what do you know about laying wood floors on a slab?

are the chances that the floor is level? how do you level the floor? anyone use bellawood? would you do bamboo or bellawood?
looking to do a 200 SQ FT area. this project, if i do it, is a total DIY.

oh, i also need to build up the floor b/c my kitchen floor was leveled and raised. so, the thicker the wood, the better actually.

help!

Re: what do you know about laying wood floors on a slab?

I was told it was not possible by several professional unless you do a whole raised floor with underlayment, etc... Adding about 2 inches to your floors.

But then I saw a couple of shows on TV, laying down engineered floors directly on the slab.

I am now.

Re: what do you know about laying wood floors on a slab?

Posted by smdl

I was told it was not possible by several professional unless you do a whole raised floor with underlayment, etc... Adding about 2 inches to your floors.

But then I saw a couple of shows on TV, laying down engineered floors directly on the slab.

I am now.

Re: what do you know about laying wood floors on a slab?

If you use real hardwood, you have to lay 'sleepers' down so that you have something to nail into. We did this because we ran radiant inbetween the sleepers.
Sleepers are just pieces of wood, 2x2x8 maybe, that you run in the opposite direction of the hardwood. You fill in the gaps with cement to make the subfloor even. You nail the hardwood to sleepers. You have to drill the cement slab, then nail in the sleepers.


Otherwise you need a floating floor where there are no nails needed


internet example of a sleeper




As for level. Lay a large level across the floor. If unlevel, buy a self leveling agent (ask JLDoplhin, she did this) for her floating floor.

ETA: Engineered Wood can be glued down on a level cement subfloor

Message edited 3/10/2010 8:45:12 AM.

Re: what do you know about laying wood floors on a slab?

DH put down real oak floors and it was a big mistake for us. It buckled in several areas because of humidity. If we had to do it again we would have put down a moisture proof barrier or glued down engineered hardwood like Bruce. DH glued down Bruce at my parents house(on a slab) and 6 yrs later it looks amazing!

ETA: They sell self leveling cement if you need to level the slab first.

Message edited 3/10/2010 9:20:48 AM.

Re: what do you know about laying wood floors on a slab?

I just did it.....I have a house that is basically a levit house just not in Levittown.

We also still have the radiant floors. I used a click and lock engineered wood floor.

I suggest not using real hardwood cause like PP said you need sleepers and that will add height to the floor and then all the doors are out of alignment.....you will most likely have a step up coming in any outside doors which becomes a huge tripping hazzard.

If you dont have the radiant floors and its just slab on grade you can also use glue to fasten them down....I was told not to use glue on the radiant cause you just dont know what the heat will do to the glue.

you have to level the floor with leveling compound....can get it at HD or lowes. It pours out and is self leveling so its really easy to do.

I also would use an engineered system cause you can refinish them at least once and they do not react to the moisture as much as real solid wood. I bought mine at LI paneling and they have a ton of selection and are great to work with.

Let me know if you have any questions....I will also post a pic of my floors

cant get the pics to post but they are in my album....click here

Message edited 3/10/2010 9:31:38 AM.

Re: what do you know about laying wood floors on a slab?

you have fm

Re: what do you know about laying wood floors on a slab?

Message edited 3/10/2010 9:27:51 AM.

Re: what do you know about laying wood floors on a slab?

Re: what do you know about laying wood floors on a slab?

We didn't self level out our cement floor, we had it done by a contractor. We had to fill in our garagae area, so there was a step down that the previous owners never filled in, so we did. But I would just buy the self leveling cement if you have unlevel floors. We bought our laminate flooring from Lumber Liquidators and it is a floating floor. We used a barrier that we bought from LL also. The laminate also had a cushion layer attached to it for insulation. We love our LL laminates.

Re: what do you know about laying wood floors on a slab?

nothing we had a company called carpet time install ours. the installation cost more than the flooring though, they had to level out the cement it was really bad and for years we had cracking problems where the cement underneath would crack and the floor would get a bump in it. I dont rec them at all, just sharing our experience. its something you want to make sure gets done right and once.

Re: what do you know about laying wood floors on a slab?

Re: what do you know about laying wood floors on a slab?

we just layed tile in our levit ranch's kitchen and hallway. we have a higher ground now because we had to get all those floors level, so now, walking into our dining room off of our kitchen, and there is a definite step down.

but, that being said, i have other rooms and one outside door that would not be in the area we want to hardwood / laminate and we don't want all these different levels. so probably a tiny increase in height would be best... we have to do saddles everywhere in this house, not sure how to do that with about an 1" difference in height.
UGH!

oh the pleasures of homeownership, huh?

Re: what do you know about laying wood floors on a slab?

we just did hard wood on a slab about 2 months ago. we saw so many different ways to do it. It got so frustrating just figuring out how to do it. we laid a subfloor of 3/4 inch plywood, using a hammer drill and glue. then we laid the vapor barrier (the red paper) and then we laid the oak flooring. we used the same floor nailer with the standard nails (there was some worry that they would go through the subfloor and hit the slab and not going fully through the flooring but it was fine) so far it looks great but it was A LOT of really hard work.

Re: what do you know about laying wood floors on a slab?

we had hardwood laid several years ago on our slab. it is still perfect and we had no problems. we had a company do it.

Re: what do you know about laying wood floors on a slab?