Choosing a Floor – The Pro’s and Con’s – Engineered Flooring and Solid Wood Flooring
When choosing a solid wood floor or engineered floor, the first thing to consider is sub-floor. If you have a concrete sub-floor it is far easier and cheaper to lay an engineered floor. An Engineered Floor is usually comprised of three layers of wood, each layer having the grain laying across each other. This is designed in the flooring so that they pull against each other and as a result expand less and have less movement. This makes for a much better floor on concrete as it tends to move less. Also the installation method is much quicker. First you cover the floor with a water proof membrane underlay. Then you start laying the floor from the left corner of the room allowing for an expansion gap of 12mm. Please glue the groove of the floor with a p.v.a flooring glue after which you then bang the next board into the exsisting one. When you do this it is far easier to take up the slack in the expansion gap with a spacer so the floor doesn’t move. Repeat this process untill the floor is done.
When laying a solid wood floor on to concrete there are many ways of doing this. From my many years of experience this is the way i would lay a solid wood floor but there are other ways just as good. First check moisture is below 4% then apply a damp proof membrane with a roller a two part resin one is best Mapei do one which is good. Then onto laying the floor, always remember to acclimatise a solid wood flooring first for at least two weeks before laying and always consider the environment like painting or plastering as this is a no no. Do not Leave the flooring in a room or environment where painting or plastering is going on as this will be absorbed into the flooring this could cause problems in the future. Then onto laying start in the left of the room laying out a row from left to right always use your waste to start a new row. I recommend to use a sausage adhesive which will go into a gun. Glue out lines of adhesive 400mm apart and 10m by 10mm in height and width. Then place the boards onto the adhesive making sure you are pushing into the glue and squashing it down repeat this all over the floor until done. Thanks for reading if you are after any more advice please check out our website www.parquetflooringandcarpentry.co.uk
