Timber floor - Underlay & direction to lay!

yop

Lads

Can anyone tell me if there would be putting down a double underlay (light white foam) under the semi-solid flooring and would it effect our UFH performance?
Some of the floors are a little rough and this can be fixed with either self levelling cement or 2 layers of underlay.

Another thing, we have 3 strip flooring everywhere, is there a "direction" in laying flooring like this, as in should the 3 strip be runing up and down when you enter the room or from left to right? Or does it even matter.

Also if there was a need to have it running left to right in one room and then up and down in the adjoining hall, would it look daft even with a saddle splitting the rooms

thanks

big_al

Hi Yop,

the foam underlay does affect UFH performance. Suggest you use the waxed corrugated cardboard type underlay. It's designed for floating floors on UFH. Also, you would be better off to use a levelling compound. A good one (that doesn't flake to pieces) is ladex. It's manufactured by laybond and is latex based.

Rgarding direction of your boards, generally thay are laid from front to back. I.e. from the main entrance down the length of the hallway. The rest of the house (on that level) should follow.

Hope this helps,
big_al

squire1

Yop, I would imagine the foam would act as an insulation between the UFH and the timber so probably best to avoid it if possible.

big_al wrote:

Rgarding direction of your boards, generally thay are laid from front to back. I.e. from the main entrance down the length of the hallway. The rest of the house (on that level) should follow.

Ahhh, but what to do if you hallyway is "L" shaped. If I lay longways from the front door then the rest of the hall will have boards going crossways or vice versa:o Pulling my hair out woundering how best to do this. Would like to avoid putting a saddle board where the two parts of the "L" join. Any suggestions?

yop

Big_All.

Thanks for that, so what you would be saying is that the if our hall is 15ft wide from left to right, and 12ft long that we putt the flooring down the lenght of it, so that wehn you enter the room the 3 stripes are running away from you?

big_al

Np Yop - I have never seen boards laid 'across' the main entrance. Even though your hall is bigger in width, IMO it would look so much better to open the door and look down the boards.
Cheers,
big_al

big_al

squire1 wrote:

Ahhh, but what to do if you hallyway is "L" shaped. If I lay longways from the front door then the rest of the hall will have boards going crossways or vice versa:o Pulling my hair out woundering how best to do this. Would like to avoid putting a saddle board where the two parts of the "L" join. Any suggestions?

Run the boards lengthways from the door then simply continue down the L 'crossways'. It will look fine!! (And forget about that saddleboard :-o)

Lex Luthor

yop wrote:

Also if there was a need to have it running left to right in one room and then up and down in the adjoining hall, would it look daft even with a saddle splitting the rooms

thanks

No. I had to do that last year. Ran it down the hall. Room to the lft I ran it the same direction as the hall, but the main living room to the right I ran it opposite direction.
The room to the left, the door is always open so it was better to have it run same way as hall, but the living room door is always closed so it didn't matter.

Even if the door was open, it wouldn't make a difference anyway. I didn't use a saddle board but a small joiner between the 2 floors. It was also too big of a mass to have them all joined together in 1 direction.