Solid Hardwood, Engineered and Laminate Flooring - Various flooring questions

Hi, I am a novice do-it-yourselfer, yet proficient woodworker who needs to install hardwood flooring. The current floor is carpet over concrete. We live in the southwest where humidity is very little. My plan is as follows:

put down a vapor barrier and then 3/4" ply. Nail the wood flooring directly on this 3/4" ply. The bothroom is also carpeted and we want tile flooring, but would like it flush with the new wood flooring. We plan on putting down self leveling cement to get it to the right height before installing the tiles.

Questions:

1) Is the sub flooring adequate or too much?

2) Is it better to put down the cement BEFORE the wood flooring or after (considering it is wet, etc.)

3) Has anyone every scraped a floor as opposed to sand? How did it turn out?

4) Has anyone ever used Tung Oil as a finish on the floor? Is it strong enough (especially with a young family of 6?)

Thanks.

Are you planning on fastening down the plywood subfloor?

If so with what? How does a moisture barrier work with holes all in it? :wall:


You need an engineered cross-ply floor, glued or floated over the concrete, or it is going to bite you hard with your plan of attack, you have concocted.

Hmmm, never thought of that. The place where I read said to use a concrete nailer.

What if I put another layer of felt over the plywood? Yes, I know there are still nails holding down the strips of wood, but wouldn't that help? Most people around here just float their floors over small 2x2 beams (I forget the technical term) WITHOUT any felt vapor protection between the concrete and the wood floor. And their floors last years and years with no problem.

A sleeper system has lasted the test of time. Every concrete foundation is different. So maybe your next door neighbor's floor is OK, but that doesn't mean yours will be too.

If you wish to use a moisture barrier..

Asphalt mastic, to lay your moisture barrier into. Rip cut the plywood sheets into 2 x 8 or 16" x 8, stagger the, now planks of subfloor, in the opposite direction you want the finished flooring to be running.

Now the choice...

You can float the subfloor and use no fasteners to anchor it. Then fasten your flooring to it, making positive your fasteners do not penetrate the subfloor and poke holes all in your moisture barrier.

If you decide to fasten the subfloor planks down, the asphalt mastic, aids as a sealer around the fastener.

Sleepers layed into asphalt mastic, and then saturated with asphalt mastic, lets air flow under the flooring, which is a big plus.

MK-there have been many, many thousands of floors laid with the process you described. It is wrtitten in the NOFMA manual and I have personally done many successfully including shopping malls(the largest wood floor west of the Mississippi), homes and other commercial sites.
There are a number of different systems now that I am not familiar with. but I expect they will be successful in your case. The key is to do a proper moisture test on the slab and make sure your slab is above grade and not at the bottom of a gully where water might collect underneath.
The system I was taught and have always followed is a layer of cold bond cut-back adhesive followed by a layer of felt, another layer of cold bond and then plywood nailed with simple concrete nails. There is enough cold bond which stays gooey for quite some time to seal the nail holes(in theory). It could be true that this sytem will not prevent a high water table from pushing through, but I wouldn't lay on that surface anyway. Good luck.