Wood Flooring for Architects and Interior Designers
Architects and Designer wood flooring specification documents
Sustainable Wood Flooring and our Forests
Hardwood Flooring display at our two showrooms
Engineered Wood Flooring What is it and why use it
Fitting Methods for hardwood flooring
Wood fitting services for wide long floorboards
Custom Finishes
Why choose wood flooring
Fitting Solid Wood Floors
Fitting Engineered Floors
Wood Flooring for Underfloor Heating
Fitting under Skirting Boards
Replacing a floor board in the middle of a floor
Sanding a wooden floor without dust
Creating a White Wood Floor
How to apply our natural coloured oils
Bona Refresher Application

Fitting Engineered Floors

BEFORE INSTALLATION

Make sure that the cartons are stacked horizontally and flat. All our boards are kiln dried to 8.5% moisture content and the plywood base has also been dried to “balance” the boards at the manufacturing stage. Engineered boards do not need to acclimatise (except when you have underfloor heating UFH) and should be installed immediately after delivery .This will ensure that an engineered board will maintain its stability and give you a trouble free installation. If you cannot lay the floor immediately then leave the cartons stacked with the shrink wrap film in place.

 

The following is very important
  • All wet trades such as plastering and wallpapering must be finished
  • All the plaster must be totally dry
  • Floor and wall tiles have been installed for at least 2 weeks
  • Radiators have been bled with any leaks rectified
  • The concrete sub floor has a moisture content of less than 10%
  • All windows and doors are fully fixed
  • All painting is completed
  • All other trades have finished

 In most homes we now have concrete floors and they should be checked for damp proof courses and humidity.

 

UFH

If you have any type of hot water system you must acclimatise engineered wood flooring and commission the system carefully. Please go the section on wood flooring for UFH. 

 

SUB FLOORS

The surface should be firm, clean, level and grease free. If there is some possibility of dampness then use the Bona R410 to seal the floor IF YOU HAVE BITUMEN on the floor or R580 for all other DPM applications. If theconcrete floor is uneven by more than 2mm then you can use a self levelling compound but in this case you will not be able to glue the floor down as the glue may cause the levelling compound to break away.
 
In older houses there is normally an air gap below the joists, in this case lay a damp proof membrane below before installing your engineered floor to ensure that the floor stays warm and will not absorb the moisture below.
 
Where you are fixing to old floor boards you must make sure that they are firmly fixed and that there are no loose boards or protruding nails.
 

If you want to lay your new floor over an existing one then add screws to the old boards as well as nails to make it secure

If you want to take the old floor boards up then make sure the joists are sound and remove all the nails you can.

If the old floorboards are substandard and you want to lay the new boards in the same direction then either get extra wide boards or screw down a plywood sub base on which you can then glue down your new floor. This will ensure that you do not get “creaky” boards and your new floor will be completely flat and secure.

If you lay your new floor directly onto existing boards in the same direction you are likely to get problems in the future unless they are wide boards which will cross over any join. Normally it is always best to lay the boards lengthways in a room and not across the shortest space.