How to install and lay beech wood flooring? Beech wood flooring generally belongs to mid-range solid wood flooring. The commonly used laying methods for solid wood flooring mainly include the following: floating installation method, wooden joist installation method, wooden joist underlayment installation method, etc.
Related link: What is solid wood flooring?
1. Floating Installation Method
The floating installation method involves attaching or interlocking the floorboards onto a floor underlayment. This method requires a flat, dry, and clean ground surface. It is suitable for solid wood tongue-and-groove floors, solid wood strip floors, and solid wood composite tongue-and-groove floors.
Construction process: Base surface treatment, underlayment installation, trial floor laying, leaving expansion joints, and nailing baseboards.
2. Wooden Joist Installation Method
The wooden joist installation method involves fixing wooden strips (joists) of dimensions 30x40mm or 40x50mm at specified positions on the ground and then laying the floorboards on these wooden strips. This method also requires a flat, dry, and clean ground surface with dried joists. It is suitable for solid wood composite tongue-and-groove floors longer than 600mm and solid wood tongue-and-groove floors.
Construction process: Marking the room direction and ground lines; marking the joist placement positions, fixing the floor joists, leveling horizontally and vertically. Laying the floorboards while leaving an 8-10mm expansion joint near walls; for the first row, use a string line for laying and use wooden wedges for positioning. Adjust the tightness based on the season, region, and moisture content of the floorboards. If the length exceeds 7-8 meters, copper strips should be used as separators. Finally, nail the baseboards, clean the site, and sign the acceptance form.
3. Wooden Joist Underlayment Installation Method
The wooden joist underlayment installation method involves laying the ground joists first, followed by an underlayment or 12mm plywood, and finally the floorboards. The requirements are the same as the wooden joist installation method, but the underlayment or 12mm plywood must be dry. The laying method is similar to the wooden joist installation method, except that it includes an additional layer of underlayment or 12mm plywood before laying the floorboards.
Calculation method for the quantity of boards to be laid: Purchase 5% more floorboards than the actual area required.
Five conditions where laying should not proceed:
1. Do not lay if there is wall leakage, dampness, or an unclean ground surface.
2. Do not lay during mixed construction.
3. Do not lay if substandard auxiliary materials are forced to be used (without signing a liability agreement).
4. Do not lay if the schedule is too tight to implement the procedures and tasks.
5. Do not lay if the requirement is for colorless differences in the floor surface or absolute levelness.
Laying in living rooms and dining rooms will not cause problems.
Beech wood flooring belongs to hard solid wood flooring and has high environmental requirements, making it difficult to maintain. Therefore, it is rarely sold in the market, especially in the north, where the temperature difference between indoors and outdoors is large in winter, which can easily lead to cracking issues and creaking sounds. Thus, we recommend you carefully consider your choice.