Installing wood block flooring

fredmila · Post by **fredmila** » Sat Sep 20, 2008 12:40 pm

I wonder if anybody has advice about my particular flooring type:

Flooring is solid Teak, pre-finished with lacquer, 18mm thick, 400mm long, 90mm wide. T&G.
Subfloor is 22mm T&G chipboard on first floor joists. Level and firm. Has moisture resistant coating on top. Thermal and acoustic insulation placed in joist space (new build). The house is not heated yet but is sealed.

Nailing puts me off because of fear of damaging the finish and splitting the tongues, as well as the cost of the gun and laying time.

Ta

Tryanything · Post by **Tryanything** » Sat Sep 20, 2008 1:19 pm

If its new build l would not even consider buying the wood for 3 months
and the heating system been up and running for a good lengh of time

Reason being thousands of litres of water are used when building a house
and it takes a long time to dry out

If the flooring is brought in to soon or layed to soon it will draw in this
moisture and expand, then shrink when everything dries out

fredmila · Post by **fredmila** » Sat Sep 20, 2008 2:34 pm

I said new-build but, as a self-builder, it has taken since 2006 to build it, so things have had a long time to dry out (2 summers), for instance the block walls on the floor where I will install the flooring have been there for some 18 months and I did not plaster the walls, I used plasterboard.

I could use fan heaters to raise the temperature in each room as I install the flooring.

By the way, I forgot to say that I will install the flooring in a brickwork format, not in criss-cross pattern as parquet.

joiner_uk · Post by **joiner_uk** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 12:53 am

[quote="fredmila"]I could use fan heaters to raise the temperature in each room as I install the flooring.quote]
Very bad idea!

Be sure to leave the flooring in the room a good week or so prior to fitting

Some info on flooring here
http://www.woodfx.co.uk/timberfloors.html