oak flooring

[spline102]

is grippfill the right stuff to fix an oak floor with as i have little confidence in my flooring contractor and this is what they have used

[Joiner-John]

I deffo wdnt use gripfill 2 fit any flooring. It needs to be able to expand & contract naturally or else it will buckle and cause all sorts of probs in the future.

[RATTER15]

Doesn't sound like a good idea to me!!

[jake-the-peg]

Is this a real oak floor not a laminate?

It needs to be nailed to the sub floor - it's not being glued directly onto concrete is it?

[spline102]

thanks for your answers
the wood floor they have fitted is real oak and its subfloor is majority chipboard bits are concrete but it has all been fixed with grippfill what method should they be using

[bookermel]

If it's standard thickness oak boards it should not be glued as J-John explains. However there are a few timber systems that are becoming popular which are similar to a laminate, or engineered boards. Some of these are glued to create a floating floor or overlay system. They need to be laid on to a suitable underlay or in some cases a floor paper They are only glued to each other and not to the subfloor. Like other timber floors it is important to leave an expansion gap around the whole perimeter.
If it is a traditional Oak floor then the boards should be laid on to battens over the concrete and either screwed or nailed. It may also be necessary to ensure that the fixings are suitable to fix to the concrete subfloor if it is important to limit the thicknes of the battens. Occassionaly it may be necessary to lay directly to concrete this is less desirable and will require a suitable dampproof membrane to be used as an underlay.

[bookermel]

Sorry I've only noticed thjat the subfloor is mainly chipboard? Why did they not remove the chipboard? and fix to the joists below? This might flag up more expensive subfloor issues, but surely if you are replacing a floor with oak you would want the job done properly? Sounds like a dodgy shortcut to me! Also were the boards left in the room to acclimatise for a few weeks? and expansion gap left?

[spline102]

thanks for all your help after seeking a second opinion i have now sacked the contractor and have employed another to carry out the work
the new contractor has removed all the flooring and has over boarded the whole sub floor with 18mm ply but they wont be fitting new floor for 1 week so that the oak can adjust to the new room so all being well should be down next week then i can finally open my re-vamped function room which is now nearly 5 weeks over original 4 week contract

once again thanks for all your advice