Finish floor level for wooden floors.

Hi All,

I am curently working on my foundations and am putting in solid wooden floors in some rooms. I know I need to have to finish floor level lower in these rooms. My contractor said that 2 inches extra should be fine. Can anyone confirm that this is sufficient.

Lastbuilders

2" sounds like a lot, unless your fixing your floors using battens. Most solid floors are only 22mm thick, on average. If using a floating floor arrangement the maximum depth will only be 25mm or so.

I put in solid wooden floors a while ago in new building.
This is what have done as per recommendation from House Building Manual ISBN 0952361442. I would recommedn thsi book if you have not got it already. Available from Eason's.

=============== solid wooden floor 22mm
| | | battens about 100mm allowing for suspended insulation
| | |
------------------- concrete screed

Carpenter,

I thought you needed to use battens when they are solid wood rather than semi solid or laminate to prevent the wood from soaking condensation from the floor.

Do I not need to use the battens and so leave maybe one inch diference in the finish floor level?

Lastbuilders

Thanks bacchus,


Are you sure it is 100mm. 100mm seems like a lot of space to leave.

Lastbuilders

Solid floors can be floating or nailed, even glued. You need to decide which type and fixing system you are going to use- this will dictate the level required. Sorry to be vague but there are a number of timber flooring options out there and you'll need to examine these.

lastbuilders said:

Thanks bacchus,
Are you sure it is 100mm. 100mm seems like a lot of space to leave.
Lastbuilders

Click to expand...

well, i guess it depends on the size of the battens you plan to use

In my particular case, i used blocks of about 50mm and battens of also about 50mm. (now that i think about it, i actually wonder if there were not 63mm. I'll have to check my invoices over the week-end if you want to know)
The blocks are fixed directly onto concrete "screed + membrane." like a matrix, 60cm apart on one axis and every 1.2m on the other axis
Then the battens (every 60cm) are nailed onto the block so 1) battens do not touch the floor 2) allow for air flow underneath.
I then used a net to suspend insulation (about 40mm) between the battens and fitted wooden floor on the top.

It seems OTT, and i am sure few professional buiders actually do that as it is time consuming (so they may have some other ways) but , as i did not know, i followed the recommendation in the books i refer to in my previous post.

Carpenter said:

there are a number of timber flooring options out there and you'll need to examine these.

Click to expand...

... agree, so my explaination above is only one of the options, and not necessarily THE ONE to use in your case.

Book

bacchus said:

House Building Manual ISBN 0952361442. I would recommedn thsi book if you have not got it already. Available from Eason's.

Click to expand...

Hiya, I've bought a house that is currently being built in an estate, but we're hoping to do most of the internal stuff like laying the floors ourselves. Is this book good for the likes of me, who are not actually building the house but getting handed a shell? Thanks for the tip.

Re: Book

pricilla said:

Hiya, I've bought a house that is currently being built in an estate, but we're hoping to do most of the internal stuff like laying the floors ourselves. Is this book good for the likes of me, who are not actually building the house but getting handed a shell? Thanks for the tip.

Click to expand...

This book is more about building the structure (that's concrete, bricks, mortar, roof tile, timber sizing, insulation, drains etc..) than about interior design (like laminated floor) which i guess is what you are refering too.