Laying new timber floors over a slab.

[Andrew]

Calling all chippies, professional and
amatuer alike. I'd like to ask your
advice on how to put down a timber
floor over a slab.

Specifically:
1. how far apart to space the batons
2. what material to use for the batons
3. how to correctly countersink the
heads of the dynabolts into the batons

Any discussion of the pros/cons of
different methods would be appreciated.

I'm planning to use Tasmanian Oak as
the flooring, it'll probably be around
70-80mm wide and 18mm thick. It
will be secret nailed by a pro, I figure
I can deal with the batons with a little
help from my Somersoft friends.

andy

 

[Queen Bee]

Good Website

There's a really good website for anything to do with wooden flooring i.e. laying, etc and floorsanding in the States. They have a forum on there where you can ask any type of question and the installers and floorsanders will answer them for you. There are a few Aussies on the forum so that you can have questions answered that are relevant to your area. Tell them that you are in Australia because they sometimes do things a bit differently there, but they are all really friendly and will help you out.

www.floormasters.com

Cheers

 

[Tony]

Hi Andrew,
I think you can now buy timber floorboards that are glued straight onto the slab. They come in different heights, but i have been told that 14mm is the best as it will be the same height as any tiled or carpeted area. They are tongue & groved on both sides & have seen top & bottom too. Actually it looks reasonably easy to lay & have been looking around myself. Then it's just a matter of polishing.

Regards Tony.
NB. I'm not talking about timber laminate, but rather solid timber which is laid like a laminate.

 

[Kevmeister]

Yes, I think Boral had a timber product that could be glued directly to a slab - but why not simply consider a real timber floating floor.

You can get dynabolts that have a countersunk head on them instead of the usual hex bolt - a simple countersinking bit will countersink them fine into your joists/battens.

"Joist" or "batten" spacing would depend on the thickness and species of the timber flooring. After all, if you're raising the floor level the effect is no different to a joist/bearer timber floor, so spacings would be the same.

I suspect you could glue the joists/battens to the slab instead of dynabolting them.

But the whole idea of using joists/battens instead of just laying a floating floor seems a little pointless to me. Extra work and no obvious benefits.

The other advantage of a floating floor is that you don't need to get it secret nailed by a pro, because the floor locks together anyway.

 

[Kristine..]

Andrew

The Timber Advisory....Board? Centre? in Blackburn? has lots of information regarding use of timber

I agree with various comments regarding the battens - for a grooved plywood wall panel, maybe, but a floor?

The Home Ideas Centre in Clayton is a great resource. I had to make a bookcase to store all the information I picked up from there!

Kristine



***************************************
Just a little 'cut and paste' from their http://www.homeideas.com.au/


Melbourne's Home Ideas Centre is the largest in Australia with thousands of products from hundreds of companies on display. We hold regular lectures and workshops in our theatrette. Call us on 9544 9611 to learn about upcoming seminars.

Currently on weekends we have two consultants available : Bookings are essential - please ring the Centre


LIGHTING DESIGN:
Have your lighting layout professionally designed by a qualified lighting engineer - initial consultation free of charge
ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN:
A professional consultation with an Archicentre architect for your building or renovation project - initial consultation free of charge

UPCOMING SEMINARS : Bookings are essential - please ring the Centre



MAY 25TH: Landscape Design
JUNE 15TH: Owner Builder
JULY 27TH: Kitchen Design
SEPTMBER 14TH: Owner Builder
OCTOBER 26TH: Landscape Design


*******************************

 

[Andrew]

Thanks for the replies so far, I interested to
hear people's opinions on floating floors as
I've had professional advice so far to avoid
them. My dad who is a builder, my carpenter
and a joiner have all said the same thing.

Another reason I'm leaning towards real
floors is to retain the look throughout the
house. The first three rooms + hallway
are timber and these will be replaced with
new timber shortly. The whole house will
look better if the floors are matching
throughout, this is my PPOR so I want it
to look nice.

andy

 

[Kevmeister]

I've never heard anything bad about floating floors. If your Dad, carpenter and joiner has recommended against them, perhaps you can offer us their reasoning. Ultimately, though, the decision shall be yours and you have to be happy with it. I too have sometimes done things "the hard way" because I felt I was going to be happier with the result.

Boral also sells strip flooring so if "matching" is important perhaps you could contact them regarding obtaining the same species both as a strip flooring replacement and as a glue-down option for your concrete slab.

Ultimately I think whether battens & joists will work depends on how the existing slab floor intersects with other floors in the house.

As a simple example, if the slab floor was part of a step-down lounge and there were no doorways leading from it, putting a false floor in would be quite feasible in my opinion.

If, on the other hand, you currently have a level transition from slab to timber floor, them laying timber over slab means your floor levels change, which might require you to increase other floor levels, or put in a step etc (a 50-75mm step is dangerous in my opinion because you don't see it).

 

[Andrew]

The idea is that we will put down 25mm battens
dynabolted directly into the concrete, the new
timber will be nailed straight into the battens.

This should raise the floor level about 40mm
overall, the hallway leading into this will be
raised about 20mm by the addition of new
timber over the old baltic rubbish.

I'll have to devise some way of making a
subtle step, possibly a wedge shaped piece
of timber at the end of the hallway.

I'm very interested to hear other opinions on real
floors vs. floating.

andy

 

[Owen]

Andrew,

Skip the dynabolts. You would probably twist your arm off doing up all the nuts.

We put battens and floorboards over a concrete slab in our home. We had Sydney Flooring do the job after investigating everything at the Building Advisory Centre in Sydney. First they laid that thick orange plastic sheeting with taped edges all over the floor to damp proof. Then they masonry nailed the battens to the floor at about 450-500mm centres. The nails were about 50mm long split nails with a bend in them to grip the concrete underneath and they used a big-ass nail gun. Then the floorboards (blackbutt in our case) were nailed over the top. We used 130mm wide boards which gives our terrace a better sense of size. The battens were split floorboards and were the same 19mm thick so the whole floor was raised 38mm. The skirting boards had to be removed and the doors cut. Then the floorsanders came in and they used tung oil and wax instead of polyurethane to prevent splitting. Then new skirting boards were put back on. I have only recoated the wax once in 3 years and it took about 15mins to do the job. Much nicer than a gloss poly finish too.

You got to hand it to professionals - they do a great job so much easier and faster than I could have especially when it is a big, expensive, important job like your floors. It took just 3 days from start to finish to do a lounge room, hall and 2 bedrooms. I hope this helps.