Wooden floor in the apartment with their own hands (photo)

Replacing the flooring is a process familiar to anyone who has decided to overhaul or equip a newly built room. Different materials are used for flooring, but natural wood is qualitatively different, among others. Environmentally friendly materials for laying the floor in residential areas are very popular. The apartment with a wooden coating will delight its owners with a cozy microclimate and stable quality floors. Laying wooden floors in the apartment is a simple process, you can easily cope with it yourself. In order to properly perform a wooden floor, it is necessary to take into account the recommendations and advice of professionals.

The choice of wood to cover

The choice of materials for the future floor, namely wood species, requires special attention. When choosing a suitable breed for a plank floor, one should consider a number of nuances:

• financial capabilities;
• climate features;
• room type;
• estimated loads .

Wood for laying the floor differs not only in price, but also a number of features. For example, alder and aspen are good for flooring in rest rooms - for children and bedrooms. The best option in the ratio of price and quality will be boards from coniferous trees. Higher in cost, but also in strength is considered oak.

After you have decided on the type of wood for the future floor, you should carefully select high quality boards with parameters that meet the standards. A quality board should be long, so when viewing the material, give preference to boards no less than 2 m in length. Boards must be dry, solid and free from visible defects. The wet board is subsequently deformed, and the damaged one can crumble at all. Do not agree to the purchase of boards with defects, even if you offer discounts on this product. Buying lumber from the same batch, you will be confident that the same processing of all parts will provide the desired result, and the final pattern and shade on the floor will be harmonious. The grooved board does not demand additional polishing and will save your forces and time. Even if you have accurately measured the floor, it is better to buy boards with a margin of about 10-15%. During piling, various force majeure situations can occur, and it is always better to keep in stock material from the same batch as the bulk.

The wooden floor can be assembled from boards and fragments of various types, these can be:

• boards from an array;
• parquet boards from an array with grooves;
• parquet board glued (it is cheaper than the above, consists of several layers, more valuable wood is taken on the top layer, the rest are made of cheaper species);
• parquet.

Step-by-step technology for laying wooden floors

Before laying a wooden floor, you should decide on what basis it is better to put it. The styling technique will differ depending on this choice. The base may be on logs, on plywood or on flat concrete.

Each of the options for the base for a wooden floor implies its own ways of laying and has advantages and disadvantages, but decisive in choosing one or another option will not be the owner's wish, but the specificity of the building itself.

Preparation of the base

The wooden elements of the future floors in the apartment should be treated with refractory and antibacterial agents. This will protect your home and help make the floor durable. Obligatory step in the flooring of wooden floors in the apartment is waterproofing. Penofol or polyethylene may be used as a waterproofing material. The first option is more practical, since in addition to waterproofing qualities, it performs sound insulation and prevents the passage of electromagnetic rays.

Basis on lags

Lags mean by themselves wooden unplaned bars of coniferous wood or other soft breeds. The wooden floor will be laid on top. This type of foundation under the floor is good because it allows you to hide the irregularities of the concrete base makes it possible to pave some communication between the concrete and the floorboards. Due to the fact that this type of laying wooden floor takes part of the space (approximately 8 cm), this option is not suitable for apartments with low ceilings.

The gaps between the lags should be sufficient to prevent the wooden floor boards from bending down. Calculate the optimal distance will help measure the thickness of the board: the smaller the thickness, the smaller the intermediate distance between the bars lag. Lay the bars should be across the direction of the window light, so that the boards laid on top of the log are located along the sun rays from the window.

In order to correctly mark the placement of the lag, it is necessary to lay two bars at opposite walls on the same level and stretch a kapron thread between them. This will set the level at which you should lay out the remaining lags. At the end of laying the lag is necessary to make the crate. In the intermediate formations between the bars you need to put a heater or several layers of fiberboard.

Lags are fastened to the wooden base with long nails and self-tapping screws, and they should be fixed to the concrete base with anchors or dowels. Fixed lags must be at the same level, this can be checked with a 2-meter rail with the level. The floorboards are laid perpendicular to the lags at a distance of 1.5 cm from the wall. This space can be covered with a plinth.

Plywood base

Plywood base is practically not deformed during operation and can be easily dismantled if necessary. The floorboards are laid directly on the plywood itself, which does not require the creation of additional space under the floor. This type of foundation under the wooden floor is unsuitable for rooms with high humidity, since plywood can be deformed under the influence of moisture.

For marking the floor, try on sheets of plywood, taking into account their future location, lags are set. For convenient marking, it is recommended to place lighthouses around the perimeter of the room with self-tapping screws. The distance between the lags should be calculated depending on the thickness of the plywood, but not more than 0.5 m. After the lags are fixed, the whole structure is treated with glue in order to avoid the effect of a creaking floor. A layer of glassine is laid over the top of the log, which will help avoid the formation of condensate. Plywood should fall steadily on the logs, do not sag or stagger. To ensure that plywood sheets do not rub together during operation, a distance of several millimeters should be provided between them when laying. Before you put the plywood sheets, you must wait until the glue dries. It is best to fasten plywood with self-tapping screws, about 8-9 pieces per sheet.

Concrete base

Concrete foundation under the wooden floor can be used in cases where the surface is perfectly flat. Laying the board directly on the concrete surface is not recommended, therefore a gasket is required to work with this type of base. A primer or foam polyethylene must be laid between the concrete base and the plank floor. The second option also performs a waterproofing function. Such installation of a wooden floor is simple in execution and requires less financial expenditure than the above methods. It is undesirable to put heavy furniture on such a floor.

Laying wooden floor

A list of necessary tools that will help you to put a wooden floor in the apartment on your own:

1. Level at least 1 m long, preferably more. It will help to measure the curvature of the concrete base or level the already laid boards.
2. The chisel is necessary for the floor boards to fit snugly to the walls. Plastic tip on the chisel will reduce the noise during its operation.
3. The screwdriver will speed up the work.
4. Hack saw.
5. The hammer.

If you have to work with large areas for laying the floor, the cutting machine will become an indispensable tool. It will shorten the work time and help create accurate and even cuts at any angle.

Recommendations for laying wooden floor

Proper sequence of work on laying wooden floor ensures a quality result and will not allow you to forget an important point in the process.

To lay the boards it is necessary so that the age-old rings were directed in opposite directions. Before laying the board it is necessary to try on, adjust to size and number, so that later not to redo this work several times. The first board is placed along the edge of the wall, the gap that must be left between the board and the wall is needed for ventilation. For reliable fasteners nails better to hammer at an angle and as deep as possible. The boards should be placed so that there are no gaps between them and they fit snugly together. As the boards are laid, their evenness should be measured by level. The joints need to be sanded, and the gaps between the boards and the walls must be closed with plinths.

Processing of the wooden floor

Wood can be subjected to various mechanical and biological effects, as a result of which a beautiful and environmentally friendly floor can be deformed and cause a lot of trouble to its owners. In order to avoid unpleasant surprises, you should seriously engage in wood processing for the floor.

If the wooden floor is not covered with linoleum or plinth, then you should take care of its appearance and quality preservation.You can use paint or varnish for processing wooden floors; these materials create a protective film on the wood surface, which prevents undesirable external factors from affecting the boards. Modern technologies offer varnishes of various types (glossy, matte, etc.). In the process of applying lacquer or paint, it is best to brush or roll according to the arrangement of the wood fibers, so the strokes will remain invisible, and the boards will preserve the woody texture as much as possible.

An alternative to flooring with paint or varnish is oil or wax treatment of floorboards. In contrast to the lacquer coating, the oil does not create a static effect and fully preserves the wood texture of the boards. Oil does not create a film, but permeates the boards from the inside, as a result of which the floor becomes warmer and more pleasant to the touch and does not slip. The protective lacquer film is erased and scratched with time, this can be avoided by covering the wooden floor with oil.

An oiled floor needs more thorough care and does not allow contact with metal furniture.

As a result of a chemical reaction, dark spots may remain on the floor.

There is another method of processing wood flooring, which is able to preserve the texture of wood as much as possible and give the boards interesting shades. This is a way of smoking with wood smoke.

The wooden floor is not only beautiful, but also useful, the boards breathe, and the indoor climate creates a favorable one. You can lay the plank floor yourself, without resorting to the services of masters, but you need to carefully follow the stages of the work and take into account its features.

There are several ways to lay a wooden floor, each owner will find a suitable option for him. The board floor can be covered with linoleum or carpet, or it can be treated with varnish or oil and leave the beauty of wood patterns in sight.