Fixing solid wooden flooring.

Discussion in 'Carpenters' Talk' started by vwmark, Oct 27, 2003.

  1. vwmark

    vwmark New Member

    Hi - I have purchased reclaimed pitch pine strip flooring. Its 4" wide by 1" thick - various lengthsWhat is the best way of fixing to a concrete floor? I was going to use battons then nail to the battons. I have 60sq. yards to do!

    Cheers

    Mark
     
  2. Nigel

    Nigel New Member

    Thats fine as long as the total depth does'nt cause you any problems.
     
  3. vwmark

    vwmark New Member

    Is there any alternative ways other than batons?

    Thanks

    Mark
     
  4. Big G

    Big G Member

    There are three main ways of installing a solid wooden floor – nailing (as you’ve suggested), floating on underlay, or glue directly to the existing floor. A website which you may find useful for choosing the most appropriate method of laying can be found at http://www.ifloor.com/hw/gen/hw.geninstall.html. If this link doesn’t work, let me know and I can email you a version of the text. The last floor I laid (35sq. yards) was using 22mm thick Maritime Pine secret nailed down on batons over a concrete screed. Batons were attached at 12” centres to the screed using frame fixings AND Gripfill, so that there was no chance of them moving. For larger boards like this (both length-wise and breadth-wise), it is normally recommended to nail down on batons, but as Nigel states it may leave your new finished floor level higher than adjoining floors (plus you may have to take large amounts off the bottoms of doors which border the floor!). In terms of actually nailing the floor boards to the batons, you can either use a portanailer (Pg. 242 of Screwfix Catalogue or can be hired) to drive the nails in at 45 degree angle through the tongue or manually nail it.
    Hope this information proves useful.
     
  5. vwmark

    vwmark New Member

    Hi - thanks for that - it did help. What type of battons should I use? I was going to get a roofer I know to get me some roofing battons. Acceptable?

    Also, the boards are not T&G so I was going to nail from above rather than secret nail from the side.
    Lastly, what should I fill the old nail holes in with? I was thinking of just wood filler - the boards are going to be saned and waxed. Any other suggestions.

    Sorry for so many questions.

    Cheers

    Mark
     
  6. Big G

    Big G Member

    Roofing batons may be a bit soft for what you require. By vertically nailing into a rather soft wood, you run the risk of the nails and boards simply popping out of the soft batons. I also assume that the roofing batons are only 25mm thick and hence limits the length of nail you can use. I would be tempted to use an 8’ x 4’ sheet of ¾” or 1” mahogany plyboard (i.e. a harder wood), cut into 3” wide strips to form your batons, or some other harder wood to tightly grip your nails. If you insist on using roofing batons, I would drive your nails in at a 45 degree angle to the surface of your board, so that they cannot simply spring up again after some usage of the floor.

    I assume that your concrete floor is level, or do you need to add a levelling compound? If the concrete floor is seriously uneven, when you screw your batons down, the final heights of them will be at different levels (if you see what I mean). In turn, when you lay your pitch pine boards across the batons, the boards may not be touching all of the batons underneath it, thus making it harder to nail down (and keep it nailed down tightly). If they aren’t nailed down tightly, you could end up with a squeaky floor. If you don’t want to use a self levelling compound, you can use thin wedges as spacers between the screed and the batons to correct the batons to the same height across your floor.

    I would also recommend using floor cramps across the boards to tighten them together prior to nailing (one row at a time). I’ve used the ones out of the Screwfix catalogue (Pg. 242) on solid wooden floors and they’re fine. You can ratchet the floor boards up really tightly, nail it, release the cramps and move on to the next board – easy.

    As for filling your old nail holes…. I would assume that a wood filler is fine, although they’re may be someone out there with greater knowledge of this aspect than me.

    Let me know if you have any other queries. Oh, and by the way – your author name – vwmark – are you a Volkswagen fan by any chance?
     
  7. vwmark

    vwmark New Member

    Thanks for the tip on using a hard wood for the battons. I was going to use a ply base but the cost just gets out of all proportion.

    I have bought cut nails (from Screwfix) and the clamp kit as you suggested.

    The floor is really even so no problems there and I am doing an entire floor of the house so I have no problems between different levels in rooms etc.


    Yes, I am into VW's especially campers:

    www.marksvwcollectibles.co.uk

    Cheers

    Mark
     
  8. Floorman

    Floorman New Member

    For filling the nail holes you could try belt sanding apiece of a floorboard and mix the dust with some p v a
    adhesive into a paste and fill the holes with it max small amounts cause it can harden quite quickly
     

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