Hi, i'm laying a solid oak floor of 240x22mm planks upstairs in a barn conversion. They are not T&G and i planned to space them by a couple of mm to give a rustic look and fix them with some brad nails to complete the traditional look. Any issues with this? There's no subfloor and i dont really see the point of adding one in this installation. The flooring is not t&g and its not engineered timber so should be plenty strong enough and any slight movement would be accommodated by the spacings. Correct?
Pretty much, yeah. 22mm will be fine for joist spacing up to 600mm centres, so you should be fine. Make sure you leave a gap around all edges of minimum 15mm, to be covered by your skirting. The jury's out on leaving gaps between boards, some say yes, others no, I wouldn't myself as your expansion gap at the perimeters will suffice but it's your floor, so do as you see fit.
Thanks. Nb spacing between boards is more to create the oldie worldly look and show off each board. Personally I like to see each board over having one monotonous slab that might as well then be laminate Personal choice I guess. Cheers
I would use cut nails rather than floor brads,although some people refer to floor brads as cut nails,there is a big difference.
Not sure is i am allowed to post links but i found this video on the history of cut nails and why they are so useful interesting:
Yup, to me that's all part of the rustic look I might try to source galvanized but not sure such a thing exists
Not normally a regularly stocked item. I would suggest you try putting a few in, you may find you have to drill a pilot hole in the board to prevent them splitting. Boards like this I would be tempted to screw down and then cover with a matching wooden plug
He wants it to look the way it would have if it had been done in the past,which I agree with. It would not look right with the boards getting screwed down then plugged. Cut nails is the way to go.
Thanks Deleted member 11267. You "nailed it" Drilling the pilot holes will be a must i think but worth the extra effort! Cheers all
I'd check the moisture content of the boards. If you leave a 2mm gap when fitting and the boards shrink you could end up with trenches rather than gaps.