floor

Reply to: Taken me sometime as just wanted to exhale and enjoy the moment. Very long post sorry. Preparation Research the job - there are loads of videos on You Tube of what to do and how best to do it; I somewhat took the best from all. Buy more than needed as it's easier to take excess back rather than fall short. Blocks 1. Blocks no longer need to have all the bitumen taken off. There are now adhesives that can do the job without all the scraping. I found companies that could take all the bitumen off but it would have cost a tidy sum. I used Lecol 5500. But the sides and tongues still needed to be cleaned in order to get a good fit. 2. If the tongues are damaged the blocks can still be used. You could actually take them all off and still have a good finish. I wasn't going to do that to close to 3000 blocks. Again, I found companies that would do this. 3. Spend some time grading the blocks - size, height, wear, complete (tongue). It really does help when laying, and therefore sanding and the finish, as you then don't have huge amounts to level out. Surface 1. Ensure you have a sound subfloor. Luckily I already had one but had to still take it up as I put some sound proofing down under. 2. Make sure level with no screw heads locking out and no squeaks as the last thing you want is to lay it and the floor squeaks all about. Laying 1. Measure, check and double check. Including borders and expansion gap. 2. As shown in the videos lay a crown line: The centre of the room is the backbone of the whole floor, it ensure rows are straight going forward. 3. Start early, especially if you think you can do it in one day. I took a week, doing some everyday after work. But this helped as the previous rows were then hard and didn't move. The adhesive will be a bit slippy and moveable until it's dry so don't walk on it. 4. Lay each row 'dry' to ensure that they will sit together before applying the adhesive. It takes longer and maybe a little messy ( adhesive overlay ) but worth it. 5. For the border, overlay where you've measured where the border should be (making sure not to add adhesive over your marking ) and then use the saw to take off the excess. As it wouldn't have had the adhesive on it'll come up super easy and leave with a clean finish. Sanding, Filling and finishing. 1. If sanding yourself find a firm that has a Trio and belt sander. Absolutely brilliant machines. As they have three rotational disks perfect for parquet as difficult to sand along the grain with belt sander. I used the belt first until the 60 paper grade and then switched to the Trio. 2. Use 60 or 80 dust mixed with resin for filling. Again loads of videos on the Tube. I used Lecol 7500 resin. I filled it twice sanding in between. 3. Research the finish you want and if not sure take an example to a wood flooring specialist to get their advice.

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Reply to: There's a few, possibly conflicting, considerations. Structurally it's often recommended to run perpendicular to the joists, as mentioned. Normally most of the floor would have joists parallel. Visually they could go either way down the hall, depending on the effect you want. A third consideration is that it looks better if the boards run towards windows, rather than perpendicular to them, especially when using pre-finished wood with microgrooves. If you are doing the entire floor then I recommend you consider each room too. You can have thresholds at each room but I think it is more elegant and "flowing" to have the entire floor as one layout. If that's a design goal then you should consider the entire space together. The photo is of an installation by me where the whole 4-bedroom floor is one continuous flow.

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