing T&G's").

We have seen fully bonded to the underfloor (concrete or sheet material) wooden floors come away because the adhesive was applied incorrectly - spread out flat instead of using a notched trowel - and we have seen whole floors 'rattle' on their battens when not thick enough battens (installed on concrete) were used with the secretly nail (50mm nails) method.

Will there ever be the one method that is followed by all camps - don't hold your breath I'm afraid. Manufacturers of solid floorboards have their own preferences too, but more and more they give various options in their instructions (fully bonded, floating, secret nailed) as suitable methods of installation, depending on the specific circumstances in your home.

Again, as long as your situation allows it any method is fine ONLY when done the correct way.

Q: Should I sand down a cupped floor?

Wood works, always. It adjusts itself to the moist-content in your home: expands when there is an increase and shrinks when there is an decrease. That's the reason why we recommend to leave a sufficiently wide expansion gap around the whole perimeter of your wooden floor - it gives your floor 'room' to move - and it will, no matter which installation method you use.

Cupping of a floor happens when the floor absorbs so much moist it fills its expansion gap completely - or is 'stuck' in one spot due to very heavy furniture, faulty installation method - and has to go somewhere - up.
Excessive circumstances can happen to everyone: a leak, a flood etc, but those are temporary circumstances. 9 times out of 10 it's a case of 'removing' the cause and the cupped floor will settle again to its normal state.

However, we frequently get the question: "Should I sand down a cupped floor?"

The picture underneath explains what will happen then (click on the picture to see its full size).

It will 'look' fine temporarily, but as soon as the normal house climate is restored the floor will 'crown' - forever!

Best solution to resolve cupped floors: find the cause first e.g. leak, heavy downpour causing more moist than normal in the void beneath the wood floor, new appliance in the room or connecting area that causes more moist than normal - think of a tumble dryer, dish-washer etc - sudden and hefty increase in air humidity outside due to the seasons.
Some of the causes you can resolve, some you can't - or not easy or quickly. But if you don't know what causes the cupping then you can keep having the same problem over and over again.

To reduce the strain in your wood floor that is causing the cupping-effect: remove beading or skirting along one side of the room that runs parallel with the direction the floorboards are installed - wood hardly expands lengthways - and saw or chisel off a small strip of the last row. You'll be amazed how little you need to cut off this way for the floor to 'settle into place again - so start 'tiny', you can always redo the procedure.
A circular plunge-saw comes in very handy in these cases - quick and simple.

Wood You Like to get The Doors?

When installing a wooden floor in any type of room there will be doors. At least one. Or seven in one hallway.
Doors are not a problem - tick layers of paint on the hinges, now that's a problem. In our (Dutch) eyes the door frames are most times a small problem - no existing high enough wooden thresholds to bud the new floor against (leaving the needed expansion gap of course!) and a whole layer of wooden (or MDF) strips in various designs as architraves.

But nothing proper tools can't handle to cut underneath or cut to the right new height required so the floor or flat beading slides underneath the door posts and a new solid threshold separates the room from others without the door scraping over it - or causing draft.

All part of the daily job of a floor fitter. Well, wooden floor fitter that is.
We stopped counting the times our clients ask us kindly to cut doors in completely different rooms or areas after a carpet fitter or tiler has finished his/her job without 'closing the door'.

Apparently that's only a wooden floor fitter's common courtesy, getting the doors back in and having them work properly without damaging the new thresholds, floor or causing draft.

FAQ: Can I install wood over carpet?

Question received
Hi
We are thinking of laying a wood laminate floor in our rented house. At the moment it is carpeted, with underlay, on top of concrete. The carpet is quite thin. If we give the carpet a good shampoo, is it ok to put the floor on top of the carpet, to all intents using this as an underlay for the floor.

Our answer:

Using a carpet underlay or a carpet as underlayment for wooden flooring is asking for trouble I'm afraid.
Cleaning a carpet will never get rid of all the dust, dirt (and bugs) it has gathered over its lifetime.

Best is to remove it, including the carpet underlayment and start 'a fresh'.

Wood You Like Ltd

Floor sanding, tips and best tools

Discovering an original parquet floor underneath an old wall-to-wall carpet is a great and valuable discovery. Specially if the floor is still in one piece, i.e. no rows or tiles removed for installing a central heating system or other 'modern' plumbing work.

(See also our Wood Floor Guide: "7 Easy Steps to Repair/Restore Your Parquet Floor")

Restoring the parquet floor to its original lustre is really a 'labour of love', but with the right tools and products it will regain its beauty for many years to come. First up is to remove all carpet residue, like the sticky (rubber) underlayment. Scrapping will get most off. If you need to use chemicals try it out first in a corner behind a door - ventilate the room sufficiently and READ the instruction before hand!

Many old parquet floors were stuck down with bitumen which over time can become very brittle and loose its bonding power. Loose blocks (rattling underneath your feet when you walk over it) could be the result. Most old wood blocks have small T&G's all around, lifting one of the block could result in a kind of cascading effect, more loose blocks. So be careful when trying to remove loose blocks.
Before you re-install the lifted blocks remove as much of the bitumen from block and underfloor as possible. Any large residue of the bitumen will make the floor uneven, plus the time the modern adhesive will take to fully bond with block and underfloor will be longer - in cases we've seen even days longer!

Some re-found original parquet floors only need a bit of extra TLC, remove all dirt and apply a suitable maintenance product.
Others however take more work, specially when blocks had to re-installed (or 'new' blocks found to fill in empty spaces), the wear and tear layer is rather damaged (by carpet grippers etc). Then sanding the whole floor is the only solution (such a shame to cover your valuable parquet floor with carpet again!).

Before you go out and hire the first sander you can find, a word (two words really) of advice: remove what's left of the old finish material and hire the proper sanding equipment.
No matter with what grit you start sanding, if your old floor still has layers upon layers of wax on and in it you'll spend a fortune on sanding sheets! Try out a tiny corner of the floor with a sanding paper by hand. If the paper fills right up and spreads rubbish (warmed wax) all over the floor you'll first have to remove this old wear and tear layer. Apply Wax and Polish remover - turpentine or white spirit based - on a cloth and remove the old layers as best as possible. Again, VENTILATE & READ the instructions on the tin/bottle.

For the best end result after sanding your original parquet flooring you'll have to use (hire) a professional belt-sander (and edge-sander). Like the description says a belt-sander has a continuous (or endless) belt, or rather continuous (or endless) sanding paper - called Belt cloth. These belts are very easy to 'wrap' around the drum of the sander (1 minute tops), but most importantly will give the smoothest results on your floor.

Most DIY hire centres can only supply you with the (much lighter) drum-sander. Drum sanders have sheets of sanding paper, that has to be wrapped around the drum and fixed firmly in place with a metal bar. This metal bar, when not attached correctly will create shatter marks all over your floor. The problem is that those shatter marks will mostly only show up AFTER you applied the finish product (varnish or HardWaxOil). Trying to remove these marks with a rotary sander will create another problem: circular marks in your floor.

So for a 'professional' restored original parquet floor use/hire professional tools.

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

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.

Glueing, nailing, floating - what's what?

What is the difference between glueing, secret nailing and floating? And how does the width of the board effect the method you use?

Glueing = fully bonding the wood to the subfloor
Secret Nailing = nailing floorboard in 45 angle to batten (at least 4cm thick) or joist
Floating = installing underlayment first on subfloor, installing floorboard 'floating' on the underlayment and glueing the T&G's.

Glueing is mostly used with design parquet floors and strip floorboards (narrow boards up to 100mm) or when you have many small lengths of wider boards. Most manufacturers recommend glueing down all floor types when UFH is involved to prevent air-pockets.

Secret nailing: when installing directly onto joists (or sometimes on a subfloor of thick enough plywood - never nail on chipboard, this will split).

Floating: most solid and wood-engineered boards can be installed floating. Note for solid: as long as the width of the room is not wider than 5 - 6 meters, otherwise it is best to glue to solid floorboards.

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

How to glue T&G boards the correct way

There seems to be some strange advice around on how to glue T&G boards when using the 'floating installation' method.

Recently we have seen how wrongly applying the PVAC wood glue can cause problems - in the short and long run - where the adhesive was applied on the underlayment in front of the already installed row of boards with the idea that installing the next row would 'scoop' up enough glue to bond the boards together.

A) it doesn't and some parts of the T&G will not have enough adhesive, creating a 'weak' link
B) residue glue will be left on the underlayment, bonding part of the boards to the underlayment which can cause obstruction when the wood expands or shrinks

Another 'bright' idea is to apply drops of adhesive instead of a whole length. Again, this will cause many weak links in the construction of your floor.
With the floating method all T&G's have to be glued completely, no two ways about it, no 'saving' money in the short run (and really, bottles of PVAC wood glue aren't that expensive, compared with the costs/time of having to re-install the floor and probably  replacing many damaged boards where the T&G's have broken off because of this 'drip and drop' method).

So, what is the best method?
A PVAC wood glue bottle comes with an 'adjustable' nozzle. Depending on the size of the groove (narrow, medium or wide) you select where to cut off the nozzle. Remember: you can always go 'bigger', you can never 'knit' it back on.

Hold the board you're about to install in your hand and apply the adhesive in the bottom part of the groove, the whole length of the groove (you'll find your own 'best practise', we normally start at the lowest end of the groove, working our way up). Do the same with the short end groove.
When installing the glued board the sliding movement will spread the adhesive 'around' the Tongue of the boards of the row already installed. This is especially important with Wood-Engineered flooring where the Tongue is made of cross-layered wood (pine) which has a more open structure. Not enough adhesive on this open structure could create a weak link.
Any seepage out of the adhesive on the top of the board should be removed with a damp cloth straight away.

As with more installation methods: keep it simple and keep it clean for the best results.

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

Traditional herringbone woodblock floor on a concrete

Q by Stephen Brown:
Hi.
I want to lay a traditional herringbone woodblock floor on a concrete base. Can you tell me

1. What adhesive I should use?
2. Whether the blocks should only be glued to the concrete floor or whether they should also be glued together with PVA?
3. Is there a best time of year to do this from the point of view of shrinkage / expansion of the blocks (each block is about 11" x 3")? i.e in the summer when the air is moist or in winter when the air inside the house is dry?
4. I have seen advice that says you should start a herringbone floor in the middle and work outwards. Is this correct? I'm thinking of a double herringbone pattern with a two block border. Unfortunately it is not a straight rectangular room but has a hearth to work around!

Thanks.

Our answer:

Hello Stephen

1. You can use any normal parquet adhesive (Lecol5500 or Styccobond B92 - see our online-showroom for more details).
2. If your concrete floor is sound, level and dry you can glue the block directly onto the concrete, using a notched-trowel and placing the blocks into the glue will make the adhesive 'seep' upwards to bond the blocks together also
3. No special time of the year is favourite. You just have to make sure the wood is acclimatised in the room(s) you plan to install it; the rooms are wind and weather tight; the air-humidity is between 45 - 65% and the temperature (effecting the bonding time) is between 17 - 23 degrees Celsius
4. To start in the middle is the best way forward (install your first two rows and let that fully bond with the underfloor so it will act as a fixed 'barrier' to install all next rows to), even in rooms where there are apparently no straight walls. The installed pattern will work as a 'straight' focus line for your room. As for the hearth, install your border also around it, much nicer look.

Hope this helps

Wood You Like Ltd

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

To kit or not to kit?

Q by Steven Derix: To kit or not to kit?

We are laying (or rather: having laid) a floor of so called 'industrial parquet'. The floorpieces are solid oak, about 16 cm in lenght, and 6 cm wide. The pieces are glued on an wooden surface. They will get a finishing of oil.

Naturally - the strips of wood being natural oak and quite small - there are small gaps between the floorpieces. The manufacturer advised us to fill in these gaps with a mixture of sawdust and some filling materail, a glue based on solvents, ore on a water-base. However, my 'parquetteur' (French for floor guy) is not keen on doing this. According to him, the kitting will come loose because of the shrinking/expanding of the wood, and because of the vibrations of the wooden underlayment caused by walking accross the room. Both arguments I put to the manufacturer. He says this is nonsense. The parquetteur however, persists. Whom to believe?

Our answer:

Hi Steven

Thanks for this question.

There will be small gaps indeed (if your parquetteur (parket-legger in Dutch, floor fitter in English) does his work correct it wouldn't be too many and only tiny ones.
And if he collects the sand-dust of the seconds sanding (grit 80, mixes that with wood-filler (like Lecol 7500) and 'plasters' this over the whole floor all gaps will be filled. After this has dried (goes rather quickly) the third sanding will remove any excess filler from your floor.

We've done this many times over and never had any problems with the filler coming out of the tiny gaps. So the manufacturer is right.

Just wondering however about the grade you mention: Industrial Grade Mosaic is normally only used as subfloor for Design Parquet Patterns (like herringbones) when installing on concrete floors.

Hope this helps.

(received kind reply back from Steven: It is, thanks. Actually, I got the same advice everywhere. I ordered the Floor Fitter to fill in the gaps.)

Installing floorboards in small areas: to float or not to float?

We received a question this week if it was possible to install wooden floorboards in a small hallway using the floating method.

A 'floating' floor means the floorboards (solid, wood-engineered, veneer or melamine laminated floorboards with T&G's all around or click-system) are placed on top of the correct underlayment, and not secretly nailed on subfloor or on joists or fully glued down on level and sound underfloor. It's the most simple way with the least hassle and preferred by many DIY-ers and professional floor fitters.

The reason for the question was the worry if the weight of the floor in a small area would hold the floor down sufficiently even if installed underneath skirtingboards.

That worry is really uncalled for: the floor has no place to go if

• installed properly on level underfloor
• sufficient amount of expansion gap is kept all around the perimeter of the floor
• door posts are cut under so the floor slides underneath (for neat finish and extra 'holding down power')
• even if flat beading or scotia/quadrants are used to cover the expansion gaps instead of skirtingboards the (light) weight of the wooden floor, the furniture, the 'holding down power' underneath door posts, installed thresholds etc will hold the floor down and allow for the seasonal natural movement of the boards.

We've installed many floors in small areas (hallways, landings etc) using the 'floating method' without any problems.

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

Filling large knots

Question:
I have 45sq mtrs of European oak tg flooring 190mmx20mm to lay on joists in my loft conversion, lengths mostly 3mtrs plus, I am going to finish the floor with 2 coats of Liberon floor sealer plus 2 coats of Liberon floor wax. There are rather a lot of knots that will require some sort of filling. What is the best way to deal with knots in European oak to provide the most descrete finish?
thanks!

Answer:
The best option is to sand the floor once it is installed with at least grit 80, collect the sand-dust, mix that with wood-filler and fill the knots with it. After it has dried you sand again with grit 120 to remove any excess filler.

Installing a wooden floor on joists

Andrew Baker asked us the following question (see here for his original comment):

It's a 200-year-old listed mid-terrace cottage. The majority of room still have the original boards, which are in a serviceable condition (which is a great testament to the use of oak in itself). The room I am looking to work in has a few original boards but the majority of it is new ply or pine boards, all covered with carpet.

The existing boards are laid directly on joists. Joists have centres of around 400 to 500mm. All boards nailed to the joists. The underfloor void is about 300 to 400mm high above bare ground. This void is not currently ventilated with airbricks, and while this isn't causing too many problems it is something we are looking to rectify. We are also looking at ways to enable ventilation between the room and the underfloor void.
Being in a listed property, when I replace my flooring it will have to be solid planks (no tongue) and on a suspended floor (ground floor).

So my question is, how does this affect preparation and installation? I'm thinking specifically of underlays (something to protect the wood, not cause condensation and reduce sound transfer, but remain breathable). Also of fixing methods - I would rather not glue (difficult to take up again), and secret nailing will be difficult - what are the alternatives?
Finally, I'm also interested in the choice of wood. I have read 18mm thick wood is not sufficient for a suspended floor?
I hope you may have an opportunity to address these questions, and am fairly sure the answers will interest a broad range of people.
Thanks and regards.
Andrew Baker

Answer (options, tips and issues to be aware off)
Installing directly onto joists above a void (which should indeed have airbricks to insure ventilation especially for removing excess humidity) asks for floorboards that are at least 18mm thick, 20 – 21 mm is preferred. Another issue to consider is the space between the joist: 300 - 350 mm is best otherwise the boards may ‘flex’ too much and could even break/snap.

Normally we would advice solid (or load-bearing Wood-Engineered floorboards) to be installed directly onto the joists by secret nailing in the tongue. If the void underneath is ventilated properly and doesn’t show any signs of moist no extra underlayment is needed.
Ventilation causes air movement = draft, but is important to keep your house climate healthy.
The ‘modern’ construction of the T&G boards allows movement (shrinkage especially) of the boards without feeling the effect of this draft. (Filling gaps between ‘old-fashion’ floorboards is just a very temporary solution, after a while because of seasonal movement the filling material will drop in the void and you can start all over again and again and again.)

Oak floorboards of 21mm thick without T&G can be face-nailed on top of the joists (but note maximum space between joists), as long as every board rests on at least three joists. Because the short sides of the boards don’t have connecting T&G’s for stability between the boards it’s recommended to end every board on a joist.

As mentioned above, non T&G boards can create draft, but we see another problem also: sourcing proper Oak floorboards suitable for installing as floor. These boards need to be dried to floor specifications, which is between 9 – 11% moist. Most kiln and dried timber contains 15% moist.

Can we suggest two other options to consider?

Option 1
Install plywood on top of the joists first, creating a stable and sound subfloor, minimising draft. Using Elastilon’s self-adhesive underlayment you can then install Oak overlay strips (solid wood of 6 or 10mm thick) tightly, which creates a ‘floating’ floor that can be ‘lifted-up’ easier than glueing boards or strips directly onto the plywood.

Option 2
Select ‘standard’ Oak 21mm thick T&G floorboards with square edges (non-bevelled) and with secret nailing install the floor directly onto the joists.
The unbevelled boards will create an ‘old-fashioned’ appearance but the T&G’s will avoid draft and are easier installed.

We hope this answers your questions, we welcome any further comments on this post if you need further advice or have more questions.

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

How to lay a wooden floor: Keep it Simple

Installing a wooden floor (solid or wood-engineered) as DIY-er isn’t rocket science, more a case of common sense, patience, using the correct materials and making the correct preparations.

Some things are so obvious we won’t go into them in detail (like buying wood that is suitable to be installed as floor and dry enough, meaning: timber wood – 15% moist or more – isn’t suited and that the room is wind and weather proof, wet decoration work finished etc).

Correct materials and correct preparations:
Quality products might be a little bit dearer; in the end it will save you time, aggravation and possibly even regret and money.

• Make sure you have one type of underfloor and the underfloor is ready (dry, level, - remove existing floor-covering timely enough to make good any defects or unevenness in time)
• Buy the correct underlayment (with the ‘floating-method’)
• Have all the materials in house before you start, make a list of everything you need at least one week beforehand and make sure it can be delivered or collected on time (because some materials just run out of stock, you’ll know Murphy’s Law)
• Make sure all tools you need are in the house, are working, sharp and safe (if you have to hire specific tools, place a reservation on them with the hire company so you’re not going to be disappointed)
• Store the wood in the same area you plan to lay it (or in an area that has the same ‘climate-conditions’ – garages are a definite No No) 2 – 4 days before you start the installation; leave the wood in the packs (if wrapped in packaging material and according to manufacturers instructions, some do differ, most not).
• Clear all furniture out of the room beforehand, dust from sawing will get in anything!
• Remove – if needed – skirting boards, mark them when you do so you know which one to place back where to avoid mix-ups and extra cutting work when placing them back.

Preparations on the day (floating method with standard T&G fixing)

• Ban little children from the room! (And cats, dogs or other pets.)
• Check again if all materials and tools are there.
• Materials: wood, underlayment, pvac-wood glue, spacers, beading or scotia, radiator-pipe-covers, thresholds, cloth (to remove excess glue as soon as you notice) and felt pads (for underneath furniture)
• Tools: hand saw or Jig-saw, tape-measure, square, Stanley knife, pencil (at least three, they disappear in thin air), knocking block + installation bar (both should be part of any DIY installation kit you buy), hammer, heavy duty bin bags, work bench (tool box should do fine also as bench, watch out for sawing into it).
• If needed, remove doors and undercut architrave and/or doorposts (chisel out the last bit).
• Open two packs of wood, check for any damages to the surface, tongue and groove or click-system. If any and on more boards, re-pack as best as possible and return every pack straight back to your supplier for new material or re-fund. In no circumstances open more packs to check for damages, this might render your guarantee useless.
• Check if the boards are straight by laying them with the groove side on the (level) underfloor. Also check for bowing – cupping. Slight bowing (middle doesn’t touch the ground) of long boards is normal, extreme cupping (the ends stand up and leave a gap of over 5cm if turned up side down i.e. top surface faces floor) not.

If everything is OK and in the wood-type, grade and finish you selected mix the two packs to get a natural look and colour, shade mixture (all boards differ in colour and characteristics). During the works, keep checking for surface damages before you install a board, once down and between other boards/rows it’s a pain to remove it. (Murphy’s Law: it will always end up in the middle of the room where you would notice it most - afterwards.)

Do read the fitting instructions (if any) the manufacturer supplied with the floor, some might differ on some points and not following their instructions could render your guarantee worthless. When in doubt, call your supplier.

The basic installation tips underneath are based on laying a wooden floor in a normal straight forward rectangular room without any obstacles or problems and in/under normal circumstances We do know that other shaped rooms will differ, but starting practice and common sense is the same.

Start at the wall that has the fewest doors, bay windows, fireplaces, alcoves or recesses and seems straight.
Lay the first row of underlayment parallel to the chosen wall from one end of the room to the other (when using DPM or Combi-underlayment move the row at least 3 – 5 cm up the walls, mind that you place the Combi-underlayment such way that the overlapping DPM strip is on the room side, not wall side).

Place the first board on top of the underlayment in that corner where both grooves (long side and short side) face the walls in that corner (some instructions state you have to start in a specific corner, use common practical sense).
Glue the groove on the short side of the next board (at the bottom of the groove to avoid glue splurting out above) and connect board one and two, making sure that there is no gap between the joint. A gap at one end of the joint indicates your boards aren’t connected straight. Don’t worry about spacers now.
Install the complete first row this way (use knocking block if needed); keep checking for gaps between the joints. The last board might need to be cut.

Trick of the Trade:

• Place the new board (1) on the last board (2) already down (it will overlap of course) with the short end groove of board 1 facing the wall (that’s the wall it needs to end up to i.e. closest by).
• Carefully slide board 1 till it touches the wall, find the exact spot where short side tongue of board 2 begins (i.e. the real surface of board 2 starts) and mark this on board 1.
• With square and pencil mark the cut line and cut board 1.
• If done correctly the groove of the shortened board should slit in the tongue of board 2, finish the row completely and leave an expansion gap (size of the tongue) at the wall in one go.

Make sure all joints of row 1 fit tightly and straight. Then move row one slightly away from the wall enough to place your spacers and move row one back against the spacers. Once this is done, check joints again.
Making sure your first row is straight is the most important step of the installation.
If needed use extra thin material behind some of the spacers to ensure the first row is straight.

If the remaining left over part of the last board is 30 cm (1 foot) long it can be used as beginning of row two. If the room is a rectangle and your boards are all the same lengths it is best practice to cut some boards in 1/3, 1/2 and 2/3 lengths (make sure you are left with the short end tongue on that part you want to use!) to start a new row in order to prevent creating a repeating pattern every two rows.

Install the rest of the room (install next rows of underlayment as you go, with Combi-underlayment make sure the overlapping self-adhesive strip fits correctly underneath the next row of underlayment).
Glue both long side and short side grooves of all boards before slotting them in place, make sure to glue the whole of the groove length, not just drops here and there.
Remove any excess adhesive with the damp cloth as soon as possible. When needed use knocking block and/or installation bar for a tight fit and keep checking those joints. Place spacers at the end and beginning of some of the rows to keep your expansion gap the same everywhere.
Don’t walk over the just installed boards.
Take a well-deserved coffee or tea break after you installed row four so the glue gets time to bond. Then carry on with the rest of the floor.

Tackling the last row. Not a nightmare (not with standard T&G boards anyway), but common sense and patience will get you there.
You can use the same trick of the trade to cut the exact width for this row (per board), leaving a correct expansion gap and a correct fit.

Remove all packaging and leftover boards etc from the room. Vacuum clean (or use a soft broom) the room to remove all sawdust and little pieces of wood before they can damage the floor when treaded on.
Remove spacers and install scotia, beading or skirting boards in place. Careful with lost/dropped nails or pins; undetected and treaded on they can damage your floor before you’ve even finished.

Remove everything from the room (tools etc) and vacuum clean again. Wait 2 –3 hours before placing furniture back (put felt pads underneath legs to prevent scratches), this way the glue gets time to bond and walking and moving around will not open any boards to create gaps (Murphy’s law: normally in the middle of the room.)

When in doubt, call you supplier or manufacturers help-line.

As mentioned before: these are BASIC tips; all rooms, circumstances vary.
In most other situations the best tip is to think ahead, use common sense and patience. Or feel free to post your specific questions or own experiences here (use the comment link underneath)

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Case-study: Duoplank on Underfloor Heating

"As self-builders, we are very involved in specifying the materials used in our house.  We wanted the look and feel of real oak planks but without too many of the difficulties associated with the shrinkage of natural oak.  We quickly identified the Duoplank product through its UK distributor Wood-You-Like in Kent. This is an Engineered Board made with a wide top solid layer of natural oak and a high-quality birch ply substrate, critical to us because we were installing on concrete with UFH embedded in the floor. 

We visited the showroom near Ashford and received plenty of good advice from the company and felt we were dealing with people who actually installed the product, as well as supply them. 
From the wide range of oak qualities available we selected the 'Rustic' range as being closest to the effect we sought to create in our new-build, which is a Georgian-style farmhouse of brick and tile exterior.

Installing the product was easier than we expected, the longest task being the selecting and cutting of the planks.  As we tackled each room, we initially placed them in position 'dry' on the floor to check for colour-match and fit.  The planks slot together using a tongue-and-groove formation.  The Duoplank manufacturer had taken care to chamfer the bottom edges of the planking, avoiding any chance of surplus glue seeping into the tongue-and-grooves.  We used a chop-saw to cut each edging plank to length.  This made light work of the cutting task; the engineered product seems as dense as working with solid oak. We glued the rows of board to the floor, three or four at a time.  Wood-You-Like had given us a clear fact-sheet on how to pre-condition the boards and the temperature of the floor during the installation.  This ensures that the boards have a normal amount of humidity on installation.  Unlike a conventionally heated house, using UFH wood flooring shrinks slightly in the winter whilst heat is drawn up through the floor.

Wood-You-Like advised us on the size of the gap to leave around the wall edges - 15mm in our case  - and we used chipboard spacers to maintain this gap and hold the edges firm whilst we glued and fitted each successive row.  We found a notched trowel to be the best tool for spreading the glue evenly.  It was important for us to eliminate air gaps under the boards to maximise heat transfer from the screed into the wood.  We managed this by spreading the glue 'notches' at 90 degrees to the board lengths, which enables one to see better where the boards are not fully seated, as glue oozes out slightly at the working edge.  We used bricks as a temporary method of holding down any 'high' areas of board during setting; this task certainly showed up minor inadequacies in the flatness of the screed subfloor!  Fitting the 25mm wide skirting board around the rooms to cover this gap has completed the finished appearance.

The glue sets in 24 hours and we followed the detailed instructions for gradually applying heat into the flooring to slowly dry out the wood.  During our first winter heating season this has opened up a 1mm gap at many of the board long edges - or about 0.05% total shrinkage compared to the summer state, when we expect the gap to close up again.  We are more than happy with this result over UFH, and our choice of Engineering Board to provide the visual effect that we sought."

John and Julie - West Berkshire

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Always, always, always

When applying any type of finish, READ the instructions on the tin! And follow them, they're there for a reason.

Didn't mean to shout, but lately on various DIY-forums we encounter the same 'problem' being posted: after sanding and applying two coats of HardWaxOil the floor looks patchy. When we then ask how soon after the first layer the second layer has been applied, most times the answer is: after 4 - 5 days.

Never, ever leave it that late between applying the two coats of HardWaxOil; all brands (be it Osmo, Blanchon or other) specifically write on their instructions: apply the second coat within 36 - 48 hours. Otherwise, the grain-hairs of the wood 'stick-up' and the floor needs a light sanding first.

Read the instructions, and when still in doubt: call for advice - every proper supplier has either a company sticker with contact details on the tin, or the manufacturers help-line is printed on it.

Q: Installing Solid Oak various rooms

Question:
I have 60 mm of Solid Oak 180x18 to go in new extentions on top of concrete, damp course and 8cm of screed on top.
Which is the correct way to lay floor, please?

P.S. The area is spread over four rooms, biggest being 8m x 6m

Answer:

We recommend installing the floor floating - any slight unevenness of the screed floor can be much better tackled this way than with fully glueing the floor down. Also, install every room separate (especially when two connecting rooms differ very much in width or have a small door opening) and install wooden thresholds in between.

Lay a DPM and sound-insulation underlayment first (look for a combi product) to prevent any residue moist from the screed going into the wood. The board can be installed on top of the underlayment, glueing the T&G's completely.

Rule of thumb for expansion gaps: 3mm per meter width of the room, minimum of 10mm all around. For the room that is 6m wide this should be at least 18 - 19mm. Cover expansion gaps with flat beading or skirting (thick enough to cover the gap of 19mm, plus leaving extra thickness for possible skrinkage).

Q: Floating or Glueing?

Q Phil:
have just purchased £1000 worth of solid oak for 35 MS lounge concrete floor 15 year old house no damp do i float floor or seal floor and stick to floor as guy in shop sugests at £150 for adhesive.

the room is 9Mx5M the solid wood is 120mm wide 18mm thick and various length planks

A WYL:
You can install the floor floating: use proper sound-insulation (preferably a combi-product that includes DPM and sound-insulation foam) and glue all T&G's with PVAC wood glue. Leave a minimum of 15mm expansion gap all around.

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