We lay wooden floors in a private house with our own hands. Do-it-yourself concrete floor in a private house: tools for creating a floor, step-by-step instructions Floors at home

Floors in wooden houses should be reliable, warm, durable and beautiful. You can achieve the desired result on your own or with the involvement of professional builders. Information about the features of flooring in a wooden house is important in both cases. Firstly, because it will be required for independent work, and secondly, to control employees.

Process Features

The floors in a wooden house consist of several layers. And in order to ensure comfortable living conditions, it is important to correctly determine the components of the floor "pie".

The main element of the building structure for the floor is the strapping. For capital buildings, it is usually made of a powerful beam with cross-sectional parameters of at least 150 x 80 millimeters.

Often the timber is replaced by several boards, securely interconnected. Board binding is more stable. The boards are not subjected to the stresses experienced by the timber.

Products used for strapping are subject to pre-treatment with an antiseptic. Used oils are often used as such. Oil-treated wooden parts do not rot or absorb moisture, so they last for many years. In the absence of oil, special tools are used that are available in every hardware store.

To extend the life of the strapping, waterproofing must be laid on the foundation. Usually it is a roofing material folded in two layers.

By strapping, you need to install lags. These are wide powerful boards, which need to be strengthened on the edge. They, like the strapping, need to be treated with an antiseptic. Logs must first be carefully examined, cracks repaired if any. Boards with big flaws should be replaced with better ones.

In light buildings, it is allowed to make logs prefabricated. For fixing components, special brackets or studs are used. Docking points should be supported for greater reliability.

If the load is planned to be significant, it is better to strengthen the structure in advance. For this, the lag section is calculated, and their step is made small, from 60 centimeters.

The logs are hemmed with boards, along which a membrane is laid to prevent the penetration of wind and moisture into the room. A heater is placed in the formed cells. Depending on the chosen method, it can be either expanded clay or polystyrene foam, polyethylene foam or mineral wool. The insulation is covered with a vapor barrier. Further actions depend on the preferences of the owners of the house. Any available options can act as a finishing floor, including water-heated floors.

Structure structure

It is not enough to build a wooden house, you need to correctly bring engineering communications, such as:

heating;
water supply;
sewerage;
electrical wiring.

The abundance of engineering structures in the premises does not look aesthetically pleasing, so it is customary to hide them under the floor. The space between the lags allows you to cover most of the pipes. If there is an underground or basement floor, an electric water heater can be installed under the subfloor, or a gas boiler room can be equipped. Especially important is the location of the water heater under the floor for a small shower room.

When building a house, it is worth remembering that the wooden floor should be protected from water vapor. Modern building materials allow the structure to breathe and at the same time reliably protect against moisture damage. Excellent insulation is obtained from isospan.

Izospan is used both in the equipment of the first floor and the second. It is laid under the mineral insulation and above it. Non-woven fabric is produced in narrow rolls. Separate parts during laying should be overlapped and glued with special double-sided tape. In places of contact with the lags, isospan is attached to them with a construction stapler.

The insulating layer is covered with a continuous flooring. Perhaps better than others, OSB plates are suitable for this purpose.

OSB boards are widely used in housing construction. They are perfect for arranging floors in wooden houses. Oriented strand board floors are good for underlayment under boardwalk, parquet, linoleum, carpet and laminate. But you should not do OSB with a finish coating.

For laying on logs set in 50 cm increments, 18 mm is considered a sufficient thickness of the plates. If the distance between adjacent lags is 10 cm greater, a greater thickness will be required - 20 mm. OSB boards are made by pressing with a special adhesive. They are durable, do not rot and do not dry out. Floors laid on OSB sheets do not creak when walking.

Laying is done quickly, because:

does not require special skills;
the sheets have the correct geometric shape, and time is not spent on fitting;
one standard plate (2500 x 1250 mm) covers an area of 3.1 m2.

Floor types

In private wooden houses, the type of floor depends on the method of overlapping. There are two options: concrete (reinforced concrete slab) or wood. On the second floor, the floors are usually made of wood, since heavier reinforced concrete slabs only increase the load on the foundation.

Inside the house, you can equip any of the modern flooring options: laminate, parquet, cork, tiles and others.

Concrete the floors are formed by pouring the screed. In some cases, this option saves construction time. The screed is completely ready for further processing after a month. Raw wood requires drying, which takes much more time.

Concrete floors in wooden houses reduce the cost of finishing floors. A well-made screed can serve as the basis for finishing without additional layers and leveling the surface.

If it is necessary to raise the floor to a certain height, light expanded clay is poured under the screed. This reduces the load on the base without increasing the thickness of the screed itself.

In a new house, there is a high probability of cracking of the cement screed due to shrinkage of the structure. Serious damage will not follow, however, heat loss is possible. You can prevent negative consequences by laying a reliable insulation.

Concrete flooring is possible after calculations. As a rule, such a decision is made if the capital structure has a strip foundation.

The same is more suitable for a wooden house wooden floor. Wood is environmentally friendly, does not cause allergic reactions in residents: adults and children. Natural material is increasingly used by the owners of country houses, preferring it to brick and various blocks.

Plank flooring is easy to sheathe with boards on both sides. Reliable fastening allows you to equip a "pie" of insulation, vapor and waterproofing. The multilayer structure can be made as a floating floor. In this case, it will not have direct contact with the base and walls of the house.

Preparatory work

Regardless of whether a structure is being built on a foundation, earth, screw piles, or simply on brick columns, the arrangement of the floor begins with preparatory work.

First prepare the walls, equipping them with ventilation holes. The lack of air access to the underground will lead to the rapid destruction of the wooden components of the structure.

The materials necessary for arranging the overlap must be correctly calculated. It will not be superfluous and a stock of wood of 10-15 percent.

Installation can begin when the bars and boards are sufficiently dry. When the humidity becomes normal, the material is inspected, sorted and treated with agents against rot and fungus.

Draft two-layer floors are made where the base has to be laid directly on open ground.

There are several ways to lay the floor on the ground. If you lower the floor to a minimum, then you can tamp the ground, lay out a pillow of sand, gravel or expanded clay, and then fill it with concrete. True, this option is more suitable for a garage, and not for places intended for permanent residence of people.

In a light country house used for a seasonal stay, the floor needs to be done differently. First you need to set up brick columns around the entire perimeter. It is very important to ensure that the surfaces of the supports have a single height (bring them to one horizon). On each support you need to lay a gasket made of roofing material or roofing felt. A 3 cm thick wooden lining treated with an antiseptic should be placed on the waterproofing layer.

This whole structure is closed with bars, along which lags are set with constant horizontal adjustment. The design is finally fixed with fasteners. The floor is located on the logs if the manufacture is carried out with a single flooring.

The double floor assumes the presence of laying insulation between the rough and finishing floor, hydro and vapor barrier, and, if necessary, other components.

Laying methods

Rooms in a wooden house will acquire a presentable appearance, and staying in them will become truly comfortable if the flooring is in harmony with the walls. Homogeneous material will make the interior of the room complete.

The choice of type of wood for the floor depends on:

material opportunities;
purpose of the premises;
planned loads.

With an unlimited budget, they choose the most beautiful, durable and dense materials from foreign countries. Exotic trees growing in tropical forests have unique properties. They withstand strong moisture, are easy to process, resistant to abrasion. In addition, boards from such trees are distinguished by beautiful colors. For example, merbau wood can be golden orange or reddish brown. A purple floor can be made using rosewood. And striped flooring is obtained when buying very expensive zebrano wood.

Boards made of coniferous trees, including pine and spruce, will not require large expenses. From such floors, the room is filled with substances useful for humans and a pleasant aroma. The wood always remains warm, so it is pleasant to walk on the floor with bare feet.

For showers, baths and saunas, aspen and lime boards are required. They do not emit resin, are resistant to water and high temperatures.

On a veranda open to precipitation, the floor is best made of corrugated oak or larch boards.

The thickness of the floorboards must be chosen taking into account the distance between adjacent lags. With a distance of 600 - 700 mm, a thickness of 40 mm is sufficient. If the spans are larger than the specified size, boards with a thickness of 50 mm should be preferred. As for the width, it is set by the design project or the preferences of the owners.

If you decide to do the flooring with your own hands, remember that it is inconvenient to lay wide boards alone. In addition, the larger the canvas, the greater its shrinkage. The results of this inevitable process can affect the quality of the wood flooring. For this reason, it is better to take narrow and not too long boards.

One way to install the floor is to lay it apart, with this method, the joints of the ends of the boards should not coincide in adjacent rows.

If plywood is used as a base, parquet boards are glued with mastic or glue and additionally fixed with self-tapping screws, as in the case of a solid board. It is necessary to glue over the entire area, without voids.

In addition to the traditional straight styling, they use a diagonal one. Laying at an angle of 45 ° to the wall looks especially elegant in a spacious room.

Arranging the floor requires thorough preparation, quite a lot of time and physical effort. Despite this, many believe that self-installation is possible without the involvement of specialists and additional costs. Indeed, by being persistent, following a step-by-step guide, you can do without outside help and save a lot of money.

If it is necessary to re-lay the floor, the worn top coat is removed, the condition of the substrate is checked and, if necessary, repaired. Logs that have flaws must be replaced, as well as other components of the base affected by rot or fungus. During the overhaul of floors, wet or caked insulation is changed, as well as insulation.

If the logs are in good condition, but begin to sag, you need to put a lining under them, for example, from plywood smeared with parquet glue.

Instead of expensive membrane films, glassine can be used as a moisture barrier.

When laying under the finish coating is done with sheet building material (fiberboard, OSB, plywood), it is attached to the base with self-tapping screws. Fastening points should be located at a distance of at least 20 mm from the edge of the sheet with a step of about 150 mm. The heads of the self-tapping screws must be recessed into the body by 3 mm. The resulting recesses should be puttied. Without putty, the finish at the attachment points will be adversely affected. And after some time, traces of poor-quality work will appear on it.

From the author: Hi all! As you know, all people are divided into two types - those who like to live in apartments and lovers of private houses. So, my friend Ivan belongs to the second, for which he paid the price. When he and his wife bought a living space for themselves, he did not understand anything about repairs, but the building needed improvement, and there was no money for professional builders.

I had to learn a lot, but now Ivan can do all the construction work and even lay the floors in a private house with his own hands. He learned most of the useful information from his best friend (that is, me). If you also want to equip your home on your own and save on the wages of workers, then you have come to the right place. Let's get started.

During the construction of housing, the question always arises: “Which flooring is better to do?”. After all, under any circumstances, it must meet such requirements as the creation of healthy living conditions and safe operation. The floor must above all be: level, durable, hygienic and non-slip. There are several types of floor coverings:

the favorite of residents of private sectors is considered to be a wooden floor, since wood is not only an environmentally friendly material, but also, in comparison with concrete, it is warm;
for those who prefer strength to heat, concrete floors are suitable;
floating and bulk floors are just gaining their popularity, but I think that over time they will eclipse even wooden ones, because their installation takes only 1 day.

Before choosing one of these coatings, I recommend getting to know each one better.

Several ways to lay a wooden floor

It is really possible to build a wooden floor even without the help of specialists, for this it is enough to familiarize yourself with the technology of laying it on different types of bases. The wooden covering happens in one and two layers (with a subfloor). If we talk about the advantages of wood flooring, we would like to note environmental friendliness and ease of installation. Aesthetically pleasing, practical and durable, wood flooring can brighten up any home.

Installation of covering on supporting pillars

The second name for this installation is "floating floor". This type of coating is produced mainly when the connection of walls with lags is impossible. The work takes place according to the following scheme:

Source: http://otdelkaexp.ru

We start with the formation of holes in the underground, in which we will install brick supports in the future. We cover the bottom with a 20-centimeter layer of loose material, for example, gravel, sand or crushed stone, fill it with water and carefully tamp everything.
On the compacted material, we begin laying brick supports (it is advisable to use red brick). There is a second option: it is necessary to install reinforcement in the arranged formwork and pour the composition of cement and gravel. If you decide to form supports in the second way, then the section should be 50 * 50 cm. Check the height with a level and adjust if necessary.
From above, we introduce anchors or threaded studs into the poles to a depth of 15 cm (beams will be attached to them). In a small dwelling, the floor on the supporting pillars can be made in almost the same way as in a spacious one. The only difference is that the pillars are placed only around the perimeter of the room and the beams are chosen more massively.
After completing the preparation of the pillars, we lay 3-4 layers of roofing material on them. It will act as a waterproofing.
We make holes in the beams for mounting studs.
We put logs or beams on our roofing material, hook them onto studs and adjust them with a laser or water level. After laying the base, we fix the lining to the logs with nails. We also need to fix the logs on the poles with the help of nuts and washers.
We cut off the excess height of the studs using a grinder.
We fill the surface of the underground with expanded clay sand, a layer of 20 cm. I recommend using expanded clay, as it perfectly insulates the floors.

Source: http://izolexpert.ru

If you still decide to make two-layer floors, then you must immediately lay the floorboards on the beams, and completely fill the underground with expanded clay sand, while leaving no more than 10 cm between the layers.

Installation of a rough coating

The draft floor can be mounted in several ways. The method is selected depending on the insulation material used in the work. If either slag, then the coating must be made continuous, from floorboards that are attached to the lower cut of the beams.

We cover all the cracks with clay, and after it dries, we pour insulation into the cells.
We attach a layer of vapor barrier film to the bottom boards and beams and lay thin plywood.
Next, we put the insulation and again cover everything with a vapor barrier, fix it to the beams with brackets.
We fasten logs of 10 * 3 cm to the beams, which will become a support for thick plywood or floorboards.

How to make a draft floor you can see clearly in the video:

Installation of wood flooring on the ground

Installation of wooden coverings can be carried out not only on support pillars, but also on the ground. However, the scheme of work here will look different:

We thoroughly tamp the soil and pour a pillow 20 cm thick on it from gravel, crushed stone or sand.
We compact the bulk material and lay roofing material or any other material for waterproofing on it. The entrance to the walls must be at least 10 cm.
On top of the waterproofing layer, we put a support for the beams on the mortar (concrete blocks or bricks can be used). The distance between the beams must be at least 60 cm so that insulation can be placed there.
In the free gaps between the beams we lay insulation (polystyrene, mineral wool, etc.).
We install wooden beams on supports made of blocks or bricks, level them and fix them with a corner.
Whatever coating you choose, it is better to additionally insulate the surface with mineral wool slabs.
We cover the insulation with a vapor barrier film and lay the floorboards, fixing with nails.
In order for the floor to be ventilated, we leave gaps of 1-1.5 cm in size near all walls.

Installing a wooden floor on a concrete base

If a screed acts as a base under a wooden covering, you can lay logs directly on it. When the floor needs to be raised by 10-20 cm, it is laid on threaded studs. Do not try to save on lags - the reliability of the entire coating and the duration of its operation depend on them.

I’ll immediately note such a moment - there must be a rough coating on a concrete base. But, this should not scare you anymore, because we already figured it out earlier. So, the installation is carried out according to the following scheme:

We mark the placement of the lag (the distance between them will be 60 cm).
On the lines broken off by color, we put points at intervals of 30-40 cm and in these places we make holes into which we insert the fixing pins necessary to hold the beams, in which we will also make cuts.
Use the level to adjust the horizontal.
We drive the nuts twisted on the studs into the drilled holes. If there is an excess part, you can cut it off with a grinder.
Now you can mount the subfloor (see above) and the decorative coating.

Installing the lag on the screed

It is not at all difficult to install logs on a concrete screed, especially if you have all the necessary equipment.

In most cases, in private housing construction, wooden floors are made, giving preference to natural material. Concrete and self-leveling bases enjoy a certain popularity. We will figure out which floors and how best to do in a private residential building.

Wooden base - practical and comfortable

Wood has been used for flooring for a long time. It has a number of important advantages, among them are the following:

low thermal conductivity (optimum temperature in both summer and winter);
environmental friendliness (modern people pay special attention to this characteristic);
ease of installation (making a wooden floor with your own hands is relatively easy);
high maintainability and durability (with regular maintenance and minor repairs, a wooden base lasts for centuries).

In a private house, it is recommended to use ash or oak wood for floors. These tree species are considered the most durable. But their cost is quite high. Therefore, as a compromise, the wooden floor in the house can be made from fir, spruce, larch, cedar, pine. It is important to choose the right bars and boards - they must be well dried. The maximum allowable wood moisture content for flooring is 12%.

With a higher indicator, the boards can “lead”, and instead of a flat base in a private house, you will get a bumpy surface with cracks and gaps. A wooden floor, which can be made with your own hands in private housing construction, can be two- or one-layer. In the first case, an additional so-called "draft" base is provided. The scheme of its construction depends on what material will be used as a heater.

If expanded clay or slag is used, it is better to lay a solid base of wood. When choosing mineral wool for insulation, a distance of 40–50 cm is maintained between the individual boards of the subfloor. All elements of the “preliminary” base are protected by a vapor barrier, it is recommended to install thin plywood on top. And only after that lay the material chosen for it.

Regardless of the number of layers and the method of construction, the wooden floor is necessarily fixed on the logs. They are bars that are placed in the walls of the building or installed on a concrete base. Immuring logs into the walls is obtained when the room where you need to do the flooring has a small area. There is also a technique for arranging wood floors on "floating" support pillars. We will talk about it later.

Floors on a concrete screed - do it yourself

Logs made of wood can be mounted directly on a concrete slab or screed. If you need to slightly raise the level of the base (by 15–20 cm), it is better to use the laying pattern on threaded studs. A wooden floor with lags on concrete should always be made in two layers. First you need to build a rough base, then - the finish. You can do this according to the following scheme:

We mark on the concrete the places where the logs will be installed. We note right away that if you want to get a non-creaky and truly reliable coating, it is better not to save on lags. They should be massive, made of quality wood. The distance between the lags is taken about 60 cm.
Every 30-40 cm on the markup, you need to make points and drill them. And then mount the studs with fixing elements into the holes obtained. They are necessary to hold the beams, which are also drilled and mounted on studs.
We bring the beams (by adjusting the clamps on the fasteners) to the horizontal (it must be absolutely accurate). The quality of work is constantly checked by the level. Here you have to tinker, but the floor in the house needs to be made perfectly flat.
We tighten the nuts on the studs. With a grinder, we cut off the excess parts of the hardware and embed them in the recesses, which should be prepared in advance.

Now you can make a rough floor, insulate it and proceed to the flooring of the finishing base. Installing the log directly on the screed should also not cause any particular difficulties for those who do this work with their own hands. First, marking is done (the distance between the lags is 60 cm). After that, the beams are placed on a concrete base by means of anchor fasteners. Logs are allowed to be raised to any height convenient for you.

The next steps are:

we attach foam-type polyethylene or other insulating material of relatively small thickness to the lags with staples;
along the perimeter of the room (along the walls) we mount strips of mineral wool;
on foamed polyethylene we place medium or small expanded clay, the layer of which is covered with a vapor barrier film.

Your wood floor is almost ready. It remains to lay plywood on it (take thicker material) or ordinary boards. From above, in addition, you can make a finishing coating - laminated parquet, carpet.

Wooden floors on the ground and on supporting pillars

It is easy to arrange a wooden base directly on the ground. Here is what you need to do with your own hands in this case:

compact the soil as carefully as possible in the underground in a private house;
make a 20–40 cm pillow (gravel, sand, medium crushed stone in approximately equal proportions) and again ram it;
put the reinforcing cage on the pillow and roofing material (or other type of rigid waterproofing).

Now it is required to build supports for the lags - blocks of concrete or brick, which are fixed on the waterproofing layer to the mortar. We leave a distance of 60 cm between the blocks, and a layer of insulating material is placed around them - mineral wool or ordinary foam. Then wooden logs are placed, their fastening is performed with metal corners. Here it is very important to correctly align the beams so that the floor in a private house is “without waves” (use a regular level, or better, a laser level).

Between the lags, it is desirable to lay another insulating layer (for example, mineral wool boards) and cover it with a vapor barrier. Then the boards are laid. It is recommended to fix them with small carnations, they need to be driven in from the side. In order for the flooring in a private house to be well ventilated, the edge boards must be laid at some distance (10–15 mm) from the walls. Now let's see how to properly make a "floating" lag system. It is quite possible to build a floor on pillars with your own hands. For this, you do not need to have a special construction education.

In the subfield, dig recesses (0.5–0.6 m) for brick columns (the distance between them is 0.7–1 m).
Fill the pits with sand, gravel and crushed stone with a layer of about 0.2 m, fill this mixture with water and compact it as efficiently as possible. The stability of the future floor in a private house depends on this.
Install concrete or brick pillars on the pillow made. The diameter of such columns is recommended to be at least 40x40 cm.

We will fasten floor beams to anchors or threaded studs. What hardware to take - you choose, there is not much difference. Studs or anchors should be embedded 10–15 cm into the upper part of the supports. After that, the pillars need to be covered with roofing material (do not spare the material - make 3-4 layers), cut holes in the logs for fastening hardware and lay the beams on the waterproofing.

Professionals advise making a wooden base according to the “floating” technique in two layers. Then it will always be warm in a private house. It is advisable to fill the subfloor with expanded clay, not reaching 8-10 cm to the wooden floor.

How to build a high-quality concrete floor yourself?

Concrete flooring is most often equipped in dwellings with brick or concrete walls. Often such a base needs to be made in order to subsequently cover it with wooden boards.

The concrete floor is characterized by a long service life, excellent strength characteristics. It is easy to fill it without having special knowledge and building skills. We also note that a concrete floor can be made by spending a minimum of funds. This material is relatively inexpensive, so it is very often used for the needs of private construction.

Concrete coating is done like this:

They choose the top layer of earth in the underground and equip a 10-15-centimeter sand cushion, which is abundantly watered with water and well tamped.
A 10-centimeter layer of crushed stone is poured onto the compressed sand (it is advisable to take the material of the middle fraction) and ramming is performed again.
They make (rough) on a solution of gravel or sand - it would be right to add a little foam crumb or expanded clay to this composition to make the concrete floor warmer.
The hardened screed is covered with a waterproofing material (polyethylene, roofing material), making sure that it goes 20 centimeters onto the walls. The overlaps of the film or roofing material must be glued.
Insulation is poured - expanded polystyrene, produced according to the extruded method, or expanded clay. The more insulating layer you make, the warmer the concrete frame will be.

After all these operations, a reinforcing metal mesh should be placed on expanded clay or polystyrene and a second screed (finish) should be poured. Work is done on beacons. They should be set strictly according to the level, then the concrete frame will not have distortions. And the house will delight you with an absolutely even surface without height differences. We hope that you can easily make a concrete floor, guided by our advice. Comfort and warmth to your home!

A very important step in home improvement is the selection of a suitable floor covering and its correct installation. One of the most preferred options is wood flooring. Wood is an environmentally friendly, breathable material with excellent performance and properties. With the proper knowledge, you can cope with the installation of such a coating with your own hands.

Choose the right wood for your decking. At this stage, you need to take into account the climatic conditions of the region, the level of planned surface loads, the features of the operation of the premises and, of course, your financial capabilities.

In small residential areas, softwood flooring is best. Such material is sold at a relatively affordable cost, differing, at the same time, in a sufficiently high strength and durability.

Of the representatives of the middle and higher price range, give preference to oak. Aspen wood is also used for arranging the floor. This material is especially well suited for flooring in children's rooms, as well as in bedrooms.

For independent flooring in residential premises, only dry wood can be used. The problem with wet boards is that they shrink in size as they dry, causing ugly and completely unnecessary cracks to appear in the coating.

When buying a material, make sure that it does not have any noticeable defects such as splits, third-party stains, cracks, etc. Do not buy such wood even with a good discount.

Pre-calculate to determine the required amount of material. To do this, you just need to know the area of \u200b\u200bthe premises. Buy the material itself with a 10-15 percent margin.

For flooring, it is recommended to use a board with a length of 200 cm or more. It is highly desirable that all the boards offered to you be included in one batch. So you can be sure that all the purchased material was manufactured and processed under equal conditions. Consequently, the texture, color and other external characteristics of the boards will be approximately the same.

Flooring is best done using edged and tongue-and-groove boards. Such material does not require additional grinding, which will allow you to significantly save time on installation work.

Wood flooring can be made using several different materials, namely:

solid boards;
solid parquet board;
glued parquet board. It has the same appearance and is practically not inferior in terms of performance to a parquet board made of solid wood, but it costs less;
parquet.

Preparing for flooring

The flooring is done in two layers. First, the foundation is laid, then the wood itself.

There are two main ways to install the flooring: laying on the ground on logs and on floor beams. When choosing the appropriate method, consider the characteristics of a particular room and your personal preferences.

Before installation, carefully treat all wooden elements with antifungal and fire-retardant impregnations.

The base of the erected floor must be waterproofed. For moisture insulation it is convenient to use penofol or polyethylene. Penofol simultaneously provides high-quality hydro and noise insulation properties, therefore it is more preferable.

Base mounting

The functions of the base for independent flooring can be performed by logs, plywood and concrete. Familiarize yourself with the features of the methods and choose the most suitable for your case.

Foundation on logs

Fastening the flooring to the logs is the most popular option for arranging the floor. This design allows you to easily and effectively hide floor irregularities and lay various communications under the base without any problems.

The base is assembled from a 10x5 cm timber. In low rooms, it is better to refuse this method - the finished structure will take about 8-10 cm in height.

Before starting to mount the base, you should bring the logs into the room and let them lie down for a couple of days so that the wood material adapts to its surrounding conditions.

Select the step for fixing the lag in accordance with the dimensions of the boards used. It is important that in the future the boards do not sag.

First step. Lay one log at the same level at opposite walls.

Second step. Pull dense parallel threads between the laid lags. The distance between the threads depends on the thickness of the floorboards. If your boards are more than 3 cm thick, stretch the threads at a distance of about 80 cm, but if the flooring elements are thinner than 3 cm, then the threads should be pulled at a distance of no more than 60 cm. If you use boards with a thickness of more than 4 cm, you can increase the distance between the threads up to 100 cm.

Third step. Set the lags, focusing on the stretched threads. Adjust the mounting height with wooden wedges. It is important that all lags are set strictly at the same level.

Logs must be fastened to the base. If the base in your house is made of wood, fix it with self-tapping screws or nails, if it is made of concrete, use dowels or anchors.

Fourth step. Fill the space between adjacent joists with thermal insulation material. You can lay foam, mineral wool, expanded clay, etc.

In the process of laying the boards will need to be attached to each installed log. Preliminary in the material you need to prepare holes for self-tapping screws. An electric drill with a drill of the appropriate diameter will help you with this.

An excellent base for future quality flooring can be made from plywood. High-quality plywood is almost not subject to deformation during the use of the floor. The material is characterized by high strength and reliability.

If necessary, the floor on the plywood sheets in question can be quickly and easily removed. When laying the base, you do not have to carry out any additional work - the flooring is mounted directly on the plywood sheets.

First step. Place the plywood sheets on the base and, using ordinary chalk, draw a diagram of the future laying of the elements. Focusing on this markup, you will install the logs, and already lay sheets of plywood on them.

Second step. Install lags. The optimal pitch is 400 mm. Align the logs with linings from the same plywood. All elements must be installed strictly at the same level. Attach the aligned logs to the base. Choose fasteners according to the base material.

Third step. Glue the finished structure with glue so that the floor does not crack in the future.

Fourth step. Cover the system with rolled glassine or other material with similar properties.

Fifth step. Lay the plywood. The edges of each sheet should lie on the logs. Place the plywood sheets themselves with a small gap, no more than 1-2 mm. To fasten sheets, use self-tapping screws - about 8-9 fasteners per sheet. Sand the joints carefully.

If desired, you can level the concrete base with a screed and lay the flooring directly on the floor, without installing an additional base.

In such a situation, it is important that the boards cannot come into direct contact with the concrete. Soil mastic or ordinary polyethylene foam will perfectly cope with the functions of the intermediate layer. When using polyethylene, place insulation sheets with an overlap of 10-15 cm.

First step. Start fastening boards from any wall. Leave a 15mm gap between the wall of the room and the boards of the starting row. After completing the installation of the flooring, you will close it with a plinth. Drive in screws or nails at a slight angle, trying to deepen the heads of the fasteners into the wood by about 2 mm.

1 - lag; 2 - bracket; 3 - wedges; 4 - doboynik

Second step. After installing the first floorboard, step back about 50 mm from the edge and drive brackets into the bars with an insignificant gap, and then insert a thin rail into the gap that appears after that.

Third step. Drive a wooden wedge slightly larger than the gap left between the installed rail and the fixed brackets. Thanks to the wedge, the edges of the boards to be laid will be pressed as tightly as possible, which will prevent the appearance of cracks. Staples can be removed after fixing the boards with screws or nails.

a - building bracket; b - wedge clamp with a movable bracket; in - rack compression
1 - bracket; 2 - wedges; 3 - lag; 4 - spur; 5 - emphasis; 6 - movable bracket; 7 - clamping screw; 8 - stops; 9 - gear wheel with a ratchet - dog; 10 - handle; 11 - screw with stop

That is, you need to work according to this scheme: they laid a couple of boards, pressed them with a rail and a wedge, and fixed them with self-tapping screws. Lay the entire flooring according to this scheme. Before attaching each next board, it must be further compacted with a mallet.

Fourth step. Sand the joints of the boards.

Fifth step. Hide the gaps between the walls and boards with a floor plinth.

Sixth step. Lay the top coat, such as parquet board or any other material of your choice. You can do without finishing flooring, but simply paint the boards, cover them with varnish or other composition.

Wood is a high-quality and durable material with excellent performance and properties. However, in order for the flooring to fully show its properties, you, as a performer, are required to follow the instructions exactly and follow the recommendations received at each stage of work. Follow this simple guide and you'll be fine.