How To Lay Solid Wood Flooring On Concrete

How to lay solid wood flooring installation methods.

How to lay solid wood flooring on concrete.

Installing a hardwood floor over a concrete slab. Solid wood can be installed onto 2 sub floor types. Even if your home was built on a concrete slab you can still enjoy the beauty and charm of hardwood floors. We don t recommend installing over chipboard and instead would suggest a floating floor such as engineered wood flooring or laminate flooring.

Most manufacturers advise against installing hardwood flooring over concrete for two reasons moisture levels in concrete and the difficulty of attaching directly to concrete. Gluing down solid wood flooring to concretethis is a question that i have started to receive more and more. As i wrote in the post you can go with other options such as engineered or click lock real wood flooring. Alternatively screw rows of treated 1x4s to the concrete 16 in.

There s something inherently strange about laying wood floors over concrete. We had a topic earlier on the community regarding the do s and don ts of installing solid hardwood floors over concrete. Before you prepare the concrete for hardwood flooring it must be dry. Experienced professionals pay close attention to managing moisture and minimizing wood floor expansion and contraction when preparing to install hardwood floors on concrete slabs.

Installing solid wood flooring onto concrete. Treated plywood to the concrete with concrete screws spaced every 16 in. Solid wood flooring is made from one single piece of wood and can be highly sensitive to changes in temperature and humidity as this can cause the wood to expand and contract. For contractors in many geographic areas though that s what they re faced with everyday on almost every job.

You usually determine this with a meter that compares the relative humidity of the slab with the ambient humidity. How to install a hardwood floor get step by step instruction on how to install hardwood floors in any room. After all water and wood don t mix and one of concrete s talents is absorbing and holding water. Then nail the flooring planks with a standard flooring nailer see photo for details.

Laying a solid hardwood strip floor is easier and faster if you choose a prefinished product to avoid the extra work of sanding staining and finishing. Lay the 1x4s perpendicular to the direction you intend to install the floor planks. The first consideration you will need to make is how you are going to attach your planks to the floor. First and foremost they have to learn how to handle moisture.

If the slab is new don t even begin moisture testing until 30 days after pouring it it probably won t be ready to be covered until 60 days after. Anytime you are installing real wood over concrete regardless of what thickness or material it is you will need to do some preemptive steps to ensure. My answer to that is yes and it is still warranted.