Browse Forums Flooring & Floor Covering 1 Apr 06, 2010 9:41 pm Hi, just discovered this forum, it seems great! Was wondering if anybody has any experience/knowledge of Queensland Timber Flooring? They seem to use their own sawmill supplier not Boral for their timber flooring. We want to put hardwood timber flooring down in our house, with an existing concrete slab. The ceiling height is the usual minimum height, when I roughly measured it, it was about 2420mm high from a lino floor, or maybe a touch higher. QTF recommend laying like this: 1. plastic first 2. moisture barrier 3. 15mm ply 4. 19mm floor timbers ...so 34mm high - am I going to run into troubles with that if it reduces my ceiling height to 2396mm? Am I going to notice a missing 1.5-2cm of height?? Does that method sound like a good laying technique? They can also glue direct to the slab using fully troweled glue, but said you can run into more problems with movement/shrinking etc that way, and it is critical to get the floor perfectly flat first. Is it really that likely to cause problems though? Anybody have any bad experiences with it done that way? Thanks! Ben. Re: Queensland Timber Flooring & Installation Techniques 2Apr 06, 2010 10:06 pm I think the plastic is your moisture barier not a seperate thing. I do it all the time on 15mm ply with standard cielings and dont have any problems. Glue down method a lot of installers dont like doing but if you are concerned with height it is a good option. Re: Queensland Timber Flooring & Installation Techniques 3Apr 06, 2010 10:12 pm mickve I think the plastic is your moisture barier not a seperate thing. I do it all the time on 15mm ply with standard cielings and dont have any problems. Glue down method a lot of installers dont like doing but if you are concerned with height it is a good option. I'm sure you don't have any problems getting it put down But is there a legal implication with the council because now my ceilings would be less than legal height? QTF did say they preferred not to do the direct glue method so they have said the same as you. Have you often seen problems with this? Or is it just painful/more expensive to direct glue? Thanks! Re: Queensland Timber Flooring & Installation Techniques 4Apr 07, 2010 2:12 pm I'd say their intended configuration is 100% in sync with the best practices of putting hardwood timber floors, outlined by NAFI and ATFA. A minimum of 15 mm plywood underlay is recommended. 19mm - is probably the best thickness as well. ... built a Promenade with Clarendon. viewtopic.php?f=31&t=25104 20-10-09 - excavation and piering completed ... 12-04-10 - Basins fixed. Connecting to the electrical grid 23-04-10 - PCI 07-05-10 - HANDOVER! Re: Queensland Timber Flooring & Installation Techniques 5Apr 09, 2010 5:32 pm I managed to get the owner of the house (we're 2 weeks from settlement) to measure the ceiling heights, it turns out the ceiling heights just aren't high enough to do 15mm+19mm - about 5mm short at 2430 high. So the choice (from QTF) is 130mmx14mm on 15mm ply, but that is coming out quite pricey, an extra $15 or so a sqm over the 80x19mm. Does that still sound ok though? I know its personal preference but do the wider boards look as good? ...or... Direct stick 80mm x 19mm onto the floor. Haven't got a price on this but presume it would be cheaper...? But have to get the vinyl glue ground off for about $10/meter, plus any levelling work that needs to be done - which might be up to $25 a meter apparently, but it might not be necessary... Does that sound right? Re: Queensland Timber Flooring & Installation Techniques 6Apr 09, 2010 10:31 pm Relying on my knowledge gained through the publications I mentioned (i.e. no own experience), 130x14 is a bit a dis-balanced solution that could result timber to respond more promptly for changes in the moisture level effecting in cupping/bending of the boards... So far, I believe that 90x19 is an ideal configuration. I specifically decided not to go with 130x19 boards in order to minimise the risks... I'd guess that 60x14 would be a less risky option. Also, 1300-wide boards may not be secret-nailed, only face-nailed. ... built a Promenade with Clarendon. viewtopic.php?f=31&t=25104 20-10-09 - excavation and piering completed ... 12-04-10 - Basins fixed. Connecting to the electrical grid 23-04-10 - PCI 07-05-10 - HANDOVER! Re: Queensland Timber Flooring & Installation Techniques 7Apr 12, 2010 10:08 pm Went to see their showroom today (its a fair drive away). They seem very good and helpful and have found some 83mm x 14mm spotted gum for us which is perfect. (To be laid on 15mm ply). Very exciting! By the way, they can actually secret nail 130mm wide boards. They don't use boral, but if you look on boral's website brochures you can see that you can now also secret nail 130mm boral boards so it seems to be an option these days. Re: Queensland Timber Flooring & Installation Techniques 8Apr 16, 2010 7:05 pm Bbb Went to see their showroom today (its a fair drive away). They seem very good and helpful and have found some 83mm x 14mm spotted gum for us which is perfect. (To be laid on 15mm ply). Very exciting! By the way, they can actually secret nail 130mm wide boards. They don't use boral, but if you look on boral's website brochures you can see that you can now also secret nail 130mm boral boards so it seems to be an option these days. You can secret nail but you must trowel glue bostich ultraset glue or equivalent. Re: Queensland Timber Flooring & Installation Techniques 9Apr 16, 2010 7:45 pm mickve ... I do it all the time on 15mm ply with standard cielings and dont have any problems. Glue down method a lot of installers dont like doing but if you are concerned with height it is a good option. Hi mick, so does this mean that the full timber 19mm raw t&g planks can be glued direct to the slab (the OP was refering to 19mm timber and then saying they can also use the glue method)?? I thought it must go onto either battens or ply, plus that the ply should not be thinner than the thickness of the timber (which is 19 mm) ?!???! Confused, help ! My signature is distracting people from my wise posts ... Re: Queensland Timber Flooring & Installation Techniques 10Apr 16, 2010 8:14 pm Lex mickve ... I do it all the time on 15mm ply with standard cielings and dont have any problems. Glue down method a lot of installers dont like doing but if you are concerned with height it is a good option. Hi mick, so does this mean that the full timber 19mm raw t&g planks can be glued direct to the slab (the OP was refering to 19mm timber and then saying they can also use the glue method)?? I thought it must go onto either battens or ply, plus that the ply should not be thinner than the thickness of the timber (which is 19 mm) ?!???! Confused, help ! To be honest i am not sure if they recomend direct stick for 19mm timber i never do it myself. With the ply it does not nead to be as thick as flooring i think 15mm ply is great a lot of people do it on 12mm ply but i would only do it if height is really important but 3mm isnt much so 15mm is better. Re: Queensland Timber Flooring & Installation Techniques 11Apr 16, 2010 9:27 pm OK, thx mick! I never knew some people would use 15 or even 12mm ply under 19mm boards!! So I guess 15 is just as good (as 19) !!! Yaay!! But 12 would be even better (well, height wise only, of course; not sure of other factors) ... full timber floor just over 3cm high - as opposed to the standard 38 mm. What are the main objections against 12mm ply?? (this is now getting very close to 13mm slimwood on 15mm ply!) My signature is distracting people from my wise posts ... Re: Queensland Timber Flooring & Installation Techniques 12Apr 16, 2010 9:36 pm As long as the slab is level 12mm wont be a problem the reason i dont recomend it normally is because if you nail a board into 12 mm ply and one into 15mm ply then pull them out the 12mm one doesnt hold anywhere near as well but if you strip glue the floor as well you then have staples and glue holding it so it will be fine. Re: Queensland Timber Flooring & Installation Techniques 13Apr 16, 2010 9:45 pm Sorry to be a pain, here's my 'translation' in plain language: then pull them out the 12mm one doesnt hold anywhere near as well Why would you be pulling them out? Is it just normally sometimes required during installation? And you mean the 12mm ply doesnt hold onto the slab that well? but if you strip glue the floor as well you then have staples and glue holding it so it will be fine. OK, so you would normally glue the 12mm ply to the slab first, as well as screw it to the slab? And then screw the 19mm timber into the ply (or probably actually nail it)? (and without glueing of boards onto the ply) My signature is distracting people from my wise posts ... Re: Queensland Timber Flooring & Installation Techniques 14Apr 16, 2010 10:17 pm Just to clarify what I was told anyway, They preferred not to do a direct stick to concrete, that is why we are going 14mm hardwood onto 15mm ply. That gives 29mm height and we had 30mm to play with I take it from the posts above this should be ok. For the direct stick they also said the floor would have to be sanded so that it was billiard table flat. Re: Queensland Timber Flooring & Installation Techniques 16Apr 16, 2010 11:36 pm Borg, not concerned now. Was concerned initially about doing 15mm ply + 19mm hardwood = 34mm high which would be below legal height. I know its only 5mm different but that is the difference between legal and non-legal ceiling height in this house unfortunately. Re: Queensland Timber Flooring & Installation Techniques 17Apr 17, 2010 6:38 pm Lex ::: Sorry to be a pain, here's my 'translation' in plain language: then pull them out the 12mm one doesnt hold anywhere near as well Why would you be pulling them out? Is it just normally sometimes required during installation? And you mean the 12mm ply doesnt hold onto the slab that well? but if you strip glue the floor as well you then have staples and glue holding it so it will be fine. OK, so you would normally glue the 12mm ply to the slab first, as well as screw it to the slab? And then screw the 19mm timber into the ply (or probably actually nail it)? (and without glueing of boards onto the ply) You dont normally pull boards out unless you see a defect in it i ment do it as a test. If the 12mm ply is installed properly it hold down fine i never had a problem yet. You pin the ply to the slab no glue but put glue between the flooring and the plywood and secretnail it. Re: Queensland Timber Flooring & Installation Techniques 18Apr 17, 2010 7:25 pm Thanks, mick. Ok, last question, I promise (I hope) you put glue between the flooring and the plywood and secretnail it Do we really need to glue the boards to the ply?? Can't we just screw them, I mean secret nail them? My signature is distracting people from my wise posts ... Re: Queensland Timber Flooring & Installation Techniques 19Apr 17, 2010 9:20 pm Bbb Borg, not concerned now. Was concerned initially about doing 15mm ply + 19mm hardwood = 34mm high which would be below legal height. I know its only 5mm different but that is the difference between legal and non-legal ceiling height in this house unfortunately. I am interested to know where you read this I always the thought the minimun height for a habital room was something like 2.1. Re: Queensland Timber Flooring & Installation Techniques 20Apr 17, 2010 9:57 pm borg I am interested to know where you read this I always the thought the minimun height for a habital room was something like 2.1. BCA Building code of australia. Habitable rooms (bedrooms, living, lounge, rumpus etc) are 2.4. Non-habitable rooms (kitchen, laundry, bathroom, storeroom) are 2.1. Cheers. Engineering timber is certainly a less fuss option, times cheaper to supply and install and better withstands humidity. 1 15924 1 10489 Building Standards; Getting It Right! We bought a house in 2015 advertised as a 7/2/2, 4br up, 3br down (7br), and to date, it’s a great house. However, we’ve just had it valued and it’s come in as a… 0 12002 |