Browse Forums General Discussion Re: Hardwood timber flooring on battens or plywood 13Feb 14, 2014 3:57 pm I'm just wondering what's the best layer for hardwood timber. I was told that there is hollow sound on timber floor if they're laid on battens. On the other hands, you feel the firmness walking on timber floor if they're laid on plywood. Our old house is not on concrete slab so we've never experienced with timber floor on concrete slab. That's why we need to hear from your experiences. Re: Hardwood timber flooring on battens or plywood 14Feb 14, 2014 4:53 pm B STAR First you need to establish is your going 19mm (Structial) or 14 and less (Non Structial) flooring Having installed my own timber floors I believe plywood enables you to get a tighter fininish especially when working with harder timbers. Sometimes 450 spacing is still no enough to slowly close a gap. ALso finsihing my timber like this has given it a very solid feel. But laying ply can be more work. I forgot that. I have 14mm spotted gum over ply. I would assume ply would be more stable as you full trowel glue it. If I was had 18mm timber I'll go battens due to the bounce. FYI 14mm can be sanded as many times as 18mm Re: Hardwood timber flooring on battens or plywood 15Feb 14, 2014 8:04 pm Hi Newstart2day, We were also pondering this choice when putting down our hardwood flooring. We had previously lived in a house with a timber floor laid over bearers and joists. I personally liked the "noisyness" of it but the bounce got a bit annoying particularly when we walked past furniture that rattled (granted it was an old house and a fair bit of the excessive bounce was put down to a few piers slightly lower than the rest) In our new house we ended up going with ply instead of battens. The end result is a super quiet floor. No echoes. No cupping, movement or gaps have appeared yet - the floor has been down 12 months. I love it and would recommend it to anyone. I would probably love the floor just as much if we had laid it on battens too lol!! Owner Building on 1800sqm Sanity Intact so far Locked up March 2012 Re: Hardwood timber flooring on battens or plywood 16Feb 14, 2014 8:10 pm I forgot to add that partly our decision was made due to the height factor when stepping into the bedrooms that were carpeted. With a 12mm ply and 19mm board, secret nailed and glued down it ended up being the best option for us. My husband felt that to use batten we would have needed 15+ mm ones at least for a good grip. I don't understand your comment about the builder needing to know beforehand - I would be expecting a level slab either way. Good luck with your build. Owner Building on 1800sqm Sanity Intact so far Locked up March 2012 Re: Hardwood timber flooring on battens or plywood 17Feb 14, 2014 8:16 pm Me again....sorry lol Our wet areas that connect to the boards are the same height as we had told the tiler of our intentions and he was able to adjust the height of the floor tiles accordingly. Over and out this time for real!!! Re: Hardwood timber flooring on battens or plywood 18Feb 14, 2014 8:29 pm Yeah ours were the same and that might be why the builder wants to know ply or batten as we adjusted bathroom heights etc to take into account the extra height of the battens - especially things like kitchen kickboards and doors etc Re: Hardwood timber flooring on battens or plywood 19Feb 15, 2014 8:44 am Quote: The person laying the battons is not going to fuss about getting it 100%. In fact I doubt he will even level them. I cant see him packing the battens. Instead if there is the odd high spot he may just plane down. BSTAR, whoever is laying the battens should pack and plane them . The slab will not be 100% and any rises or troughs are easily seen after the floor is laid especially up against walls where there is skirting or against a kitchen kickboard. We've seen a few that weren't done this way and the floors looked like a roller coaster. Very poor result considering how much some of these people paid the flooring companies to install these timber floors. Stewie Re: Hardwood timber flooring on battens or plywood 20Feb 15, 2014 5:44 pm Forgot to mention that we'll definitely have 19mm thickness with 80mm wide hardwood timber but still undecide which species. Jimbo73 I would use heaps of adhesive on each sheet and screw rather than nail. use as many as you like cheers Simeon 1 4074 Engineering timber is certainly a less fuss option, times cheaper to supply and install and better withstands humidity. 1 15923 |