Oak Flooring

We are thinking of a solid wood floor covering for the open plan hallway and new dining room area. European oak will match the interior window cills and should be hardy enough to cope with family comings and goings. However, detailed research reveals some potential pitfalls.

The first is that not all of the current floor is of the same construction. The dining area has a suspended wooden floor while the hall is concrete. According to the "experts" this can lead to problems because of differential expansion and contraction rates. It also makes for tricky fixing as part of it would be screwed or nailed down, while the rest would have to be glued.

Another issue is that we want the floor to run in the same direction as the existing floor. Again, according to the "experts", this is not a good idea because any thermal expansion in either floor will be transferred to the other. If they cross at 90 degrees, this effect is eliminated. Apparently it can also be eliminated by sheeting the floor in hardboard first. This seems an unlikely material to anchor a floor together, but, apparently, if you nail it to the underlying floor in enough places it holds everything together and prevents major movement.

A partial solution is to use an "engineered" floorboard. This uses thin ply baselayer onto which the oak top is bonded. The ply gives stability and is less susceptible to movement. However our preference is to use straightfoward oak floorboards.

One final problem is that when laying you are supposed to leave a 10mm gap around the edge of the room to alllow for expansion. Normally this would be hidden by the skirting boards, but as we have already fitted the skirtings that won't be possible....... unless we take them all off again. This is not a popular solution. When we did the cork floor in the en-suite bathroom we did leave the gap, and so far it is still there. This expansion would seem to be a myth.

Today I spoke to two oak suppliers and one company that supply and fit. I was given a wealth of information to digest. As a result I have done nothing more on this.