Browse Forums Flooring & Floor Covering 1 Jun 04, 2015 3:47 pm Hi all. I posted this in another part of the flooring forum but no response so thought i'd try a more generalised one. I'm after thoughts and/or photos of/on spotted gum flooring, specifically hardwood. I'm tossing up whether to go the 85mm or 130mm boards. Other than personal preference on looks, is one easier to lay than the others? Can they both be secret nailed? Will the 85mm look too busy in a large room? TIA Re: Spotted Gum Hardwood Flooring 2Jun 10, 2015 10:50 pm Hi I am not an expert, because I've been doing my homework on timber flooring as well, so 130 mm (downward) can be secret nailed, if you have a large room/ or house I would go for 130mm. HTH Cheers Re: Spotted Gum Hardwood Flooring 3Jun 11, 2015 11:15 am Cheers ctvu. Been doing my homework too since i posted this question.Probably going to go with the 130mm boards. They look nicer and apart from needing more glue, yes they can be secret nailed. Extra glue apparently works out at about $15/sqm as its needed to cover the whole board. Happy to hear opinions on this if anyone reading this is in the field?? Re: Spotted Gum Hardwood Flooring 4Jun 11, 2015 11:16 pm Just make sure you get an Installer that knows what they're doing when it comes to installing wide boards. Get references and ring them. You are correct, wide boards can be secret nailed, but they must be full trowel glued to a solid sheet subfloor, which should be a minimum 15mm plywood, or a 19mm minimum particleboard. The timber should not be laid straight after delivery, the installer should own a moisture meter! He should test the timber on delivery and he needs to know how to work out the equilibrium moisture content. If the subfloor is on joists, there should be adequate air flow/vents. If the subfloor is on concrete, the concrete should be flat. There should be a moisture barrier installed. If you are in an area that has excessive swings in humidity more than 4% i.e. 9%-13% is OK but for example 9%-16% is not, then reconsider either the width of boards, or getting wide boards top nailed. Make sure the installer leaves adequate expansion gaps 10mm minimum around the perimeter of the room, and around any fixed structures such as posts in the middle of a room. Hope that helps? Re: Spotted Gum Hardwood Flooring 5Jun 12, 2015 9:21 am Good advice above . Have a read of the pdf that Matt links to in this thread viewtopic.php?f=7&t=77661 Stewie Re: Spotted Gum Hardwood Flooring 6Jun 12, 2015 12:42 pm Cheers for that 12monkeys and stewieD. Great advice! PDF link is perfect. Our build is on cement B & J's with cement slab up to 900mm off the ground. We are going to install the 19mm particleboard on top of the slab prior to the floorboards but we weren't going to install plastic between slab and particle board as slab isn't on the ground and subfloor is well ventilated. Then i spoke to the floorboard suppliers and they still recommended using the plastic. Thoughts on needing the plastic still? We were intending to get the carpenters who have done our frame and who will do our fit out to install them. Floorboards will be delivered to hopefully acclimatise a bit as many weeks as physically possible prior to installing. Slab has been down since late Feb and will still be quite a while before boards needed. Re: Spotted Gum Hardwood Flooring 7Jun 12, 2015 1:08 pm In all honesty I would get professional experienced timber flooring installers to do your job. Like I said previously, you need someone that knows what they are doing, and has experience in laying wide boards, carpenters are not floor installers. I would not even consider installing a floor over a slab without putting down a moisture barrier especially with such a new slab, it's just not worth it. Use a 0.2mm thick polyethylene membrane. For secret fixing to particleboard 38 x 15 gauge staples or 38 mm x 16 gauge cleats at 300 mm centres with a full adhesive bed. If your floor is over 6 metres wide you will need an intermediate cork expansion gap or or a series of smaller expansion gaps every 800 mm to 1000 mm to provide equivalent spacing. This is not an option. If your floor failed because there was no expansion gap, you wouldn't have a leg to stand on. Acclimatisation takes as long as it takes. There is no set time. If your installers don't know something as basic as this, then I'd be looking elsewhere. Hope that helps? Re: Spotted Gum Hardwood Flooring 8Jun 12, 2015 1:44 pm Not set in concrete who's doing the job yet. We've only just started on bricking and it's a large house. No great rush. Would much prefer a slow quality job over a rushed crappy job done quickly. So totally agree with what your saying about getting job done properly and acclimatising. Are you in the industry 12monkeys and in Sydney? Feel free to pm your details if you are. Hi All. I'm currently resurfacing the hardwood floors and when removing the old layers that there's a long dark line running across the boards. Does anyone know what or… 0 12770 1000000% definitely add insulation. I have in my home and it makes a big difference minimising sound transfer. Insulation is pretty cheap and definitely worth it 2 6191 Engineering timber is certainly a less fuss option, times cheaper to supply and install and better withstands humidity. 1 15907 |