It is quite logical to lay a wooden floor in a wooden house, however, in an ordinary brick house or apartment, it will look great and can play an important role in creating a suitable microclimate. There is no difficulty in doing the laying of a wooden floor with your own hands. This is a fairly simple process and it is quite possible to perform it even on your own. The main thing is to take into account the important points and prepare a little in the theoretical part before starting work.
This article will consider two options for building a wooden floor:
- Floor with the formation of a draft layer and insulation, located on a soil base or floor beams.
- Wooden floor on a concrete base with insulation.
The first option is most common for the formation of floors in private homes. At the same time, it is also suitable for placing on a ground basis on the first floor or basement, and for forming floors on the second and higher floors as a ceiling on beams.
In the case when the basis for a wooden floor is a concrete screed or reinforced concrete floor slabs, its design is significantly modified and can be modified in order to reduce the cost and facilitate installation.
Below we will consider in more detail the implementation of each of the options. Before that, it is worth voicing the same points for any wooden floor.
General rules for building a wooden floor
It is best to carry out all work at the end of the heating season. This is due to the humidity of the air and wood. During this period, the floorboards are least likely to absorb too much moisture. If you still need to lay a wooden floor in the summer, then it is better to wait until the weather has been sunny and dry for at least a week or a week and a half.
Important: All lumber that is used in the construction of floors in the same way as any wood involved in construction, and flame retardants.
Materials for arranging wooden floors
As materials for a wooden floor, options such as:
- uncut board;
- sheet material (chipboard, OSB, plywood);
- glued beam board;
- folded board.
Of the first two options, the so-called rough wooden floor is laid. It involves further laying the flooring. The last two options are used to form a finishing layer, which is subsequently painted or varnished and left as the base of the floor in the room. It is advisable to select a board that is one-piece for the entire width of the room. The board is most often meant from pine, larch, cedar, less often from hardwood.
The wooden floor looks great not only in the country or in a country house, but also in a city apartment.
Preparing a base on beams or an unprepared base
If the laying of the wooden floor will be carried out on a soil base, then it is necessary to ensure the reliability of the fastening of the log. In addition, waterproofing and thermal insulation of the space under the floor should be provided. To do this, you need to prepare the basis. Along the entire perimeter of the room, a layer of soil is removed so thick that it goes 20-25 cm lower than the ground level around the house. Next, an embankment is made of rubble and river sand on top of it. All layers are alternately wetted with plenty of water and compacted.
On the prepared sand base, it is necessary to build a series of brick columns on which the logs will rest. The width of the columns is taken, as a rule, in two bricks. The height of the pillars is in the range of 20-40 cm. When erecting the pillars, the bricks are placed on the mortar and brought out along the upper edge in one level. To check the level and its compliance, you can use a laser level or pull a grid of rope or fishing line mounted on the walls. When distributing the columns, it is taken into account that at least two columns at the edges are required for each lag. If necessary, if the lag is long, poles are added in the middle. The distance between the support columns for each of them should be calculated based on the dimensions of the board that is used as a log and the calculated load that they must withstand. Any design organization or a certified builder-designer can help in the calculations. You can also independently calculate using the data of GOSTs and SNiP. Speaking roughly, for a living space it is enough to use 100x50 mm boards as a lag, distributed at intervals of 600 mm. In this case, the posts are attached at the edges, and with a lag length of more than 3 meters, an intermediate one is added in the middle.
Important: If the floor is laid on beams between floors, preparatory work is not required and immediately proceed to the location of the lag.
A waterproofing layer in the form of sheets of roofing material is laid on top of the posts or beams. Next, logs are laid on wooden bowls 2-3 cm wide. The joists are attached to the posts with anchors. With the help of wooden bowls that are placed under the logs, it is necessary to bring the upper edge of the log into a single plane.
Initially, two logs are laid on opposite edges of the room. And on two extreme supports each. They are brought to the level, checking the correct installation using a laser, bubble or water level. Alternatively, it is best to draw a level line along the perimeter of the room on the walls in advance with a laser or water level at a distance of 1 meter above the level of the intended floor and already align the position of the control logs with respect to this line. The bubble level is still less reliable and in such work often gives an inaccurate result due to low accuracy.
A fishing line is stretched between the extreme lags set to the level and all other lags are laid in relation to it.
Along the lower edge of the log, it is necessary to fill the bars 50x50 mm to form a rough flooring. In the case of a soil base and the location of the log on the posts, the bars are nailed across the log at a distance of 40-60 cm from each other along the entire length of the room. In the case of laying on beams, the bars are nailed to the sidewall of the log along the bottom edge on both sides. The bars should be fixed either with nails or self-tapping screws with a length of at least 100 mm.
As a heater for wooden floors, a material with high vapor permeability is required, that is, one that can pass air and moisture. Options such as mineral wool or basalt slabs are suitable. In the case of the location of the log every 600 mm, there will be no problems with laying the heat insulator at all. The standard size of mineral wool rolls is either 600 or 1200 mm. In no case is the insulation material trimmed to the size of the gap between the lags up to a millimeter. The strips are tightly inserted into the gaps so as not to leave gaps anywhere. The height of the heat insulator is selected so that between it and the edge of the log there is a small gap of 2-2.5 cm for ventilation. The heat insulator, among other things, performs the task of a sound insulator.
Above the log, before laying the wooden floor, a vapor-waterproofing membrane is spread. Film strips are laid with a mandatory overlap of 20 cm. The joints are glued with adhesive tape. In various versions, the vapor barrier layer is strengthened with slats nailed along the log, or simply fixed with brackets on the logs. The choice of mounting method depends on the material of the floor covering. Under a specially made board for flooring, which has a ventilation chute, you can not fill the slats.
Video: do-it-yourself rough wooden floor
Preparing the base on a concrete base
The wooden floor can be easily mounted both on a concrete base and on top of reinforced concrete floor slabs. In this case, the device of a wooden floor is much simpler and easier to implement. It is no longer necessary to prepare the base and it is possible to strengthen the logs as often as possible, which reduces the load on the bend. Thus, it turns out that it makes no sense to use logs of a large cross section. As a material, you can choose a bar with a size of 50x50. As will be seen later, the process of setting the lag by level is also greatly facilitated.
To fix the log, building studs with a diameter of 8-10 mm are used. With the help of a nut, the lower part of the stud is limited, which is fixed in the concrete base of the floor. Also, the level of the lower end of the log is limited by a nut and a wide washer.
The studs are reinforced along the lag installation line every 50-60 cm. Holes for the studs are drilled in the bars. At the same time, on the upper edge of the bar, the holes are also expanded enough to hide the fixing nut with a washer.
Two logs are installed on opposite sides of the room and are brought out in level on studs along the edges. Further, along the fishing line stretched between them, the installation of all other logs is adjusted. After fixing all the lags, the excess protruding studs are cut off with an angle grinder (grinder). Next, you can proceed to sheathing with a floorboard or the required sheet material.
If the wooden floor is laid as an intermediate leveling option before the finish coat, then it is reasonable to use as a "buffer"
Board laying
On the prepared logs, you can start laying the board. The first board is fixed near the window opposite the entrance to the room. You should leave a gap between the wall and the array of boards of 10-15 mm.
Boards can be fastened with self-tapping screws, their length should be chosen equal to at least two and a half board thickness, or with nails 4-5 times longer than the board width.
Nails are driven in at an angle and on each log or at an angle into the groove at the end of the board, if such fastening of the boards is provided.
Next, two or three more rows of boards are laid. Stepping back a little from them, an ordinary metal bracket or Smolyakov's bracket is driven into the logs. Wooden wedges are driven between the bracket and the stacked boards, thereby tightly docking them to each other. After that, the boards are fixed with nails. Thus, they continue to lay the wooden floor to the very end.
If the length of one board is less than the width of the floor, then they are cut so that the ends of the boards in one row are located in the middle of the log. In adjacent rows, the boards are stacked in a checkerboard pattern.
Important: Neighboring boards are selected so that the annual rings are directed in different directions.
The last board is also fixed at a distance of 10-15 mm from the wall. At the end of the laying around the perimeter of the plinth, they are fixed, which close the gaps. On one side, the plinth is fixed with an indent of 10-15 mm to provide increased ventilation of the underground space. After a month or two, you can replace it with a regular one. In two corners of the room, small rectangular holes are made diagonally the width of the board. They must be closed with a grate and protected with low rails nailed around the perimeter to avoid moisture getting under the floor covering during wet cleaning.
In order to lay sheet materials, it is necessary to additionally strengthen the jumpers between the logs from the 50x50 timber for reliable fastening around the entire perimeter. Otherwise, there are no differences in mounting the floor.
The final step will be scraping and grinding the entire surface of the floor and opening it with varnish or paint. After the coating has dried, you can use new, self-assembled wooden floors.