*
In the near future I will have a house built and I will be installing the flooring myself. THe flooring will consist of hardwood planks, tile, and some carpet.
I have installed the plywood type planks(glue down) before but have never installed traditional hardwood floor.
The house will have a concrete slab but I think I will need to install the wood floor on wood strips. What is the proper type of strips to use? And how far should they be spaced?
Also with the extra height of the wood floor compared to say the tile(transition area) how do I handle the baseboard and door casings.
If all the transitions take place in a cased doorway then I suppose I could just cope the casing to match the floors but what if there is no casing and just baseboard? Should the base board be ripped on its bottom edge so the tops will match as it continues around the wall? If it is ripped then I would probably lose about 1 1/2″ of height on the base board on the higher floors such as the hardwood.
How do the proffesionals handle these situations?
Thanks
glenn
Replies
*
Glenn, here's your chance to be creative and make the concrete guys do all the work. Since you know where your wood floors are to be installed you might considered having that floor area formed, poured and finished at a lower level than the rest of the house, sort of like the stepdown transition usually found between the house proper and the garage. And, make sure the concrete is finished level and smooth, which will really help your installation. The depth of this lower level would be determined by the subfloor method you plan to use under your hardwood. A previous post mentioned a layer of roofing tar then 6 mil poly then 3/4 plywood fastened through to the cement. Other people would use a sleeper (wood strips) attached to the cement.(Don't forget the vapor barrier). I personally think a solid subfloor (plywood) over sleepers or fastened as in the first example would make your new floor feel and sound better (no hollow walking sounds) plus, if needed, you aren't limited to a fastener only every 16 inches on center as with the strips. With this idea you won't have to butcher up your baseboard as you mentioned. I like to install baseboard after tile but before carpeting and if the tile setter is good, my installation is a breeze with very little scribing. This leaves the baseboard on the tile but off the precarpeted floor by about 3/8 inch and also on the finished wood floor because that's the way you planned it from the beginning. Comments?? Ralph
*Ralph, right-on. Ditto for the 3/4ply method for subflooring. We use a scratch coat (or backerboard) over the ply, followed by the thin-set to match tile to hardwood floor. Finish the hardwood first or the grout/thinset will make life hell.
*Ralph had a great idea.I just did a bunch of custom woodwork for a luxery home designed by the architect that lived there, and he had these huge floor elevation issues, you know, you go from carpet at one level then step into a tile bathroom that was a good 2" above the bedroom, then up another 2" to a living room.All this clod did was pour a slab, and let the subs figure it out.Floor elevations are a pet peeve for me, and if was my home, I would have known my flooring thicknesses and would have poured the correct height of concrete in each room. I mean why the heck not?