Solid Wood Flooring

Anyone have it?
Anyone fitted it themselves?

What advice can you give someone who is thinking of getting it?

I've got roughly 20 square meters to cover including a WC with Basin, its going on the new house (new build) so its a virgin floor construction made up of a solid concrete slab.

Thoughts, Ideas, Do's and Do Not's etc all welcome.

Feel free to add pics and names of suppliers etc too cheeeeers

[SoulKiss]

Originally Posted by Owenski

Anyone have it?
Anyone fitted it themselves?

What advice can you give someone who is thinking of getting it?

I've got roughly 20 square meters to cover including a WC with Basin, its going on the new house (new build) so its a virgin floor construction made up of a solid concrete slab.

Thoughts, Ideas, Do's and Do Not's etc all welcome.

Feel free to add pics and names of suppliers etc too cheeeeers

Don't put wood floors down where they can get wet was advice given to me.

Seeing the state fo my Bathroom and Kitchen floors (still to get round to doing them up) I can see why.

Wood doesn't like moisture you see..

Vinyl or Slate I would have said for in the bathroom.

[flymo]

I would second that. I have solid oak down in my hallway, it can be very temperature and moisture sensitive.

Mine is nailed to original floorboard underneath.

For a room that might get wet I wouldnt bother, go for tiled floor with underfloor heating.

[flymo]

PS. If you end up fitting any to a wooden floor underneath I have the nailing gun machine thing that I would like to sell.

[andrewsmith]

As above

Fit lino if your short of cash atm
but tiles and slates are required

[maviczap]

I fitted laminate flooring in my shower room & bathroom, but it was rated for wet areas. The shower room stuff has been down for 5 years and no problems, although it doesn't get that wet.

The bathroom stuff was also rated for use in wet areas, and its been down for about 3 years. Its doing ok, but after a few drenchings from a burst fitting and sorting out blocked toilets its not doing so well. But its only a small area and won't take long to replace. Can't have tiles, because its a chipboard floor & flex's too much.

The one thing with laminate or any wooden flooring, is to get the first row in square.

I did both my daughter bedrooms with laminate flooring, its dead easy to do, just follow the instructions.

I've fitted solid oak throughout my hallway.
8 inch wide, 1inch thick screwed and pelleted down to the concrete slab below with no issues on a main thoroughfare getting wet etc.
Timber is indeed hydroscopic so can take in and let back out water so should ideally be in a moisture stable environment.
If it is a laminate you are looking at, you can get laminates for wet areas and they are much better than they used to be.
Make sure the floor slab is smooth, if not a little latex levelling compound can sort out evils.
Use a decent underlay and away you go.
It's not rocket science, even Specialone can fit it...

[Wideboy]

as SP said, screw it down rather than nail, nails allow to much movement. Use brass or plated screws to stop the timber staining but personally never bothered and never had a problem.

i laid beach laminate in my old house, was down for ages but did it properly under the skirting so never noticed it moving. Had plenty of drenches with spilt drinks but i still wouldn't put it in the bathrooms. Every laminate flooring I've seen has always said "for use everywhere except bathrooms and wet rooms" despite being advertised as moisture safe. Its still only MDF/HDF shehight.

Laminate isnt an option its only solid wood/engineered wood Im interested in.
we've got laminate in our current hall and I've no worries about fitting some of that but real wood would be a new thing for me, it might not be a massive step up but it will cost a lot more if I get it wrong.

Anyone put solid wood floor in a downstairs toilet? Had any issues with water damage?