Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Aug 19, 2012 10:54 pm Hi all I am in the designing stage to build my house. I want my house to be timber floor, tasmanian oak with gloss finishing My architect has told me that if I want timber floor, i should not go with concrete slab on ground footing because the timber will not last long? he said there will be a gap on the concrete slab and the timber floor and it is not good for the durability of the timber?? does that mean all timber floor houses has sub-floor system footing using stumps??? i am very confused Re: Regarding footing for timber floor house 2Aug 20, 2012 10:11 am No, you can glue timber to concrete easily or you can screw timber battens or plywood to the slab first then glue and nail the T & G flooring to that as well. All slabs have to have a decent DPC underneath to stop moisture coming through anyway. Read some of the posts in the flooring forum on this viewforum.php?f=7 Is you slab going to be below ground or something ? Stewie Re: Regarding footing for timber floor house 4Aug 20, 2012 11:48 am ^^ agreed I think his architect may be trying to push him in a certain direction for his own interest or because that's how he wants the house to look not the client. Stewie Re: Regarding footing for timber floor house 5Aug 20, 2012 12:02 pm Hi, thanks for your reply So given that the site is very stable with minimum reactive clay, and that i want my house to be timber floor. is concrete slab better than subfloor strip footing/stumps system?? which one is cheaper to build? Re: Regarding footing for timber floor house 6Aug 20, 2012 12:45 pm at clark new homes we build a lot of timber floors and a fair few slabs. is your house a brick veneer or a weatherboard? if brick, nothing wrong with concrete brick footings and internal slab, with a particleboard platform floor. you can then glue and nail your flooring to the particleboard. hope that helps Re: Regarding footing for timber floor house 7Aug 20, 2012 7:20 pm hi, thanks for your reply we would a brick veneer building, double storey i just want to have a clear idea that if my site allows both concrete slab and timber floor footing, and given that we want our floor to be timber in the future, which footing should we choose? Re: Regarding footing for timber floor house 8Aug 22, 2012 1:16 pm Either/or. A concrete slab with a T & G timber floor laid over the top will give you better thermal mass but will cost more. A timber sub-floor with a T & G timber floor will not cost as much but will not be as warm unless you install floor insulation. Either way you'll end up with a nice looking floor. Do your costings for both and decide for yourself. Here is also a guide to insulation for both - about 3/4 of the way down the page for floors both timber and concrete. http://www.yourhome.gov.au/technical/fs48.html Personally I like raised timber sub-floor framing but then again I am a carpenter so prefer to work with timber anyway. Apart from cost which I don't think would be too much difference between the two I think it comes down to personal preference. Stewie Re: Regarding footing for timber floor house 9Oct 09, 2012 12:05 pm Stewie D Either/or. A concrete slab with a T & G timber floor laid over the top will give you better thermal mass but will cost more. Stewie With this first option, if the concrete slab will not get any direct sun, or very lttle and if it had a bamboo floor over, would it be cold in winter as there would be no underfloor heating? (Sydney). we were thinking of concrete slab as we were told it would be cheaper, but you say it will cost more ? Re: Regarding footing for timber floor house 10Oct 10, 2012 2:14 pm Quote: With this first option, if the concrete slab will not get any direct sun, or very lttle and if it had a bamboo floor over, would it be cold in winter as there would be no underfloor heating? (Sydney In that case I would probably go to the timber sub-floor way. Concrete is great if you can use it as a thermal mass in winter as it heats up during the day ( if you have big north facing windows that is ) and then radiates that back inside the building during the night. If you can't heat it up by the sun then it will be a colder floor than a well insulated timber floor. Quote: we were thinking of concrete slab as we were told it would be cheaper, but you say it will cost more ? In my experience yes, concrete costs more. That will also depend though on any excavation required to lay the slab. Seeing a photo of your site or some indication of the slope ( if any ) or the site survey would help too. Stewie Re: Regarding footing for timber floor house 11Oct 10, 2012 8:40 pm Well that makes it difficult - as my partner reminds me, the reason we want a concrete slab is so we can drop the floor of the new part down to the ground .. Everything is facing the wrong way for good design- we want windows & bifolds looking into the small garden & frog pond - but this side is south and west facing. We also want clerestory windows to let in light - but these would be south east facing. To make it worse, the south part of the house gets noise from freight trains & we are under the flight path! We are shaded on the west side by very large gums, and the other wall is a boundary wall with the neighbour's garden on the other side. The south side is an embankment covered in large native trees, with the freight line running along the top.The house is double brick and gets a bit chilly in winter but is not too bad, we have only used the reverse cycle a few times. Summer the house is fairly cool. There is a very slight slope from the front of the house (north-east facing)to the back. For the new part, it drops about 20cm over 10metres. We are surrounded by termites... I think I've worked out how to embed images, this is the original house (built in 1904) & the proposed new part (rough plans) in yellow lines Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ then this is the new part Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ and new part with cupboards & windows - again very tentative plans - Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ For our extension is there any way we can have a concrete slab, bamboo floor, build the new walls out of besser blocks or similar, have double glazed windows wood or upvc frames that would somehow address both thermal & acoustic issues ... and not have a freezing in winter or hot in summer house??!! Too many questions .. thanks yep sounds good make the footing bigger to to allow for the pipe in the middle 3 7298 PM me your email. I have a build excavation calculator you can use based on your plans to double check what your builder is telling you. Cheers Simeon 1 10207 I've dug some footings to embed a post anchor into. My holes are around 450mm deep which I'll put a 200mm stirrup into. The bottom of these holes seem firm enough. … 0 3301 |