technology of working with wooden and concrete floors

If the floor in your apartment or your house is always cold, then the only way to get rid of this problem is to warm it. There are a lot of insulation materials for this, but they all require the installation of a finished floor after themselves. Warming floors with plywood completely solves this problem, since plywood itself is a finishing material.

What kind of insulation does it take and what kind of plywood should you use?

So, depending on the type of floor you need to warm, the technology will be special. In the general case, you need to consider only two options:

• floor insulation of wood;
• insulation of the concrete floor;

It’s right to say that not all types of plywood are suitable for such work .

Today there are several brands of plywood:

• FC;
• FOF;
• PSF.

All of them differ from each other only in one parameter - in the level of moisture resistance. But this level is caused by the following indicators:

• type of glue used;
• type of coating that is applied to the top layer of each sheet.

FSF plywood has the highest level of moisture resistance. However, it is used mainly in very wet areas, such as bathrooms, unheated warehouses, and so on. It is not recommended to use it at home, since its individual layers are glued together with rather toxic adhesives.

The FK brand is the golden mean. At its production glue which is not toxic is used. The basis of the composition of this glue are carbamide resin, completely harmless to human health.

I must say that there is one more sign that affects the possibility of using plywood in one place or another, this is the material of manufacture. According to this feature, plywood is distinguished:

• of softwood;
• of hardwood.

The first type can only be used in roofing, as conifers emit various resins. But for the interior decoration is used material made of hardwood.

So, from the above, we can conclude that the best for insulation of a wooden or concrete floor is plywood that is made of birch and is marked with FC.

The quality of plywood as a factor influencing its choice

As for quality, there are four groups:

1. Almost no external flaws.
2. There are knots and veneer inserts.
3. There are cracks, knots and other defects.
4. There are multi-colored stripes, knots, cracks, inserts from veneer and so on. This plywood is the lowest grade, but the quality of gluing individual layers is very high, which allows it to be used as a rough floor covering.

Here it becomes clear that the choice should be based on the purpose of the application. If plywood is needed only for insulation, then you can choose the cheapest one, but if it will be used both as a heater and as a finishing coating, then you need to choose the best one by external feature.

Work with concrete floors

Concrete floors are most often subjected to insulation. This is due to the fact that they are very cold, as they heat up very slowly and cool rather quickly.

The easiest way of warming is to lay up plywood. As mentioned earlier, it can act as a draft, for example, as the basis for a laminate, and as a finishing floor. In the second case, the entire surface of the plywood is varnished or painted.

Sequence of actions for plywood warming:

1. Laying on the entire concrete surface of an additional heater - polyethylene foam. The thickness of such insulation can reach 8 mm. This material does not allow moisture from the concrete to get to the surface of plywood. This material has a double warming effect, as its one side is covered with foil. She puts polyurethane foam up, that is, to plywood, thereby it returns penetrating heat back to the room. Before laying even a material such as polyethylene foam, the entire surface of the concrete must be cleaned of dirt, dust and debris so as not to damage the insulation.
2. On the laid insulation, bars are put, which will serve as the crate frame. To do this, the best fit materials of the second or even third grade, made of hardwood or softwood. The thickness should not be less than 4 cm. They should be placed at a distance of 30-40 cm from each other. At the same time, there should be an indent from the walls of 1 cm minimum.
3. Next, any insulation material is laid between the bars. You can use mineral wool and foam.
4. A draft floor, i.e. boards no thicker than 30 mm, is nailed on top of the bars.
5. Plywood is laid on the boards.

Tip! If the floor is not very cold, that is, it is initially insulated, then nothing can be put between the bars at all, since the air itself is a good insulator.

There are a number of subtleties in such work, for example, laying of bars should be done in such a way that the edges of the sheets are located exactly in the center. This is necessary so that no edge is above the air.

Since the concrete floor itself is initially uneven, it is recommended to place thin slats or chips under the bars. Even the smallest irregularity with time can lead to the deflection of the whole structure.

As for laying boards, they can not be nailed tightly to each other. On the contrary, it is better to leave gaps between them in 1-2 cm. At the same time, first lay the boards across the boards, and then, in the second layer, along them.

For such a floor, it is necessary to use sufficiently thick plywood. The optimum thickness is 12 mm. Such plywood bends slightly, it will not lead even at high humidity.

Alternatively, sheets of 6-8 mm can be considered. But when using them, you need to put in two rows, as is the case with boards. In this case, the seams should not be the same as in the brickwork.

Working with wooden floors

So, if insulation is carried out using wooden floor plywood, the first thing to do is pay attention to the old floor. It is necessary to inspect it for the presence of loosened and cracked boards, as well as deflections.

In the case when there are rotten boards, they must be replaced without fail. If there are deflections and they are not connected with the state of the lag, then you can lay plywood.

However, there is one condition here - it is impossible to use plywood in highly humid rooms. The above explanations were given to this.

To check the humidity with your own hands, you need a simple sheet of polyethylene with dimensions of about 100 to 100 cm. It is simply laid on the floor and pressed tightly along the edges, while the center is left free. In this position, the polyethylene is left for 2-3 days. After looking at the inside. If there are drops of moisture, then the humidity is high, if it is just sweat, then the humidity is average, if the polyethylene remains dry, then the humidity is low.

If all the conditions are met, you can proceed with the installation. I must say that under the plywood on the wooden floor does not require any other heaters.

So, sheets of plywood are stacked in a checkerboard pattern. As in the case of the concrete floor, a gap of 1-2 cm must be left between the walls and the plywood. In addition, the sheets themselves must also be located at a distance from each other.

In this case, it is recommended to use plywood with the same thickness as in the previous one, that is 12 mm.

However, if the base is rather uneven, it is best to use sheets of material with a thickness of 15 mm. If the floors are even, in order to save, it is allowed to use sheets with a thickness of only 8-10 mm.

As for the material itself, it is better not to stack it with whole sheets . They are cut into squares with a side of 50-60 cm. Placing them at a distance of 1-2 mm between each other, an optimal stock of damper seams is created. In addition, it is much easier to work with small sheets.

There are some recommendations for preparing the floor. It must be cleaned from dust, debris and foreign objects. The best option would be to cover the entire surface with a primer.

The plywood can be fastened in two ways:

• with glue;
• on the screws.

The second option, naturally, is simpler and faster. Screws are screwed into each corner and diagonally. The distance between them should be about 15-20 cm. At the same time, they should be screwed in so that the caps are slightly recessed.

Self-tapping screws should not be closer to the edge than 2 cm. Their length is taken from the calculation of 3 sheet thickness.

After the sheets are fully laid, the entire surface is sanded. Then cleaned and spat. Putty need only attachment points with screws. In this case, you must use a special putty for wood.

After all these procedures, the entire surface is varnished.

In the case when plywood acts as a subfloor, it is not necessary to grind, putty and varnish it.