Engineered Wood Flooring - Requirements on the subfloor
Requirements on the subfloor
Basic requirements for installing engineered wood flooring are that the substrate is stable, clean, dry and even. Irregularities exceeding 3mm per 1m have to be evened out with a suitable filler/ spackle. When installing on an old hardwood floor or on particleboard flooring any loose planks need to be screwed with the sub-structure to help silencing potential squeaks in the old floor. The new floorboards should be installed in transverse direction to the old boards. For both stability and health reasons, textile floors are not suitable as a substrate and have got to be removed. Installation on PVC-, CV- and linoleum-flooring is possible only if the floor coverings are glued-down over their entire surface and no lose areas are present. Also, the floor coverings must not have subfloor heating underneath.
Screed floors must not exceed the following residual moisture levels:
Generally, moisture level measurements of screed floors should always be conducted with a suitable measuring device. For reasons of precaution a 0.2 mm thick PE-foil should always be used as a moisture barrier on top of the screed floor (the individual foil strips need to overlap at least 30cm, overlaps are fixed with adhesive tape; all around the room the foil needs to run up the walls for several centimeters and can be trimmed down with a cutting knife after the skirtings have been installed). Alternatively, you could use Duo-Protect, a product that combines both transmission noise insulation and moisture barrier in one.
Basic requirements for installing engineered wood flooring are that the substrate is stable, clean, dry and even. Irregularities exceeding 3mm per 1m have to be evened out with a suitable filler/ spackle. When installing on an old hardwood floor or on particleboard flooring any loose planks need to be screwed with the sub-structure to help silencing potential squeaks in the old floor. The new floorboards should be installed in transverse direction to the old boards. For both stability and health reasons, textile floors are not suitable as a substrate and have got to be removed. Installation on PVC-, CV- and linoleum-flooring is possible only if the floor coverings are glued-down over their entire surface and no lose areas are present. Also, the floor coverings must not have subfloor heating underneath.
Screed floors must not exceed the following residual moisture levels:
| Anhydrite flow screed | Cement screed | |||
| without subfloor heating | max. 0.5 CM % | max. 2.0 CM % | ||
| with subfloor heating | max. 0.3 CM % | max. 1.5 CM % | ||
Generally, moisture level measurements of screed floors should always be conducted with a suitable measuring device. For reasons of precaution a 0.2 mm thick PE-foil should always be used as a moisture barrier on top of the screed floor (the individual foil strips need to overlap at least 30cm, overlaps are fixed with adhesive tape; all around the room the foil needs to run up the walls for several centimeters and can be trimmed down with a cutting knife after the skirtings have been installed). Alternatively, you could use Duo-Protect, a product that combines both transmission noise insulation and moisture barrier in one.