Browse Forums General Discussion 1 Nov 21, 2011 11:32 am Hi, We are in the planning phase of building our new home. We live in a hot climate so we really want a cool house so our architect recommends laying a slab (and also a thermal mass wall running through the house) to keep it cool in summer warm in winter. The architect lives in a different city and doesnt know how much things cost. So our delemma is. We love the bounce a give of a floating timber floor. We find walking on tiles and concrete jarring. So we are thinking of laying a slab then laying timer on battens over the slab so the timber has more bounce. How much will this affect the thermal mass properties of the slab? Will the floor baords on battens have more give than say bamboo floorboards over a bouncy underlay? How do I find prices for all these options? I really need to see the costings for all the options to choose which one we can afford? Can I just ring a builder for a chat and some rough quotes? We dont know who we are going to use as a builder yet. Thaks everyone for any replies. Re: Timber floors over slab 2Nov 21, 2011 12:22 pm I suppose your real dilema is..... A healthy sustainable home v's a comrfortable home. Putting floorboards over the concrete slab will kill off its thermal mass properties. (Thats assuming your design aspect is correctly incorporating the suns path, and window sizes to begin with) Go to any timber floor company for quotes. Good luck, Pat. Re: Timber floors over slab 3Nov 21, 2011 2:35 pm If you want the spring of a timber floor cut want a slab to be underneath it, get the section of floor that will be timber laid XXmm (XX= height of the chosen bearer+joist+timber board) and lay the timber like a traditional timber floor. The only thing is you will be paying more for it as its labor intensive and you will not be able to just pull up the timber and lay tiles or carpet as there will be a difference in height. Also I think you are confused between timber floor board and floating floors. Floating floors generally have a more "clicky" high sound. Timber boards will have some spring to them as they are suspended at intervals and the centre of the intervals will allow some deflection of the board. Re: Timber floors over slab 4Dec 06, 2011 10:31 am Have you considered engineered flooring, glued down to and underlay? It will not have the expansion and contraction issues associated with battens and floor boards, and no need for nailing. One corner of my shed slab will be directly over a 1400mm diameter concrete soakwell. Is it feasible to fill the soakwell with concrete then lay the shed slab over the… 0 668 Engineering timber is certainly a less fuss option, times cheaper to supply and install and better withstands humidity. 1 15923 2 4685 |