As per the previous post, you may have seen I have gone for a solid oak floor. Genuinely think that flooring is one of the major things money should be spent on during a renovation project. One of the last thing anyone wants to do when they move into a new house is have to rip up a floor and start again (trust me, I know…)
So, after the false start of me being drunk and laying it wrong, the floor has come on leaps and bounds! Am now just at the centre of the second hearth and ran out of fibreboard that acts as a levelling agent and thermal barrier against the cold air circulating under my suspended floor. Every piece is screwed down directly to the floorboards, hence why it is taking so long. Looks good though!
One absolutely indispensable tool I would recommend for anyone tackling a job like this and only has one cordless drill – a quick change drill bit set. This basically means you don’t need to undo the drill chuck to change from drill(when pre-drilling the guide holes in each plank) to the screw-driver head (to screw the screw in..duh). This must have saved me hours of work already, and is quite satisfying to chop and change in an instant. Mines Ryobi, got it as part of a great offer from Screwfix
What is the subfloor which requires the floor to be screwed down? Just interested as a DIYer and home inspector. Looks good so far! Glad you got the layout right, very crucial. Save the beer for end o’ day clean-up.
Hi Travis,
Doesn’t really ‘need’ to be screwed down but it would move around quite a bit if I didn’t. The floor is suspended on beams around 2 or 3 feet off the foundations and had basic pine floorboards running across them. Was thinking of sanding and polishing them but with the vents to the outside letting all that crisp snowy air in under the floor, it would have just been too cold. So have just screwed the new floor directly to the pine boards (with a fibreboard buffer between the two for that extra bit of insulation).
Nice job on the floors, reminds me of a few full home renovations I’ve done with my team. In fact one of our most recent projects included 2 floors of espresso stained, hand scraped oak floors to match with cork underlayment. Photos on our site under portfolio>uplands, full home renovation.