Browse Forums Flooring & Floor Covering Re: Timber Flooring (on slab) 4Aug 08, 2006 3:57 pm MasterofNone Hi all, I am building a new house and i am trying to sort out timber flooring for the ground floor, which is onto the concrete slab. There seems to be a few different systems around. I like a timber called brush box. My question is has anyone had any expiriance in laying floors and what is the cheapest option for a system that looks good and is similar to brush box. How hard is it to DIY? Cheers Jimbo. Hi Jimbo, Options for timber floor are either real wood (will require sanding finishing) or pre finished which is generally something like a particle board base with a thin layer or real wood on top and pre finished. if you are looking to do tis yourself then prefinished is definately the simplest and easiest and cheapest. with real timber expect to see more variation in colour and texture as it is real wood, also wouldnt recommend doing it yourself as the preperation, laying and finishing are exacting jobs and really should be left to professionals. irrespective of real of veneer timber flooring in a new house WILL require a moisture barrier and it's imperitive that you apply it properly. in new houses the concrete slab is still moist and this moisture cannot be allowed to seep up into the glue and wood or you risk all your work popping back up. Friend just finished laying 120sqm of prefinished tasmanian oak and looks terrific, only took about 3 days and was good to walk on straight away. basic steps involved were. 1. scratch floor with old brick (to allow moisture barrier to grab) 2. thoroughly sweep and clean floor (has to be clean and dust free) 3. apply moisture barrier and allow to dry (this goes on quite thickly) 4. lay boards with recommend glue and following advice from flooring supplier 5. clean up any glue spills immediately with recommended cleaner. 6. open beer with satisfied smile ok so that's my bit hope it helps Re: Timber Flooring (on slab) 5Aug 08, 2006 11:28 pm Laying stick on timber floors over concrete slabs is fraught with problems as there is often just too much movement. Yes it is cheap but many professional floor people will not touch many of the commercial products with a barge pole.
Even architects specify 15mm thick boards stuck direct to slabs and it is a problem just waiting to happen unless you really know what you are doing and know enough to avoid problems before they occur. Don't forget, we are after long life and hard wearing qualities for a floor and I've seen plenty a few years down the track that are appalling. Moisture content of the slab is crucial and it is important that the water in the concrete has cured out enough so that it does not compromise the moisture barrier after 6 months. Sometimes you can get a special concrete mix with bugger-all water but with heaps of super-plastiser added. That way there is less water to evaporate and cure out of the concrete so you can lay vinyl (and timber if you really must) etc much quicker - or at least after a few months. Often the safest option is to batten over the slab and nail the floor down as normal. A bit more work but it is a much safer bet for a conservative builda like me! Re: Timber Flooring (on slab) 6Aug 09, 2006 10:21 am hi all,
Thankyou evryone for your speedy responses. I have heard of a timber called brown box which is apparently about half the cost of brushbox. I dont like the idea of glueing boards directly to the slab as there is no room for expansion or contraction and the problems you would have if ever the need to replace a section arises. I have been quoted on a system that lays plastic sheet down on the slab followed by a layer of 9mm ply nailed through to the slab (wouldnt the nails break the moisture barrier by piercing the plastic) and then the timber boards are secret nailed into the ply leaving a space for expansion etc. under the skirting boards. The floor is then sanded then stained.This system is expensive the labour costs are more than the material costs. I have seen a clip together system at a carpet shop where the boards are layed on a type of carpet underlay and are cliped together and nailed at each side. The colours and timber choices are a bit limited and the boards have a thin vaneer of timber pre finished on the upper surface. This limits sanding and re staining also i was told that these type of boards can dent and scratch easily. Cheers Jimbo. Re: Timber Flooring (on slab) 7Oct 06, 2006 12:47 am ..i've done abit of timber flooring ...mostly with prefinished timbers.(timbers comes in boxes, all sanded,polished and glazed) . Its like the method u previously mentioned exepts the timbers finished..
wat we normally do on new concrete floors is lay(glue) 20mm ply woods with onto the cemented floor,covering up the planned arealeaving gaps in between ply woods.. Then sparingly drill holes and slammed in the ply nails making sure the nail flushes into the wood... anyhows.. u'd still need an experience person to help out and alot of tools Re: Timber Flooring (on slab) 8Oct 08, 2006 3:08 pm I sell solid (real) timber flooring at work, I can tell you Brushbox is about the single dearest native hardwood. We have 130mm select Brushbox at the moment and its about $115 sq. metre - thats supply only!! Re: Timber Flooring (on slab) 9Oct 13, 2006 11:49 am Hi all,
I am building a house and am thinking about getting real wood flooring. It will be laid over a concrete slab. Either the engineered prefinished sort or the real timber overlay. When laying over concrete slab, (not over battens and joists), would the difference in feel be obvious when comparing the real timber option vs, the engineered timber option ? Also, what is the main reason people buy real timber as opposed to the engineered option ? Whichever option I end up with, I intend to get the flooring installed by the supplier. Are there any good supplier-installers you could recommend that you heard have done good jobs? Thanks ! get a few quotes!! 10Oct 14, 2006 5:04 pm hey guys, i'm new to the forum and just wanted to say hi to everybody, it's been very informative so far. As far as the flooring goes, i'm not a professional timber floor layer, i am a plasterer for 7 years and was a tiler for 6, i've had limited experience with timber floors, but i have put the thin click flooring down in a rental property. Worked great for me, it was cheap, easy to put together. You obviously need some tools, your best friend will a jig saw if you are relatively inexperienced, even a cheap one will do the job, you don't need to buy an expensive one if you don't plan on using regularly and also some hand tools, just ask somebody from a supplier some questions aswell, they can be helpful at times as to what you will need and the best way to do the job, cos they're only supplying the material and not the labour they won't mind giving you tips. They might be the best people to ask about referring somebody to actually do the job if that's the way you decide to go, but i stress this all the time to people GET AT LEAST THREE QUOTES not just for this particular job but for any. In saying that the cheapest will not necesarily be the best quality job, but it at least gives you an idea of the difference of quotes, it may even shock you. I wouldn't personally put that product in my own house, two reasons the sound when you walk on it sounds very hollow especially if you are wearing hard shoes, it sound like you are walking through a shop or an office, the second reason is that it is a laminate, which means that at some stage your high traffic areas will wear and i'm not not sure of the actual time it would take but depending on how long you plan in living in your house high traffic areas will go back to chipboard. As opposed to a real timber floor, obviuosly it costs more to buy and the labour costs more, but a real timber floor can be sanded at any time and re laquered and will look as good as the day you put it down, also if you happened to drop something sharp onto laminate and it peirces the laminate you will be left with an ugly chipboard gouge, if on timber you have the same texture all the way through your timber so it won't be a different colour, you could use a stained putty to patch the mark as a temporary solution. And lastly a real timber floor is a real timber floor, if you look at houses that are quality built you will not see the cheap stuff in it. So it comes down to your budget, what can you afford at the time and maybe how handy you are, sometimes when you try something yourself it might actually cost you more in the end or it wont be as high quality and you have to look at it everyday. Re: Timber Flooring (on slab) 11Oct 14, 2006 9:27 pm Real solid timber flooring looks just that - real . Engineered flooring doesn't look real, even the exspensive stuff. Re: Timber Flooring (on slab) 12Dec 18, 2006 4:06 pm builda .................... Often the safest option is to batten over the slab and nail the floor down as normal. A bit more work but it is a much safer bet for a conservative builda like me! Hmm.. That sounds like a great idea - but then you have a step down in every room that has carpet? Either that, or build up every single room with battens? That sounds like a great idea too (next best thing to stumps), but I'm worried about presenting complications that our builder might not be used to, then getting screwed because they've made a mistake somewhere. Matt Re: Timber Flooring (on slab) 13Dec 19, 2006 3:51 pm Hi Guys,
Just a word of warning about paying deposit's for flooring way ahead of time. My partner and I paid a deposit 2 1/2 months ago for some spotted gum floating floorboards, thinking we were super organised and wouldnt have to run around weeks before Christmas getting this job done. The flooring company in Braeside decided to close his business down and leave us in the lurch a week before Christmas taking the deposit with him. His response was it was for the sales work he did. Fortunately we have been able to find someone else who can deliver and install on time for us. And we have followed up with our credit card company to see if they can do anything about our deposit legally. So fingers crossed! Our experience with timber floors 15Aug 21, 2007 10:29 pm Hi everyone, when we renovated about 6 years ago we used solid Grey Ironbark timber which we selected for its colour and hardness. We had a pro install it directly onto our slab. The home originally had cork and carpet on the floors - we jackhammered the cork off which was fine and had a moisture level check done. The reading was 0 (zero) so we were advised not to bother with a moisture barrier. All was good. Until the floor was finished and we finally moved into the home 2 days before Christmas...
Then in our first week in the house, the new dishwasher leaked due to the builders tradies playing with connections which worked their way loose. Needless to say the kitchen (which had procelain tiles thankfully) flooded and the boards which started on the other side of the kitchen island rose up to resemble an upside down V. After much paniking, we tried all we could to force them back down, without luck. We had to put through an insurance claim and stupidly called back the installer to fix the floor. Instead of sanding back the entire floor he simply replaced a few boards and applied the coating over the existing 2 coats previously applied. We continued to have more problems with the floor and found that not many tradies wanted to come in and fix it for us. Then the lacquer started to peel in high traffic places.... Anyway building a new house now and still looking at timber floor. But i would not recommend gluing a floor to a concrete slab. Please remember also that different woods have different hardnesses. Be careful. Choose something that not only looks good but will last. We will opt for floating as if anything does happen. We can pull it up and replace where necessary. Anyway food for thought. Engineering timber is certainly a less fuss option, times cheaper to supply and install and better withstands humidity. 1 15919 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 6202 Hi there, I'm a conplete newbie to this, but I'm looking to put a floor down in my 6x9m shed. It's currently sitting on a 100mm thick concrete perimeter (dirt floor… 0 6468 |