Oak on concrete Kitchens, doors, rails, stud, tables, chairs, stair cases, garden furniture etc... Find answers and ask questions here!

[dobbass]

Hi
I am planning on laying a solid oak floor on a concrete base. On ordering the oak, I was advised to buy a liquid DPM and the appropriate adhesive for 19m2 coverage this worked out at £365 inc vat. The DPM is £90 for 10m2 coverage!! Obviously I decided to think about batons, with a visqueen DPM at approx £50 and no adhesive. Question is what are the advantages and disadvantages for each of these methods, obviously cost is one and for me with the batoning method I lose some head height, any other recommendations from experience would be really helpful.
Many thanks

[ian franklin]

i have just laid an oak floor on concrete - or rather i had an 'expert' lay it for me.
we laid it on to wooden battens 2''x1'' which were screwed straight into the concrete - dont go to deep as you could pierce membrane! ( i know this as i have done it!! ) it is important not to use treated green battens as they will eventually leave a mark on the oak showing where they are underneath. just for good measure i filled the 400mm gaps between the battens with 25mm kingspan then just secret nailed with a porta nailer. some oak floors look as if they dont need sanding but do sand with a random orbital using 100 grit then give 2-3 coats of oz wax. if you dont sand then the 'rough' bits will hold any engrained dirt & be a pain to keep clean. hope this helps, if im wrong anywhere please let me know! ps. when you have to screw the oak floor down at the edge of the room make sure you use a passivated screw - i used 'spax' - otherwise the tannin in the oak will rot the screw.

[dobbass]

Cheers Ian
thats really helpful, couple of questions:
- When you say don't use green treated batons, did you opt for untreated? I was advised at the timber yard to use treated.
- Was your floor level? My floow is horrendously uneven and i'm worried that either i'll spend days trying to lay level batons or i won't get them level and adequately fixed, as the oak will only be as good as the batons its nailed to?

Its not too late for me to use self levelling compound and glue instead of batons?

thanks v much
Lee

[LetMeHelpYouWithThat.com]

I would advise using untreated batons as per previous comments. If your floor is as bad as you say then I would spend some more time preparing the sub floor prior to laying the wood. Time spent on prep will be more apparent when finished. Get the floor as level as possible whilst you can. Once you have layed the floor, there's no turning back!! On the fixing, its horses for courses. Using batons adds more height to finished floor but allows you to insulate and nail fix. Also you'll have more to trim off doors etc..Floating the floor (not fixed to sub floor) is quicker but doesn't allow for insulation..Personally I would level sub floor to the best you can, lay underlay (either foam or boards) then lay the floor (glueing the boards together) as you go. When you start laying the floor, make sure the first few rows are spot on as this will affect the rest of the floor.
Take your time and best of luck.

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