Floor Question

Hope what I am about to say makes sense

We will be getting our floors (carpet and timber floors) done after handover.

We are building with PD and I already know they don't tack the skirting boards on for timber floors which is a bit anoying, but oh well ways around that I guess

What I'm wondering though, is that I have read on other threads that people have had to get certain types of floors (floating instead of timber etc) because the builder had only left a certain amount of space for the floors after cabinetry, skirting boards etc were put on...

Does anyone know how much space PD leave (20mm 40mm etc) and if I have to request to have it at a certain height, or would I be right in assuming I just leave it as their standard and I should have a fair range of flooring options to choose from post handover?

Pretty much the standard floorboard height is around 10mm, if its 20mm or 40mm its a bit to high.

We were going to go with a 'floating floor' the same as phoenix used, but after reading her experience and that of Riskters (who used the same Boral product) we are going to look at solid timber floors.

When we got our kitchen designed we told them we would be doing a floating floor, and they allowed the extra 20mm for that. So, from what I understand, if we go for a 19mm solid floor we need to allow another 19mm for plywood underlay... I'm not sure of what this means for the kitchen, but riskter mentioned the different allowance could affect the dishwasher..

DH is going to call our kitchen guys to get more info.

Also I've read on here about slimwood (still a solid timber product) that is 13mm thick, but doesn't come in long lengths and we could possibly use this, but I've got some serious ringing around to do over the next couple of days to work out what will work...

Hope this makes some sense

It's all so confusing to me, to the point that I think we are actually just going to get the builder to lay tiles so that they are under the skirtings and architraves etc!

I can totally relate.. my brain is overloading right now

I think I was really naive about 'timber flooring' and wish I'd researched this 12 months ago, and not now when we might only have 8-10weeks left till handover

I've just spoken to a Timberfloor company and now they say its best to lay hardwood floors on battens not plywood - and you will still need 40mm Just something else to confuse the situation.

Bel, our builder has allowed 20mm because thats what we told them (our kitchen maker) but I'm hoping that if we go for the 40mm the only issue is trimming the kitchen kickboards and the issue with the dishwasher...

Floating floor board that is. ha ha ha, I'm answering my own post, yep time to lie down.

On a concrete slab the 11-13mm thick boards would be the way to go. Also the plywood underlay is 12mm so 25mm is enough clearance to allow.

Yeah there is a 'sceret-nail' size designed specifically for 12mm overlay flooring over 12 mm ply.

We built with PD and did the flooring after handover. We had floating timber floorboards installed and there wasn't any issue with height - fortunately since we hadn't even considered it

Hi Bel,
we are building with PD and asked to have 92mm skirting boards so that when we did the floating floor we would still have a "decent" skirting board showing.
We laid the floating in our current place and that is the only gripe I have, that the skirting boards look weird with the floating timer edging tacked onto them. That's why I wanted bigger ones in this hosue
Perhaps this maybe an option for you? We are building an Illoura 36 and it only cost about $600 to do this for the whole house (actually $400 net as we are having tiled skirts in the wet areas)
Hope this helps
Cheers

Hi

I have just finished building with Henley and insisted that they leave the skirting boards off, which they did, as I was/did lay 19mm spotted gum over 12mm ply (looks awesome by the way). In the kitchen as I did not want ugly quading (sp.?) I extended all to plumbing and had the installers lift the island bench and lay the timber under it. Unfortunately the bench against the wall could not not be raised, not easily anyway, but the timber floor was laid within 10mm of the kick board. As the kick board is black I will fill this gap with a black filler. Unfortunately there was little I could do about the height difference with the floor boards and tiles but the carpet will be laid on 12mm ply .

All in all I am stoked with how our house has come up and must say if you want timber flooring, get the real thing, you won't be disappointed.

Regards

Chrtis

Thanks for your replies everyone

I might call PD just to find out what the height of it is and then call a few flooring companies and figure it all out

Where did you source your spotted gum from Chris?

I might also ask about leaving the skirting boards off but I've heard its a lost cause

When enquiring about Spotted Gum, keep in mind there is NSW and Qld Spotted Gum - the Qld S.G. is much darker than the NSW stuff.

The timber was supplied and laid by MYM in Keilor . It is feature grade 130 x 19mm and is finished with a Treatex oil, as previously posted, looks awesome. I filled all the features with a clear resin which I believe finished it off just perfect. My floor did cost a bomb, but it looks the bomb.

Regards

Chris

any pics Chris??

lol loading as we speak, give me a sec. few too many Peroni's tonight

When you say a bomb, could you give me a rough idea of cost? If you don't mind of course

The timber alone would be around $45 sq. metre off the top of my head

Thanks Duke - so would me thinking about $12,000 for approx 100m2 of solid spotted gum flooring be unreasonable?

I paid $14000 for 100m2 which to me is a bomb