P1Fanatic

Have been looking at getting rid of the carpets in my lounge and hallway for a while now so need to pull my finger out.

I dont like the idea of laminate so want to go down the engineered or solid wood route if I can. And the difference between those two seems minimal.

Me being useless at DIY I plan to get someone in to fit it all. However was after some info from those who done it before.

One of the main benefits listed of solid wood is the ability to sand & polish it numerous times to bring it back to new later on in life. However a mate bought a house with parquet flooring and got a couple of quotes which were extortionate. Anyone had this done and can comment on cost?

Any other issues I should be aware of? Ive heard of problems with expansion and contraction but my house is relatively new so properly insulated so cant imagine temp fluctuates that much.

Simon

mikef04

iTrader: (7)

try a place called victorian woodworks, wired there factories awhile ago. all bespoke, solid wood floors fully fitted at reasonanble prices.

tanyatriangles

iTrader: (2)

I've done this, but in France, where it's the norm, rather than the exception.

We did 75 sq m, taking about 5 days to do the job. The space will eventually be divided.

We used 70mm wide floorboards in chestnut, 22mm thick, and could also have had oak for a little more. They were delivered tongued and grooved on all four sides, in packs of about 20, the packs varying in length from less than 300mm to around 1000mm. We had to choose lengths to get a good mix, ensuring that no two boards ended next to each other on successive rows, and that no board wasn't supported on at least one end by a joist. The short ones took some thought

The boards were offered up and secret nailed into place through the protruding tongue. I used a nailer to do this, but it was manual, and hard work.

Porta-Nailer Portable Flooring Nailer - Screwfix.com, Where the Trade Buys

Each board had to be fitted, tapped up to close any gaps, then nailed. Tapping up was done using scrap pieces that I'd sawn off the ends of some boards, (to make them fit at the end of rows), in order to protect the tongue/grooves

The row I started with was laid to a chalk line snapped across the joists at 90 degrees to the joists, the angle being measured using a homemade, very large, 3,4,5 pythagoras triangle

Baords on this row were screwed through countersunk holes, finished with plugs cut out of a spare board, laid so that their grain matched that of the board, then chiselled and sanded off.

The end row was fitted the same way.

The whole floor was then sanded with a flooring sander, hired for the day, two passes in each direction with coarse, then two passes WITH the grain, fine.

It was then swept, vacuumed and lightly stained, before being sealed with some sort of oil that dries hard but allows the wood to breathe.

At the then rate of exchange, the job cost around £800.
These days, I'd have little change out of £1300

mykp

We've got bamboo on the floors in parts of out house. Its warmer than other woods, nice and light coloured and the pattern is nice. Its solid bamboo as well not laminate.

To install it though we needed to make sure the floor was level which we did with some kind of boards the builder recommended, the bamboo was then laid on to and as tanya says "sectret nailed" into place. Looks real nice now its in. Down side is that if you drag something sharp across it, it will scratch! Cost of the Bamboo, direct from China was £1000 with shipping and thats for a 22 foot by 25 foot room, 16 feet by 3 foot corridor and 8 foot by 10 foot bathroom. Fitting was done by me and took me 2 weekends!