Site conditions

Site conditions are extremely important and can make all the difference to a timber floor. The overall fabric (walls, floors, timber etc) of the building should be thoroughly dried out so that there are no visible signs of moisture or condensation. All wet work(concrete, plastering etc) must be completed and thoroughly dry before you even think of having the flooring delivered. It is crucial that any newly built or extended environment is dehumidified by either  running the heating system for a prolonged period with good ventilation or alternatively a dehumidifier can be used.

The effects of heating and climate on stability

• As mentioned before the timber needs to acclimatise
• Expansion gaps are left around the perimeter of the floor
• Seasonal variations and levels of heating may cause the timber to expand and contract. Small gaps may appear during winter when the heating is turned up, but these should close up again during the summer months. Timber kiln dried to 7-10% moisture content will react adversely to humidity levels below 35% and above 65% so for these extreme environments advice should be sought as to how suitable various products are.
• Areas exposed to excessive variation in heat and humidity are not suitable for a solid timber floor, in this environment an engineered floor is more suitable.

Finishing

Unfinished boards generally need a light sanding with a finishing orbital sander and 120-150 grit paper. Vacuum to remove all dust and then using a finish of your choice seal the floor. Such as:

Osmo hard wax oil: very similar to treatex but with a slower rate of drying. Very easy to re-oil and to spot repair.

Bona Traffic: A 2pack waterborne 100% polyurethane floor lacquer, ideal for commercial and domestic areas subject to extremely high levels of use or where a very matt finish is required. Coverage = approximately 45-50m2 per 4.5ltr + .5ltr pack. Apply with a BonaKemi roller or other suitable applicator which must be dry when used.

Bona Mega: Single pack waterborne 100% polyurethane oxygen cross linking wood floor lacquer, ideal for commercial and domestic areas subject to heavy wear. Coverage approximately 45-50m2 per 5ltr can.

Maintenance

Always have a dust-attracting mat at entrance sites; this will prevent any sharp stones or dirt scratching the floor.

In a domestic situation a California mop will keep floors clean and dust free. Always vacuum, sweep or dry mop the floor before you clean with a maintenance product. Use felt pads on the feet of furniture to protect the floor from excessive scratching. We do have a comprehensive list of maintenance products in stock and we will give you all the advice, help and products you will need to keep your floors looking good.

In a commercial location a full maintenance schedule is available in many situations the manufacturer of the product sealing the timber will talk to and train the cleaning staff. Felt pads or other forms of protection need to be used on the feet or base of furniture to protect from excessive scratching of the floor. Heavy scratching will break seal of the lacquer causing damage to the timber by the ingress of dirt and moisture from cleaning.

If you maintain your floor, the original seal should remain intact and so should alleviate the need for re-sanding and sealing. This can be achieved through using polishes on lacquered floors and regular oiling/cleaning of oiled floors.

Installation guide

Fitting instructions

Nail down method – onto existing floor boards, plywood, chipboard, floor joists or batons

Suitable products:

All Engineered and solid wood floors.

Fitting instructions: Nail down method

Once the room has been measured and an allowance made to cover wastage, the moisture content of the sub floor and walls checked and the sub floors confirmed as clean, dry and flat: -

• We recommend that you should lay heavy duty bitumen backed builders paper under all nail down installations as a precaution against cupping due to damp ingress
• Plan floors usually work best when laid down the longest wall length
• Make sure that you inspect each board before you install it
• The groove of the floor is laid against the wall
• A gap must be left between the boards and the perimeter wall / skirting
• This gap is called an expansion gap and must be a minimum of 10mm
• Plastic spacers are available to create this gap on your starter row
• Now lay your first row against the wall
• Use a Powernail nailer with 38mm L nails for floorboards, board products and 50mm for joists
• The Powernail nailer needs to be properly set up to fire the nail into the correct position and depth into tongue
• It is also important that the floorboard is not too tightly fixed to the subfloor again this is part of the Powernail nailer setup
• Nail every 250mm along the board for floorboards/board products or into every joist/baton
• The support from the grooves on the ends of each board means that they do not have to end on a floor joist/baton
• Use the off cut from the last board to start the next row, making sure that the ends of the next row of boards are staggered at least 400mm from the previous row. A parquet clamp is useful for fitting these first few rows
• Any damaged boards can be cut in half and also used to start new rows
• Continue across the floor until you reach the last row
• Cut the last row of boards to leave a 10mm gap and then use a parquet clamp to edge the final row of boards into place
• You can install skirting, scotia and L/T section or Reducer as required
• Your floor should now be properly protected until it is ready for handover

For solid boards over 160mm wide we recommend that you follow the instructions above with additional use of wooden adhesive if over concrete, flooring grade chipboard/ply needs to be installed.

nail down method

Fitting instructions: Glue down method

Onto plywood or chipboard (with no under-floor heating) or onto concrete (with no under-floor heating)

Suitable products:

All solid wood and engineered wood floors.

Wood blocks and hand made panels

For installation over concrete – please follow the additional preparation instructions as detailed below:

For all installations a minimum of one coat of primer should be used

For sub-floors with a RH greater than 2% (and less than 5%) you will need to use two coats of primer

For sub-floors with an RH greater than 5% please call for our specific recommendations

Fitting instructions

Once the room has been measured an allowance made to cover wastage, the moisture content of the sub-floor and walls checked and the sub-floors confirmed as clean, dry and flat:

• Your sub-floor should now be clean, dry and level
• Plank floors usually work best when laid down the longest wall length
• For wood blocks/panels you will need to work out where the central axis of the room runs. laying strings from corner to corner will assist this.
• We advise that you glue several rows of planks at a time
• Pre-cut these rows, making sure that the board lengths are staggered to ensure that the ends of different boards do not match up
• Use the off cut from the last board to start the next row, making sure that the ends of the next row of boards are staggered at least 400mm from the previous row. A parquet clamp is useful for fitting these first few rows
• Any damaged boards can be cut in half and also used to start new rows
• A gap must be left between the boards and the perimeter wall/skirting
• This gap is called an expansion gap and must be a minimum of 10mm.
• Plastic spacers are available to create this gap on your starter row
• Make sure that this gap remains even at doorways
• Once the first few rows of boards are ready it is time to spread the wooden adhesive
• The wooden adhesive needs to be spread using a fine notched trowel-3mm
• Work across the floor using this method of pre-cutting, gluing and then installing
• Once the floor is complete clean off any adhesive residues before fully hardened
• You can install skirting, scotia and L/T sections or Reducers as required
• Your floor should now be properly protected until it is ready for handover
• For solid boards over 160m wide we recommend that you follow the instructions above with additional nail fixings at 200mm centres. If over concrete flooring grade chipboard needs to be installed

glue down method

Fitting instructions : Floating method

Onto plywood, chipboard or concrete – with no under-floor heating

Suitable products:

All engineered and solid wood floors

Never float a solid wood floor

Fitting instructions

Once the room has been measured and an allowance made to cover wastage, the moisture content of the sub-floor and walls checked and the sub floors confirmed as clean, dry and flat:-

• Your sub-floor should now be clean dry and level
• If the RH of the sub –floor is higher than 2% you must use a underlay with a built in moisture barrier (polyprotect used with adhesive tape or universal with an integrated moisture barrier and sound reduction
• Plank floors usually work best when laid down the longest wall length
• You will need to glue tongue and grooved based products along the top of the tongue on both the sides and ends with d3 adhesive
• Click system floors do not require any glue
• Make sure that you inspect each board before you install it
• The groove of the floor is laid against the wall
• A gap must be left between the boards and the perimeter wall/skirting
• This gap is called an expansion gap and must be a minimum of 10mm
• Plastic spacers are available to create this gap on your starter row
• Now lay your first row against the wall and continue down the floor
• Use the off cut from the last board to start the next row making sure that the ends of the next row of boards are staggered at least 400mm from the previous row a parquet clamp is useful for fitting these first few rows
• Any damaged boards can be cut in half and also used to start new rows
• Continue across the floor until you reach the last row
• Cut the row of boards to leave a 10mm gap and then use a pulling iron to edge the final row of boards into place
• You can install Skirting, Scotia and L/T sections and Reducers as required
• Your floor should now be properly protected until it is ready for handover

floating method

Popularity: 9% [?]

Bona has been awarded a licence to label eight of its waterborne finishes with the EMICODE EC1 trademark which classifies them as ‘very low emission’ products. Bona’s lacquers are the first in the industry to receive the EMICODE EC1 licence from GEV, the German based association for the control of emissions in products for flooring installation, adhesives and building materials. Several of the company’s adhesives received the classification in 1997.

Bona introduced waterborne finishes in 1979 pioneering the move away from solvent based products. Today Bona’s waterborne finishes contain 100g/1 or less non-hazardous solvents. All Bona formulations are designed to avoid unnecessary emissions and to contribute to a healthier environment for contractors and floor owners.

“We’ve been working continuously over several decades to improve the ‘green’ aspects of our products,” said Nils Erik Persson, senior vice president R&D at Bona. “this has always been the key focus of Bona’s research and development. The air quality in rooms where the floor is finished with our products is very important to us. With the EMICODE EC1 trademark on our finishes we can clearly demonstrate the health advantages for both the home or building owner as well as for the contractors installing the product. All Bona EC1 certified products contain below 8% solvents.”

GEV was established to safeguard and promote the general economic and idealistic interests of producers of chemical flooring installation products and building materials in the field of occupational, environmental and consumer protection. It carries out measures to control, classify and label such products in respect of their emission behaviour. The EMICODE classification was initially developed to classify adhesives but has developed to classify adhesives but has developed over the years to classify the emission properties of a range of building products. Today the trademark can be applied to adhesives, primers, levelling compounds, tile and joint mortars, flat underlays, sealants and – since July 2009 – wood floor finishes.

Thomas Brokamp, VP and director of Bona’s fastenings division has more than 10 years of experience with adhesive emission measurements. He was chairman of the working group that led to the inclusion of finishes in the EMICODE system. He said: “After a year of meetings and discussions, the EMICODE for parquet finishes was established. This will be a trigger for further development of the total industry, as the defined requirements are demanding (less than 10% solvents in the finish, for EC1 emission after 28 days). And further demands are in the pipeline – as from July 2011 the total allowed solvent content will be just 8%. All Bona products which are licensed to use the EMICODE EC1 trademark already fulfil the 2011 requirements.”

The Bona products which are EMICODE EC1 or ECIR licensed as very low emission formulations are set out in the table below. The ‘R’ classification applies to products that are very low in emissions but require safety provisions during their application, in other words products which are labelled as hazardous substances or on which special conditions for safe use are imposed

Real Oak Floors is proud to be an official retailer of Bona products

Popularity: 8% [?]

We are proud to announce our new and exclusive sole distributorship for the Vannesaice parquet tiles.

Vannesaice tiles are all engineered parquet floors.  They are made using the finest marquetry technology and hand crafted to give the finest appearance ever seen on a parquet floor.  The beauty of these tiles is that they come ready made on panels – either prefinished in a satin lacquer or sanded and unfinished ready to oil or lacquer once installed.

Vannesaice tiles are made using the finest marquetry technology and hand crafted to give the finest appearance ever seen on a parquet floor

The panels fit together perfectly and come with 4 sides grooved.  This ensures that you can fit the tiles any direction and the loose tongues for the boards are supplied with the flooring.

The construction of the panel is made up of the hardwood top layer (5mm) and a softwood core construction base of 10mm (Hardwood base is available on request – usually Kwila hardwood used).  Each panel is 15mm thick x 400mm x 400mm so they can be laid with any other pattern.  There are matching borders and corner squares – the blending borders are 15mm thick x 150mm x 1.2m long and the corner squares are 15mm thick x 150mm x 150mm – both the borders are made of the same construction of a 5mm wear layer and 10mm base.

The style of patterns is not exhaustive – bespoke styles can be made on request and the wood species can also be specified if required.

All the parquet tiles, borders and corner blocks come with our 20 year construction guarantee.

Use with underfloor heating is permitted when using the panels with a hardwood base only.

As we are the sole distributor in the UK for this product we are looking for agents around the UK who can retail the parquet tiles in partnership with us.

Fitting Instructions:

1. Sub floor must be flat, clean and dry – concrete must be dried to the correct moisture levels before fitting and a layer of PE damp proof membrane needs to be laid over the concrete floor
2. Install plywood over the floor throughout to get an even base – we recommend between 12 – 18mm thick.  This should be fixed down and a 10mm expansion gap needs to be left around the edges.
3. The flooring tiles should be nailed or screwed down to the ply wood using either a secret nailer or screw through the grooves, a 10mm expansion gap also needs to be left around the perimeter for expansion.

The product is manufactured with natural wood.  It is perfectly normal to have a slight variation of tone and different characteristics of grain.

Maintenance:

Always use felt pads on chairs / tables and castor cups over wheels of chairs etc.  Never wet mop during cleaning – wipe using a well drained  cloth or mop in conjunction with the Woca lacquer care soap.

If you have any enquiries about the Vannesaice range, or any other types of flooring please visit our website or contact one of our friendly sales staff on 0844 848 6840

Popularity: 7% [?]