Laying an "Engineered Wood " Floor

Biff2

Thinking of buying some of this stuff for my conservatory. Have laid cheap laminate flooring in the past and found it quite easy, but this stuff seems a lot thicker, and better quality.

Is it easy to cut and lay, and can I use the old underlay ( green felt type boards about 1/3 inch thick)? Any advice gratefully received.

matty_hunt

Hi. I have brought engineered wood and the green underlay you have mentioned. Whilst I have yet to lay it my friend has done the same and has managed to lay it with not problems, or experience. He used a simple hand operated mitre saw with the small teeth to get a clean cut. As I say, I have yet to lay mine but arnt all the cuts going to be around the walls and so covered by the skirting anyway? One thing to consider is where the floor butts up to other floors in another room as, as you mention, the boards are thick plus the underlay, could cause a problem?

Biff2

Thanks Matty, what I was really trying to say is was it difficult to cut ( I know about the ends and using off cut on next row). If your mate just used a normal fine saw then that should be OK.
Thanks for the advice on it being higher than laminate, I will check its not too high, ie over the threshold to the dining room. Just saw a good price in b&Q advert on Saturdays paper and thought it seemed a good deal. Will pop down with my tape measure tomorrow. Cheers.

vertical_fool

Hi.

I've laid engineered wood in my flat in the lounge, hallway and bedroom. It does take more effort to lay than laminate. To actually cut the boards is more difficult than laminate although if your using a jigsaw this makes little difference. I ended up cutting most of mine with a saw as it was much more accurate than my cheap jigsaw with crappy blades ( I couldn't find any decent ones that fit).

When cutting accross the short edge it was easy enough however when coming to the end of the wall it takes a lot more time and effort especially if this is at a doorway, they are a right !!!!!!. My last row of my living room was only about 50mm so it was very difficult even though I thought it would have been ok after calculating before hand it would be bigger. My living room has odd dimensions so there is 16 edges of the room.

My second room was my hallway, around 4m by 1m, but six doorways! For such a small area this took me days doing a bit at a time. Leaving an expansion gap of 10 mm is also a right pain as this is difficut to cover at the doorways with the normal door strips. With hindsight I would have done a smaller expansion gap but this would have invalidated the guarantee ( For what little thats worth).

MY last room was my bedroom which was almost square, only six sides, this was the easiest room by far. If I'd worked fast on this I could of had it done in possibly half a day.

Other points to note are that because the wood is 14mm in depth plus the thickness of the underlay, I think the green boards are 8mm, the height is significant and will mean planing the bottoms of your doors ( It may be then difficult to go back to carpet).

Removing your skirting gives the best look by far but this means more work, in my case the walls needed plastering, this also meant repainting.

My floors were also in a flat and asphalt type stuff so needed self levelling compound (125kg) and I still didn't get my living room flat.

When clicking the rows together they don't really "click" they seem to need a bit of gentle prising ( I pushed them in as best I could, knocked them in with a hammer and then walked up and down the row jumping where necessary)

On the last row you need to cut the locking mechanism off the flooring to slide it under doorways.

With hindsight it was a right !!!!!! and I would have at least carpeted two of the rooms maybe the lot.

I was originally going to laminate the living room but there saw some sale price engineered wood in B&Q and got carried away with grabbing a bargain that looked better than laminate.

A great forum to look at is diynot.com, I think the right forum is flooring, there is a professional wooden flooring layer/supplier called woodulike who is a fantastic help although she ( I think its a she) is certainly no fan of B&Q flooring.

Anyway good luck. It does look good, much better than Tacky laminate;)

Vertical

Biff2

Cheers for that!

I've just had my conservatory ( extension if you like) plastered. Prior to this it was bare brick walls, and I thought plastering would brighten it up - which it has. My plasterering mate is coming back to put skirting/radiator etc. on after I've laid the floor, so no problem there- I don't have to used that quadrant beading stuff which don't look too good IMO.

I too liked the thicker "engineered" wood at b&Q so thats what I've gone for, and yes the end row cutting was what I am afraid of!
The extra height should not be a problem as there is only one internal and one external doorway that both have high thresholds? (is that what they are called) so I think it will be fine.Think I'll just invest in a new saw and take my time, thanks again.

MRSTITTLEMOUSE

We had this put in the living room, hall and dining room.We already had green underlay under the laminate that was already down.We didnt lay it ourselves but the man used a mitre saw and the green underlay was a no no.We were told it was not good under the wood and also it is too thick.They put the foam liner under ours.The wood is a lot warmer than the laminate by the way.