If your ceramic tile has grout lines that give it texture, you will need to fill those in to make your flooring completely level. For instance, i will look at much older floors that were nailed into floor joists before the widespread use of subfloors. Furthermore, any new hardwood installed over has chances of rubbing against one another, causing squeaking. Cut a vnotch through the full length of the crack, 18 to 14 in. Experienced professionals pay close attention to managing moisture and minimizing wood floor expansion and contraction when preparing to install hardwood floors on concrete slabs. Dec 19, 2018 how to put down flooring on a cracked concrete slab. Wipe on a diagonal to avoid pulling filler out of the patch. It is sometimes difficult to be able to always maintain 30 50% relative humidity levels, but if you make a valid effort. Do i need to repair cracks in concrete before laying laminate. Also, any squeaking or loose areas of the old hardwood flooring will need to be screwed down firmly into the subfloor andor floor joists.
Can i install stone or tile right over cracks in our foundation. If i do this, do i need a felt or tarp underlayment, between the linoleum and hardwood boards. Id like to install a tile floor over the slab, but im worried that the tile will crack. This expansion and contraction can result in the flooring coming loose from the subfloor. Discover tips for installing hardwood floors or planks, plus ideas for refinishing hardwood floors. Hardwood floors will buckle if they are subjected to excess water.
My husband and i are considering laying vinyl plank flooring down in most of our 720 sq ft apt minus the bathroom. The plywood is layed over unfinished boards that are nailed to the joists. Installing wood flooring over vinyl flooring wood and. When ordering hardwood flooring, allow 1015 percent. And it has only been in a conditioned state for just a week or so heat or air. You could have your new floor sooner than you think. The process involves allowing the hardwood planks to sit within the room or rooms in which they will be installed for a minimum of two weeks. Oct 25, 2019 using a plastic trowel or a plastic spatula, lay the sawdustglue mixture into the cracks. Over time, floor cracks can get worse and end up costing you thousands of. Ive got cracks between the tongue and groove boards of my hardwood floor in certain places.
Before the flooring is delivered, run the central air or heat for 14 days to establish the normal moisture content of the air and help dry any residual moisture. Install the right flooring for the situation any type of flooring may be used over properly repaired shrinkage cracks if the entire concrete surface of the pad is leveled and sealed. If this is a naildown over a wood subfloor installation, lay down a moisture. To test for the flatness for laying laminate flooring on an uneven subfloor, lay a 10foot long 2x4 board. Can you install hardwood flooring over ceramic tile. Installing a hardwood floor over a concrete slab even if your home was built on a concrete slab, you can still enjoy the beauty and charm of hardwood floors. Yes, you can lay a wood floor over tile if the existing floor is in good shape and without cracks. Before you install any flooring material over a concrete slab, it is important to. Fixing cracks and squeaks in hardwood floors american. You must first lay a damp proof membrane over the concrete, then lay out the battens on top of the membrane. We also need to raise the level of the new floor about a 12 to 34 of an inch to meet existing hardwood.
They should be laid 400mm apart and should be at least 25mm deep so that they do not warp later. What causes squeaky floor boards if you have hardwood floors, it is likely that, you will someday have squeaks. Solid wood flooring must be glued down directly onto the screed, and engineered wood flooring can be either glued down or floated over an underlay without being fixed into place. First question, can i just nail hard wood flooring right over the linoleum. For many years, vinyl was laid over perfectly good wood flooring to create a more up to date at the time look. How to put down flooring on a cracked concrete slab home. Have the flooring delivered a few days in advance and store it. Using nails of sufficient length to catch the plywood. Looking to install hardwood flooring over a slatestone floor. Cracks along skirting boards solve permanently youtube. All about installing hardwood floors over different subfloors. Installing hardwood over asbestos tiles homeadvisor. Most concrete subfloor consists of a sand and cement screed mixture.
Using a plastic trowel or a plastic spatula, lay the sawdustglue mixture into the cracks. Either solid wood flooring or engineered wood flooring can be fitted onto a concrete subfloor. Almost immediately my floors started cupping, some areas are raised and some have vertical cracks in the wood. If the flooring is not allowed to acclimate, the boards may expand or contract beyond the limits of the environment. Can i lay laminate flooring over existing hardwood floors. Controlling the homes humidity between these two seasonal extremes is the most important factor in preventing cracks in your hardwood floor or in the opposite extreme, buckling. The entire area is currently covered with a single layer of wellinstalled linoleum. So it is a floating floor and it feels like im walking on a trampoline. The boards will adjust to the range of temperature and humidity within the building.
This will give you a much more stable and quieter base for your new floor. The 34 hardwood is currently laid on diagonal 1x6 dimensional lumber. Using a higher quality engineered wood construction will help to minimize gaps, cracks and splits within the wood and they can withstand a slightly wider range of relative humidity level changes before showing problems. Oct 06, 2016 industry groups such as the national wood flooring association and certified flooring installers cfi have created guidelines for quality installation of hardwood and engineered wood flooring.
There are solutions to squeaking, even if carpeting covers your hardwood floor, or there is no access to the floorboards from below. Wipe the patch and adjacent flooring with a damp rag to wipe off any excess. If you want to neutralize your asbestos but arent ready for an expensive removal, consider installing new flooring directly over your asbestos tiles. Floor cracks can be a sign of foundation problems in ohio and pennsylvania. It provides detailed instructions for installing hardwood flooring over a wood substructure. Lay plywood diagonally across the direction of the finished floor to help prevent cracks along panel edges. Cracks in the concrete will lead to an uneven surface for installation and will often produce dust that can contaminate the laminate and the material used to hold it in place. Most wood flooring installed on concrete are glued type installations, while others are floated. The old floor is on a concrete slab, above grade used to be a covered porch, but was finished in 1981, i think. The vertical displacement associated with settlement. This type of flooring is a new generation of timber flooring that uses cross engineering to create a threelayered floorboard, resulting in longer and wider boards, than traditional solid floorboards. If you notice any issues, use a leveling compound to prepare your floor for the pad and carpet.
Carpet is often the safest option to install over a shifting foundation. Before you install any flooring material over a concrete slab, it is important to inspect the slab for defects. Donna asks, we are thinking about replacing our tile floor in the kitchen. Those guidelines include such things as properly acclimating the new wood before installing it often by leaving it in the home over some period of time. Causes of basement floor cracks and what to do about them. Carpeting or laminate flooring with a foam membrane underlayment. Howto repair large cracks in the ceiling drywall from the home settling wish i had. I am wanting to install real hardwood flooring over my wood sub floor.
If the hardwood flooring is composed of narrow boards with a very smooth, flat surface, you could leave the flooring in place and screw cement backer board down on top of it before applying the tile. Installing new hardwood over older wood floors can be extremely time saving in lieu of removal that can become expensive, dirty, and even dangerous depending on how the original floor was installed. When i moved into my house 1 12 years ago i had carpet and ceramic floors removed and new hickory prefinished hardwood put in my entire downstairs. Installing hardwood flooring over concrete how tos diy how to install engineered wood over concrete tos diy installing hardwood flooring over concrete how tos diy 10 fashionable how to lay engineered hardwood flooring over.
Learn why basement floors crack and whether the cracks in your basement floor are. Without knowing the type of laminent that youre purchasing, ill just go ahead and assume that youre using the least expensive type for argument sake. How to fix a crack between hardwood floor planks home guides. Laminate planks can pull apart, and gaps can appear between hardwood planks.
In consequence of this the old hardwood floor will be used as a subfloor, so there is no need to tear it off. How to lay laminate flooring over an uneven floor hunker. Installing wood flooring over vinyl flooring this entry was posted on may 4, 2012 by jonathan sapir although not always straightforward, in principle there is no reason why wood flooring cant be installed over vinyl flooring. Im putting hardwood floors in my kitchen and living room, which next to each other. Lastly, installing a new floor on an existing one may require you to use a different room transition strip. Although squeaks can be caused by improperly fastening the floor to the subfloor, more often squeaks are not caused by defects in the wood or poor workmanship. Hardwood floors will usually shrink in the winter months and expand in the summer months. Hardwood floor defect repairs cracks in hardwood repairable lighting highlights problems practice installing and staining flooring dear tim. He also said that with 2 layers of hardwood flooring you would have even more movement of the floor and that the finish would develop cracks in the near future. Have the flooring delivered a few days in advance and store it flat in the room where it will be installed.
Settlement cracks in a slab indicate inadequate site preparation, such as failure to compact fill on which a slab was poured. Fasten plywood to the slab with poweractuated fasteners, securing the center of the panel first, then the edges, spacing fasteners 2 from the edges every 68 along the perimeter and 1 fastener spaced approximately 12 apart within the interior of the panel. How to lay a solid hardwood floor hardwood floor fitting. I want the hardwood to be at the same level in both rooms so i dont need a threshold between. When inflexible flooring is installed over a substrate that dips or heaves, various things can go wrong. Installing a prefinished, engineered hardwood floor over concrete duration. However, warranties usually only last between six months and a year. Dec 15, 2016 static engineered joints, and small, inplane cracks can be relocated to line up with the tile edges. Legal claims for defective hardwood floor installation levy. How to tile over hardwood flooring todays homeowner.
It is manufactured with a thin surface layer of hardwood and a core thats more like plywood. Install a backer rod for cracks over 14 inch before you caulk. Not all cracks necessarily point to foundation problems. Painted concrete can be made porous with sandblasting or other hard. Whenever you install hardwood flooring over any type of subfloor, you must ensure that it is completely level. The florida home i just purchased has many cracks in the concrete slab, some of them 10 ft.
Industry groups such as the national wood flooring association and certified flooring installers cfi have created guidelines for quality installation of hardwood and engineered wood flooring. Bear in mind, though, that you may need to do a second filling later on if the filler comes out of the floor or cracks due to improper filling. While installing hardwood floors in the winter presents some challenges, if youre ready for new hardwood floors, you dont need to wait. If not, moisture could pool underneath the cracks causing serious damage to your new floors. How to lay engineered hardwood flooring on concrete. Eventually even the bestbuilt houses develop a few cracks due to settling, usually around doors and windows. For example, if a toilet overflows and the water reaches the hardwood hallway, the hardwood planks swell with moisture. Shrinkage cracks in a slab are unlikely to be of any structural concern but can be a source of water entry or radon entry in buildings and may form a tripping hazard. Use an appropriate crack isolation membrane based on tcna detail f125 for partial coverage. If the hardwood flooring is installed nailed down parallel to the direction of the old wood flooring the new wood floors could pull apart leaving open gaps or. One of the locations is in front of my refrigerator where the ice maker supply line developed a. Engineered wood floors or laminate floors may be an option on a shifting floor if they are laid over.
Yes, providing your tile is flat you can install an engineered floating floor. Cracks and gaps can be filled with portland cementbased fillers. How to lay wood flooring onto concrete the wood flooring. Installing hardwood and solid wood flooring if you are unsure about how to lay a wood floor then please contact us for our specialist advice. Expanding foam secures from all movement so the crack never returns. Make sure that you use a carpet padding under the carpet that wont slip on the finished surface of the wood flooring. I would suggest 38 thick, prefinished engineered hardwood flooring or easy to install laminate flooring.
He suggested floating an engineered hardwood floor over the old hardwood floor. The best type of flooring choice for a shifting foundation hunker. Look at the board where it touches the subfloor and see if there are any dips, bumps or otherwise uneven areas. Also, sudden temperature or moisture humidity changes will affect expansion and contraction changes.
Engineered wood flooring is often thinner than solid wood flooring. Any type of flooring may be used over properly repaired shrinkage cracks if the entire concrete surface of the pad is leveled and sealed. Give svb wood flooring a call today, at 816 9658655 to get a free, inhome estimate. That being said we understand that it is impossible, and undesirable to spend the day studying your humidistat, and some homes, especially older ones will always. Oct 20, 2016 cracks along skirting boards solve permanently. One or two additional applications may be necessary. Why on earth would one install faux hardoood over real hardwood. Using a plastic trowel or a plastic spatula, lay the sawdust glue mixture into the cracks. Second question, the linoleum floor is already higher, albeit less than 14, with an existing old wood floor it butts. Hardwood floor gaps and how to fix them builddirectlearning. Installing a hardwood floor over a concrete slab american.
How to repair hardwood floor cracks do it right not over. Get stepbystep instruction on how to install hardwood floors in any room. Manufacturer recommended hardwood flooring cleaner. Some installers consider that the new hardwood floor can go directly on the top with a felt paper and can be nailed down. Choose the hardwood species and board widths for the room installation.
How to install hardwood flooring complete instructions. The end result is that the original wood flooring aka reclaimed wood flooring could be waiting under the vinyl, just waiting for its renaissance. How to install hardwood flooring over an uneven hardwood. Fasten plywood to the slab with poweractuated fasteners, securing the center of the panel first, then the edges, spacing fasteners 2 from the edges every 68 along the perimeter and 1 fastener spaced approximately 12 apart. Frost heaves or expansive soil damage can cause substantial damage to basement, crawl space, or garage floor slabs in some conditions.
The best approach would be to remove the wood flooring and screw down a layer of 58 or thicker plywood followed by a layer of 12. Lay 34inch exteriorgrade plywood over the moisture barrier, leaving a 34inch space at the walls and 18 inch between panels and affix the plywood to the subfloor. Its very disappointing and the installer said it is floating so there will always be some give. If you choose the floating plywood method, lay down two layers of 38, 12 or 58inch plywoodorienting the sheets in the upper layer perpendicular to those in the lower. First, the quietwalk padding was installed then the hardwood. All the materials lumber, wood flooring, concrete, paint, etc. I would suggest 38 thick, prefinished engineered hardwood flooring. Others suppose that the old existing hardwood floor should be completely removed, and only then installed the new. I recently got an engineered wood floor over gypcrete.
Is it possible to lay hardwood over an existing tile floor. At the bottom, we provide links to posts on the tools we use and frequently recommend for hardwood. Do i need to repair cracks in concrete before laying. It chronicles tutorials for each step of the process, derived from our installation of 34 inch solid, tongueandgroove brazilian walnut hardwoods in our own home. Dec 09, 2015 yes, you can install hardwood floors over ceramic tile, but with a few exceptions. If you are looking at install a floating floor, take a look at engineered hardwood flooring. If you intend to install the floor yourself, engineeredwood flooring is usually the best bet because it is prefinished, eliminating the need for sanding and finishing the floor, which dramatically simplifies the job. Often when damage is a result of improper installation, repairs will be covered by an installers warranty one reason why its recommended to hire a professional flooring contractor install your floor. Tom meehan, a tile installer and owner of cape cod tileworks in harwich, massachusetts, replies. I want the hardwood to be at the same level in both rooms so i dont need a threshold between the rooms. These hills and valleys will eventually lead to unwanted bouncy spots, squeaks and groans in the final laminate floor. Yes, my impression is they were trying to build up the floor to be near level with the abutting wood floor in an adjacent room.
After removing our carpet, we have decided we never want carpet again because of all the dirt and junk we found underneath it and the. Measure the width and length of the room and multiply for the square footage. Some styles of engineered wood can be glued to well secure ceramic tiles. This is flexible, foam material sold in lengths, like rope. Concrete cracks due to inclusions of shale and iron sulfide mineral pyrrhotite cracking. How to lay engineered hardwood flooring over concrete. The safest way to approach questionable concrete is not to cover it over with cbus but to fix the concrete. Should i remove vinyl flooring before laying down hardwood. The kitchen has vinyl flooring, so it is slightly higher than the living room, which has carpet on subfloor. Floor cracks common foundation problems matthews wall anchor. Before installing new carpet, be sure that there are no missing tiles or large cracks in your floor. It is possible to nail down solid wood flooring over a concrete subfloor, but this can only be done by using battens. I am having hardwood floors installed in my living room, front entry way, and dining room.
Installing wood flooring over concrete home design directory. Repair any cracks in the floor before installing flooring. Installing new hardwood over older wood floors can be extremely time saving in lieu of removal that can become expensive, dirty, and even dangerous depending on how the original floor was installed for instance, i will look at much older floors that were nailed into floor joists before the widespread use of subfloors. Top 5 tips for crack isolation in tile assemblies youtube. Learn how to fix them the right way, so they dont come back. Hardwood floors are the most difficult to install over existing tile. Solid wood flooring is extremely coveted bcause it is beautiful and elegant, and gives a beautifully warm feeling to your home throughout the years. The basic rules of laying laminate flooring dictate that the subfloor over which it is laid must be completely clean, flat and structurally sound. Because the wood needs to accommodate this excess moisture, it moves upward and the expansion causes it to buckle. Watch as pros and homeowners tackle a hardwood floor installation. What to do if your floor has been improperly installed networx. There are some cracks in the foundation which weve been told are settling cracks because of the age of the house. My preferred contractor says that he would recommend installing over the linoleum that it.
If the hardwood floor is in fair shape, good wood, no rot etc. Hardwood lasts longer than other flooring options, and it can be refinished several times or restained to change the appearance. Asbestos is only harmful when its airborne, so installing a wood floor over your asbestos tile is the easiest way to avoid disturbing any dangerous particles. Place a cloth or towel over the area and work the powder in by stepping on the towel. Tile cannot be attached directly to painted concrete, as the thinset will not adhere well to the paint. Cracks in the concrete will lead to an uneven surface for installation and will often produce dust that can contaminate the laminate and the material used to. My preferred contractor says that he would recommend installing over the linoleum that it will result in a better floor, less squeaks, and will. Legal claims for defective hardwood floor installation. Settlement cracks result from a deficiency in the original construction, the. Or, install a basementappropriate flooringsuch as tile, indooroutdoor carpeting, linoleum, or a floating laminateover the concrete subfloor.