Engineered Flooring Installation Guide

Subfloor

Slab subfloors are to be made flat through grinding and levelling to the flatness tolerance required for the flooring system and products used. If not specified in manufacturer instructions, slab flatness is not to exceed 3mm beneath a 3m straight edge for adhesive floors. For floated floors, manufacturer’s instructions should again be followed and if not provided, the flatness is not to exceed 3mm under a 1.0 m straight edge for engineered flooring and 2mm under a 1.0 m straight edge for laminate flooring. The levelness of the floor in new buildings provided to a flooring contractor is not to exceed 4mm in 2m.

Concrete moisture assessment

A ‘dry’ slab is signified by impedance moisture meter readings of up to 2.0% and in-slab relative humidity (RH) up to 75%. Where floors have been covered by previous floor coverings acceptable values are up to 3.5% and 80% in-slab RH. Higher readings require investigation as to possible moisture sources and may require more than the slab moisture protection outlined in this specification.

Floating

A floating installation is easy and quick with the right preparation. A floating floor is not solidly connected to the sub-floor, and if planks are damaged, they can be replaced relatively easily.

All floating floors need to be installed on top of an underlay as per the installation guildlines. Underlay provides important acoustic insulation to the parquet floor.

Direct Stick

Oak planks are glued directly to a prepared sub-floor using a quality, flexible timber adhesive.

A direct stick floor is permanently fixed to the sub-floor and produces less noise than floating floor and has the feel and sound of solid timber floor.

With any timber floor,(floating or direct stick), sub-floor preparation may be required on uneven slabs. It is important that a direct stick floor not be walked on until the adhesive has properly set, as this will result in the floor not properly bonding to the sub-floor.

A direct stick floor must be installed by an experienced, licenced timber installer with quality adhesive to ensure a successful installation to ensure your new floor warranty.

Suitable for underfloor heating and large areas.

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