Fitting Oak Flooring to concrete floors

Edz · Post by **Edz** » Mon Feb 05, 2007 11:38 am

Hi. I have a concrete floor and I wish to put down T & G oak flooring (20mm thick). I thought I'd screw 38mm x 25mm battens to the floor, then secret nail the boards.

I have two questions:

1) What is the best fitment for the battens to the concrete? I thought brown plugs and No.8 x 2" counter sunk screws?

2) What nails for the boards and should I pre-drill the oak first before nailing?

I've never done this before so any advice would be great. Thanks

tim'll fix it · Post by **tim'll fix it** » Mon Feb 05, 2007 12:31 pm

I have fitted oak to batton on the floor before, I think your batons are a bit on the small side. I used 3x2 laid with the 3" side flat on the floor. We used frame fixers to secure them.

Have a think mind are there any buried pipes in the floor before you start drilling

and as for nailing yes secret nail throught the tongue I would pilot first and use Stainless steel nails normal steel nails can stain the oak black

Edz · Post by **Edz** » Mon Feb 05, 2007 12:40 pm

Thanks for that. I have to use 25mm thick battens to make it work with other finished floor levels and the stairs that are going on top of them! Do you think I'd be better increasing the width of the battens to say 50 or 75mm?

What size would you recommend the nails? I'm guessing that I'd nail them at 45 deg angle and hence about 1 1/4" long would work with 25mm thick battens?

What do you reckon?

tim'll fix it · Post by **tim'll fix it** » Mon Feb 05, 2007 12:41 pm

i dont think 25mm is enough to nail into personally. I would want to use 50mm nails really

skiking · Post by **skiking** » Mon Feb 05, 2007 12:41 pm

Just to understand this in my mind

...laying T&G will ultimately raise the floor level by 2 3/4". 2" for the battons and 3/4" (20mm) for T&G. Is it possible/practicle to lay T&G or laminate straight onto the concrete?

I can't afford to raise the floor level by 2 3/4" due to skirting and radiators already in place. Is my only option to re-carpet ?

Edz · Post by **Edz** » Mon Feb 05, 2007 12:48 pm

I am in the same boat as SkiKing. I cannot raise my floor any higher because the finished floor levels for my dogleg stairs will be out. I would also have a biggish step from one room to another.

What about secret screwing? (If you'll pardon the pun!)

Post by **ultimatehandyman** » Mon Feb 05, 2007 1:41 pm

I have never fitted it before, but I am sure that you can fit it as a floating floor on top of concrete.

You need to put down some underlay, with a built in dpc!

Then just fix the planks as you would do with laminate, but get some good glue to glue them together, leave an expansion gap around the room and then bead around it, or cut the bottoms off the skirting if you want to.

You will also need some flooring clamps-
http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat/pro ... 8&id=19107

Edz · Post by **Edz** » Mon Feb 05, 2007 1:58 pm

Could fit say 19mm battens then 6mm ply sheet and then float the floor on that?

That way I'd get back to the floor height I need.

panlid · Post by **panlid** » Mon Feb 05, 2007 4:35 pm

if its solid oak it will need fixing to the floor.

Edz · Post by **Edz** » Mon Feb 05, 2007 4:41 pm

In which case I will need to go back to my 1" thick battens. I know that ideally nailing them on 3 x 2 battens would be best but I'm thinking that 1 1/4" nails and battens spaced at 400mm centres would keep the floor down wouldn't it?

What about if I nailed at every batten and glued up all the tongues? Would that be substantial enough?

panlid · Post by **panlid** » Mon Feb 05, 2007 6:34 pm

tim is correct that it isnt ideal. if the 1"1/4 nails is the only way then that is what we are working with. i suggest screwing the batterns down every 600 mm. try and get as flat as possible. use strips of formica or something similar to use as packers. then fit the oak flooring as you have said. i wouldnt bother glueing the joints. i would put some gripfil on the batterns before you fit each peice. possibly just a little splodge in the middle of each board. that way the floor can move to some degree.

sometimes you cant follow the rules like in this situation. this is where you have to use some common sense and wisdom.

if i had to do it like i have described i would be happy to do it and offer a guarentee even though it is not standard.

this is the real world as you know!

tim'll fix it · Post by **tim'll fix it** » Mon Feb 05, 2007 11:37 pm

you want to alter the floor height I would fix ply wood down to the floor to the required height, ply comes in 6, 9, 12, 15, 18mm etc

the float an engineered floor over it

i fitted some teak engineered floor from boen parkett

http://www.boen.com/

nice stuff

the problem with solid wood is you need to fix it really without gluing as it twists, cups, warps, shrinks, etc

if you use too small nails it wont hold, but hey lifes a compromise if you know the risks then its up to you

Hinton Heating · Post by **Hinton Heating** » Mon Feb 05, 2007 11:54 pm

still watch out for buried pipes! 2" screws into the screed, will nicely go through any pipes... the spray will hit the ceiling! (seen it!)

The only sure way to find the pipe routes to the radiator, are by using a thermal imaging camera, to trace the heat lines of the pipes! 8-)

tim'll fix it · Post by **tim'll fix it** » Mon Feb 05, 2007 11:58 pm

Hinton Heating wrote:
The only sure way to find the pipe routes to the radiator, are by using a thermal imaging camera, to trace the heat lines of the pipes! 8-)

i always have a therma imaging camera to hand

Hinton Heating · Post by **Hinton Heating** » Tue Feb 06, 2007 12:01 am

me too!