Parquet floors are sensitive to humidity and elevated room temperature. If the air is too dry, the parquet will dry out and gaps will appear between the elements. Excessive moisture will cause the boards to swell and rise above the floor. The optimal conditions for maintaining stable humidity of the parquet board (8-12%) are a temperature of 23-24 degrees and an air humidity of 40-60%.
Preparation of wooden floors
When installation is done on wooden floors, it is necessary to level them, eliminate possible creaks and mobility.
The preparation process is divided into several operations:
- fixing movable boards;
- grinding;
- putty treatment to eliminate cracks, crevices.
Concrete foundation preparation
When a concrete base is prepared for the parquet, it is checked for any irregularities. If the dents and bumps are small (less than 2 cm), use self-leveling mixtures. When irregularities are significant, apply a concrete screed. Before laying the screed, the concrete floor is waterproofed with plastic wrap. At the walls, its edges lead up, later they will be covered with a plinth. Cement screed must be well dried from 4 to 6 weeks.
Technology
Parquet laying starts from the longest wall without a doorway. The first board is applied to the wall from the corner. A small gap between the wall and the board is fixed with wedges 5-7 mm wide. The boards of the first row continue to be laid along the wall, reaching the end of the row, measure the necessary part from the whole board to cut and fill the space. In the next row, the remaining trim is put first, wedges for gaps are installed at the ends. Similarly, laying boards in rows, they consistently fill the entire floor with them. The last operation is the removal of wedges and the installation of baseboards.
Styling methods
There are several ways to mount boards:
- floating way;
- glue to the base;
- fastening on rough wooden floors with nails;
- laying on logs.
Floating way
With this method of laying the boards are connected to each other by a spike / groove connection, without attaching to the base. Boards can be additionally glued with glue or only with a lock. The connection does not weaken with time, the boards have the ability to expand and contract under the influence of fluctuations in moisture and temperature. Glueless joint allows you to do the job quickly and easily. Profiles on parquet boards are cut out after they are varnished, this makes the floor panel absolutely flat and smooth. Spoiled boards are easily removed and replaced whole.
Bonding to the base
If the room is large or the base needs additional rigidity, use the adhesive method. The subfloor is a plywood board. A large sheet of it is sawn into squares to relieve internal stress. The thickness of the sheet should be at least 2/3 of the thickness of the parquet.
To fix the plywood sheets, the screed is primed and coated with glue. Plywood is laid so that its four corners do not converge at one point. Between sheets of plywood leave gaps of 2-3 mm, between the sheet and the wall - 10 mm. The latter at the end of installation must be sealed with sealant. In plywood squares, holes are pre-drilled for fastening to a cement base with self-tapping screws, their heads are slightly recessed into the plywood sheet. To ensure the foundation is reliable, between the installation of plywood and parquet boards take a break of 2-3 days. The board also gives the opportunity to acclimatize in the room.
Before starting the installation of parquet, plywood is leveled, eliminating differences by grinding. Dusting the surface, glue is applied to it with a special spatula. Stacking the board, for better fit perform shooting with a pneumatic tool. When the parquet is laid in the whole room, another technological break is required, after which the surface is ground and treated with a special putty.
Fixing with nails
This installation method is called dry. Pressing the laid bar tightly, nail it with nails 4 cm long. Each bar is fixed with three nails: two to the side edge of the bottom of the bar, one to the end of the groove.
Laying parquet on the logs
This method allows you to save time on the device screed. Under such a foundation, you can lay any communications. Additional heat and sound insulation is achieved by laying a layer of insulation between the lags.
Logs - wooden blocks of rectangular cross section 50 x 70-100 mm. Humidity of the bars impregnated with an antiseptic does not exceed 12%. Place the bars so that they are perpendicular to the parquet board. The lags are covered with a plywood layer fixed by screws, then the second plywood layer is fixed with glue and screws.
Floor mounting
Laying parquet on the warm floor has long worked in the Scandinavian countries. To fix the board, this technology involves the use of special brackets that do not pierce the base and do not damage the heating system. Brackets leave the boards expandable. The use of only brackets and substrates eliminates the evaporation of harmful substances from the floor surface under the influence of high temperature.