Are You Ready for Oak Flooring?
Imagine a situation, wherein you have ordered your personalized oak flooring and are waiting eagerly to get it into your home. But the thought worth pondering over is, are you ready for it? Laying down your oak flooring might seem like an easy task; however, it is not as easy as it seems. Simply put, you need to take a few precautions, before you go ahead and install oak flooring within your house.
In order to get the best out of your solid oak flooring and engineered oak flooring, you need to take into consideration the following points, before driving in the nails.
Onsite Work: Is your house still undergoing renovations? Oak flooring should not be anywhere in the vicinity, if your house’s onsite work is still pending. If your house is still being renovated, and the flooring has been installed without the work being completed, chances are you might end up on the losing end of the deal. The oak floor would look used, and show a lot of wear and tear, once the onsite work is finished. For this very reason, cheap solid Oak flooring and cheap engineered Oak flooring should be avoided.
Subfloor: No matter the type of subfloor, the base needs to be well prepared and adeptly layered to get before the flooring installation. If new screeds are being used, they need to be poured long before the flooring takes place. If the screed is pending, then the flooring should not be bought into the area. Before installation, the screed needs to be dry enough to withhold the weight of the flooring. The screed’s moisture limit should not be beyond 4%. If the moisture content is more, or the screed is still wet, chances are that your oak flooring will be damaged in no time at all.
At the same time, since we are talking about subfloors, it is important to note that the subfloors needs to be leveled from all angles, before the oak flooring can be laid on top. Apart from the leveling, the corners and edges of the room need to be checked for rises and dips.
Plastering and Wall Work:
Plastering and wall work can be detrimental to the health of solid oak flooring and engineered oak flooring. Wet plaster will lead to the presence of moisture within the environment, which can be absorbed by the flooring boards. In order to avoid any unnecessary complications, it’s important to ensure that the floor boards are brought in and installed once the plastering and wall work is completed.
Natural Living Conditions:
The last condition is that everything within the room should showcase the true living conditions of the house. Apart from the flooring, is everything ready? Is the heating arrangement set? Do you have the walls painted in the color you finalized? Is the roof up and about? If there is any pending construction within the house, you should ensure that it is finished before the floors are installed. Simply put, the floor installation should be the last piece of installation within the house, to ensure that everything works seamlessly.
