We started a flooring job today which should be fun     . We are laying 70mm insulation over Vis-queen which then has a layer T & G chipboard glued together then a layer of paper/cardboard on top of that. The final layer is the unusual bit we are using 4000mm x 400mm x 35mm thick solid wood (maybe engineered not seen it yet) not sure what wood as its not been delivered yet. This as far as I know is T & G too and we are screwing and pelleting this down to the chipboard. The client saw this floor somewhere and decided he wanted it in his house, the 4 m lengths are so that you don't have any end joints anywhere, the boards go the entire width of the room. There is no skirting either the floor has to be cut with and exact 10mm gap all the way around which will be filled with cork , sounds small to me but that's what they have specified.

Its a very odd house too, looks like a club or bar or something. The roof is all huge gluelam beams and T & G cladding, all doors are huge pocket doors and there is no plaster anywhere all the interior walls are bare brickwork. Looks to me like it was a 1980's experimental house or something.

Here is today's job to lay all the vis-queen and insulation. On to the chipboard tomorrow

It is unusual. 

Love the see pictures of it! 

Not fond of the brick work on show.  From the pictures doesn't look like they are really nice lookin bricks.

The 10mm gap does seem small to me also! Especially if your filling it with cork cus that does reduce the expansion slightly even though it is soft.

lol  I tend to leave 20-30 mm expansion gaps for flooring with no cork filler so lol 10mm is tiny in my crazy world.    I think Dean Social thinks im a little over the top now he has worked with me for a little bit now lol

JMB

Hi guys, I'm on mobile right now but when wifey gets off pc I will post today's pics. Flooring turned up today on a flat bed lorry. It's longer than I thought, some lengths are around 10 metres  . It's Douglas fir 35mm thick with loose tongues. We've been supplied with everything we need even some really nice drill counter bore drill bits to plug it all. It took about 4 people to safely carry the long lengths to give you some idea of the size. Most of the room is shorter luckily.

when i first read it i thought it was going to be floor panels like these http://www.bausenhardwoodflooring.co.uk/webapps/p/90676/257182/593188

I love to see these types of threads.

Is it normal to let the flooring acclimate to it's surroundings for a few weeks on your side of the pond?

Peter

Wow.  What a risk with boards that wide.  I am not criticizing you at all.

Peter

Finished off the chipboard flooring today, then we started setting out the Douglas fir boards. We have marks around 700mm apart starting 50mm in from the ends of the boards at each end of the room and the plan is to run a string line across every time we drill and fix so that the pellets are in a dead straight line. We have only cut in and fixed two boards so far but they seem to go together well and are nice and straight. As far as I know they were shipped in from Denmark, also found out that the home owner owns a chain of designer furniture shops in London , that explains the unusual choice of flooring  .

Regards letting the boards acclimatise to the room , I asked about that today and apparently the supplier says this stuff can be laid straight away and only needs to acclimatise in the winter. The drill bits they have supplied with everything are really nice. A 5mm spur bit with an adjustable outer cutter which cuts the counter bore, they cut really nice clean holes.

 

Wow I would love to be on that job..... I was browsing and found this web-site http://www.dinesen.com/eng/douglas_traets.php   is the floor from this crowd?
Douglas fir is lovely to work with and I hope it all goes together well for you. Have you found out how they plan to finish it? Must be tough on the old spinal column laying lenghts that long too.

I guess it should look something like this then

Yes, it appears to be from Dinesen here in Denmark. You'll notice their logo on the parcel left on the truck. They make some truly beautiful floors. There's a nice gallery on their web site: http://www.dinesen.com/eng/fronteng.php

- Kristian

Hi all, not had a chance to look at the website for dinesen but yes you are right that's who supplied it all. Apparently the client has this stuff in his shops. Had fun today we had to fiddle about ans swap around the two boards we laid yesterday we weren't happy with the setting out. Now its dead square etc and were happy . 4 of us today and we managed to fit all the longest boards out into the entrance hallway so now its just the shorter main room boards to lay. I've gotta cut in a floor socket box tomorrow should be fun.

The boards feel really dry but I don't know the exact moisture content. I know one thing they are beautiful and really well machined, they knock together really nice and are dead straight which I didn't expect.

Unloading tools this morning and the client spotted the festool boxes and said oh that's good you've got festool you MUST know what you're doing 

Will post another pic if I have time later.

The client told me that they can supply these boards even longer but they have to be tapered because of the shape of the trees. I haven't got a clue what finish it is they are using that's not my forte, I had a look and it says on some bottles "soap" others say "lye"  anyway we are not sanding or finishing that's down to someone else.

These pictures don't do it justice it really is a stunning floor I bet it will look amazing when its sanded and finished. Im not looking forward to putting in all the pellets   

We've only fixed at the ends and centre at the moment and will drill the rest at approx 700 centres using a string line when we are finished laying it all

Chris:
Amazing floor and boards. Thanks for the introduction to the company. The photo's of interiors on their website are beautiful.
Tim

We have finished laying most of the floor now just one small cupboard/room but we are waiting for a floor access/man hole cover that we have to fit in that bit. Today we finished laying in the main room and started sanding off the plugs with my Metabo ROS they sand down really nice and almost vanish after all the fuss we made string lining all the holes  .

Photo below of the floor socket almost finished, down to the floor sander/finisher now to do his bit now. When its all done the client has promised to email me some photos.

No worries Rob, I cut it out with my ts55 so that I wouldn't damage the centre peice so the grain matched. It's not finished either it will look sweet when its fully fitted. The socket is made up of a back box which I cut into the chipboard below the wood floor. Then the socket part fits into that with 4 bolts that act as legs, you wind these down into the back box to level it all up then the top flap part and surround screw to this.

Really nice floor I'm glad I got the chance to fit it makes a change from the usual hardwood floors we do.