Distressed Antique Wood Flooring

Installation

Always follow the specific manufactures instructions when installing a wood floor. Instructions are usually enclosed within the wood floor packaging.

Wooden Subfloors
Engineered wood floors can be installed on to wooden subfloors using a floating system. A floating system is when the new wood flooring sits on top of an underlay that covers the existing subfloor and is not secured to the subfloor.

1 First make sure the subfloor is in good condition and is even.

2 Check if sound-proofing is required. This can be achieved using a sound-reducing underlay.

3 A tongue and groove engineered floor is installed using a pva adhesive. A click system engineered floor is knocked together without an adhesive.

Solid wood floors can not be used as a floating system and require full fixing to the subfloor. On a wood subfloor we recommend the use of a power nailer or porter nailer. On a concrete subfloor we recommend a flooring adhesive.

1 First make sure the subfloor is in good condition, any loose floor boards should first be secured. If you wish to run the new flooring in the same direction as the original floorboards a 6mm ply board may be required first.

2 Each plank of soild wood flooring should be secretly nailed. Each nail should be fired through the tongue of the board, at least three nails per board or however many is required to secure the board to the subfloor.

Concrete Subfloors
Engineered products can be installed on concrete floors the same way as on wooden subfloors (see above). The only addition is a Damp Proof Membrane (DPM) which should be laid first.

Damp Proof Membrane (DPM)
When installing a wooden floor, it is important to protect it against damp and moisture. This can be achieved with a DPM. Solid wood require a liquid DPM to be applied to the floor, while engineered wood requires a DPM sheet or suitable underlay.

Solid wood floors need to be fixed to a concrete subfloor. To achieve this the following should be carried out:

1 First make sure the subfloor is level, any uneveness should be levelled using a recommended screed or levelling compound.

2 A liquid DPM should be applied to the subfloor. The flooring can be installed using a recommended adhesive.

Grading

Distressed Wood Flooring Grading of our Wood flooring
Prime/A.B. Grade Wood Flooring is a mix of A.B grade please see list below

Classic Grade Wood Flooring is mill run grade which is  a mix of B.C.D grade with small proportion of A grade.

Country Grade Wood Flooring is a mix of CDE grade

Antique distressed Grade Wood Flooring is a mix of DEF
A—without knots and sapwood, uniform colour, sometimes small knots up to max.2mm allowed.
B—with knots up to max.2-4mm, no sapwood, harmonic-natural colour;
C—with knots up to max.6 cm, sapwood max 15%, natural colour;
D—with knots up to 8cm, and max.30% sapwood, allow a wide range of colour variation.
E — with knots up to 10cm, allow cracks up to 30cm in the middle of the boards (max 5mm wide) and end cracks max 25cm (max 8mm wide), allow a wider range of colour variation
F — with crack less than 15-20mm wide in the middle of the boards, longest crack shorter than 80%of the board length

Underfloor Heating

Engineered wooden floors can be installed and guaranteed over underfloor heating, however manufactures installation instructions must be followed to validate the guarantee.

We source our wood flooring from a number of different manufactures, therefore each board can have its own warranty which may vary between factories. We will be happy to give advice when choosing the right board for your job.

If you are fitting over underfloor heating, it is important that the engineered wood flooring is fixed tightly -so there are no gaps between the board and the underfloor heating.

If the underfloor heating is laid in a screed, then the wood flooring would be glued to the subfloor using an appropriate flooring adhesive.

A liquid damp proof membrane is always recommended over a new concrete subfloor.

If the underfloor heating is laid in between wooden joists, the product we recommend is a multiply 20 mm thick structural board, fitted using a port-o-nailer to the joists. Where the underfloor heating prevents the nail to go into the joist, a face-fix (tung tight) screw can be used to fix as near to the original fixing place as possible. This gives an even fixing of the wood flooring to the joists across the entire room.

Thinner boards can be laid over underfloor heating. We would recommend a multi-ply board as this can be stuck to the floor using a wood flooring glue or can sometimes be floated using a low tog underlay, depending on the manufactures warranty.

Solid wood floors are not guaranteed over underfloor heating.