Solid Oak flooring - Underlay or not, glue or nails

[asimon]

My parents have recently had Solid Wood flooring laid , through their home, it was install with underlay and boards glued., I have just had a workman round (different to the one my parents used), with regards to installing solid oak flooring through our home, over the exiting floorboards, he has advised against laying underlay and would be nailing the boards as opposed to gluing them, not sure if this make any difference or not but we have a cellar and crawl space that covers the whole house.

I be grateful for thoughts, advice, experiences with regards to this.

Please note we are looking at have the floorboards sanded and varnished as they are originals, but are weighing up cost and other factors, hence why we may go for laying solid Oak flooring

 

[AMc]

If you board over the existing floorboards you'll be raising the floor level which will need you to trim doors and change your skirtings and architraves. I presume an underlay would add even more depth? That all sounds like it would change the character and create a lot of work - but depends on the state and style of your house?

I'm a big fan of sanding floorboards - it's not very authentic but I like the effect - it's also DIYable and very cheap. I've never paid anyone to do it though. If you aren't boarding over boards you may wish to consider lifting and insulating between the joists first - while disruptive - it's very beneficial in comfort and thermal efficiency.

I would reckon nailing is likely to be more effective than gluing if you're fixing over joists/boards and gluing if you have solid floors.
We glued one engineered oak floor over a solid screed - as there's nothing much to fix to.
Elsewhere in suspended floors we nailed into the joists over the original floorboards which were tongue and groove and couldn't be lifted without destroying them.
I suspect that neither secret nailing or gluing would come up cleanly enough to reuse the boards so it's a once only thing.

 

[Zebra]

We glued one engineered oak floor over a solid screed - as there's nothing much to fix to.

Ah, interesting. Could be an idea for mine - did you use an underlay in that case, and what glue did you use? Thanks!

 

[tobydog]

Our engineered oak floor in our new kitchen extension is also glued to the screed with no underlay. We have 100mm of Celotex under the screed. I don't know what glue it is but apparently, when it dries, it draws the boards down onto the screed. We get absolutely no movement whatsover and everything feels very solid but then the thickness of the boards is around 20mm. I remember the early days of laminate flooring where a combination of the battens and underlay meant you ended up with a trampoline!

 

[asimon]

Thanks for the replies for far, we have considered sanding the floor which is my preferred method, but believe it would cost more to do this as we have a some big gaps between our boards, would have to lift ad but together, other gaps may be able to fill (can see into the cellar/ crawl space), also to dust would be an issue when sanding.

The next best option which my wife prefers s she believe it would be warmer, would be to lay the solid oak flooring, is there a best practice as to whether put underlay on top of existing floorboard before laying the Solid Oak wood flooring, likewise nail or gluing, as mentioned my parents had underlay and boards were glued, the chap that has looked at laying the floor in our house, advise no underlay and to nail.

Regards

Allan

 

[middi]

Solid oak floors behave totally different from engineered oak floors. Solid oak floors are more susceptible to "buckle" in temperature fluctuations than engineered floors. With both types of flooring ( and depending on size of room ) at least an 8-10 mm gap must be allowed around the outer edge of the floor which is then covered by an edge beading.
Oak floors laid onto ( under-ventilated or insulated floor joists) should be nailed ( or screwed) onto the joists even if they are laid on a playwood backing.
Oak floors laid onto " solid" or solid and insulated floors can be glued down. Because oak can exert great twisting stresses when subjected to temp. fluctuations it is best if they can be nailed ( or screwed) down.

Middi

 

[MdB]

For my solid oak floor, I screwed the whole thing down to the joists. The profile of the T&G was designed for hidden nailing / screwing so I used that. The downside was that to do this, each screw had to be predrilled and countersunk to stop the oak from splitting. I would do the same again though. The screws I used were these: http://www.screwfix.com/p/spax-flooring-screw-zinc-yellow-passivated-4-5-x-60mm-pack-of-300/88716 which I would recommend.

For any ground floor work, I would do all I could to get a decent amount of insulation underneath it. It makes such a difference.

 

[AMc]

We glued one engineered oak floor over a solid screed - as there's nothing much to fix to.

Ah, interesting. Could be an idea for mine - did you use an underlay in that case, and what glue did you use? Thanks!

No underlay but the floor had already been excavated and insulated with 100mm of Ecotherm, the next screed had wet underfloor heating in it then a self leveling screed on top of that.
I'm afraid I didn't do the work and the glue was a professional gunned product which I don't remember the name of. It was laid by my joiner and his mate. The joiner mentioned he'd floated his own solid oak floor and it had split at the joins by a window which had upset him mightily - hence nailing and gluing in mine.

Engineered can look great and is basically real wood glued to a more stable substrate - which might deal with your underlay issue?
I used this company http://www.vanillawoodfloors.co.uk/category/54-engineered-wood.aspx

For any ground floor work, I would do all I could to get a decent amount of insulation underneath it. It makes such a difference.

Me too, in the rooms where the wind used to whistle under the joists it makes a hell of a difference!

 

[Zebra]

No underlay but the floor had already been excavated and insulated with 100mm of Ecotherm, the next screed had wet underfloor heating in it then a self leveling screed on top of that.

Ah yes, this is just what I hope to do, dig the floor out, put new concrete floor with some insulation in, screed with wet underfloor heating (I hope!).

hence nailing and gluing in mine.

Above you said you just glued it as there was nothing to nail to. You can't mean you nailed and glued on a screed?

 

[AMc]

Suspended floors were nailed.
Solid floors were glued.

 

[Zebra]

Ah, got it.