In response to the answers about attaching oak flooring to a concrete floor?

Question

the boards are tongue and groove and 9 inches wide and long. i have been advised to glue with mastic ( i know there is a black rubber type stuff used for parque) , nail and to lay on a membrane. What about the wood warping and lifting if they are not fixed. Its a bit different than laying lamainate ? no

Answer 1

Quite simple, all you need to do is to lay a frame over the floor, 1" x 1/2" (half inch), 12" apart, and the fix the floorboards to the frame. If you fix directly to the floor you will have a nightmare removing anything once the mastic is set, you will also ruin any boards you take up and replacing them will be nearly impossible if they a weathered with age.

Answer 2

You don't want to use mastic, what a mess that would be..
...maybe you would use mastic in 1940 or something

glue battens to the floor use expanding builders foam ( this is a foam that expands, not a foam belonging to a builder that expands )....;-)

then pin a PVC damp proof membrane to it.

Then glue the oak to it, with the expanding foam where the battens are.

In this way, the oak is not attached to the concrete so it can still move.

I hope your oak is VERY dry. It needs to be down to 10% moisture or less, and even then it will still shrink.

fixing will not stop it warping, the strength of wood warping is immense. Having dry wood with be the best preventative measure.

Answer 3

Most wood floors over concrete are layed using a membrane between the concrete and the floor. The wood floor is then layed, attaching to the previous piece, but not down to the concrete. The floor is allowed to float over the concrete, it allows for differential expansion between the two surfaces.

Answer 4

as long as you use a damp proof underlay the boards can only be afected by shrinkage or expansion from the climate of the room where the boards are to be layed. if you climatise the boards before you lay them(48hrs}, then they should be ok! in all the 20yrs in the trade, ive never had a warped floor, nor have i had to re do a layed floor.