Preparing your floor for laminate flooring is quick and easy. Painting a wooden floor with your own hands: choosing what to paint and how to properly prepare the floor How to level the floor using DSP

It is inexpensive, practical and beautiful material. It has many benefits. Also important are the facts that laying laminate flooring is simple and convenient.

In order for such quality indicators to be fully disclosed, it is worth carrying out better preparatory work. Most importantly, do not forget about the preparatory work before laying the laminate. This is one of the most important works, which affects the quality of work and the final result. When the preparatory steps are done correctly, the life of the coating will depend only on the manufacturers chosen.

Foundation preparation and the importance of such work

Many people know that laminate is considered a rather whimsical material. And this expression is correct. It is important to pay attention to the plane of the base. If the gaps, bumps or cracks (in the wooden floor) are not fixed, then there will be problems.
This applies to cracks and uneven concrete screed. This can be explained by the fact that when pressing on the material under which the tubercle is located, this place gradually yields to deformation. The load is transferred to places that, with constant overloads, are capable of swelling, after a certain time, defects appear in such places.

One of worst enemies laminate flooring is indoor humidity.
Water can enter from any direction. For this reason, it is worthwhile to properly ventilate the room, as well as waterproofing. It is important to pay attention to cement screed condition so that there are no defects and deep cracks.

In a wooden floor, everything looks a little different, but in any case, it is worthwhile to correctly assess the situation and remove unpleasant places that pose a threat to the future coating.

Dismantling of the old coating

The first stage of work in preparing the base is the dismantling of old coatings. Many floors do not need such procedures, and no matter what will be laid - carpet, or. The main requirement for surfaces is that the plane difference is small. More precisely, it can be said that per 1 sq. m should be a difference of about 2-3 mm.

When dismantling works take place, they are recommended to be done clearly and with caution. In no case should the old concrete screed be damaged.

Wooden floors, in addition, must be smooth and durable. Also, they should not make any squeaks. When low-quality boards are present in the old flooring, they must be replaced.
In any case, the base must be further leveled.

Laying laminate flooring on a concrete floor: Leveling a concrete floor

If a more thorough inspection has been carried out and it was clear that the condition of the flooring is in good condition, then the surface should be primed. After that, proceed to the installation work.

When there are irregularities on the concrete screed, they are puttied. If the irregularities are large, then the surface of the old screed should be updated.

The sequence of actions during the preparatory work when laying the laminate on the concrete floor:

• General cleaning of the surface is done, at this time it is recommended to use a broom or a vacuum cleaner.
• Using tile adhesive, it is worth covering up cracks or chips present in the screed.
• The base of the floor, which has already been removed, is treated with a special primer. It should be with deep penetration.
• The mixture is prepared in accordance with the recommendations that are indicated in the instructions. If you determine the state of the solution by eye, visually, it should be creamy.
• If everything is done correctly, then a self-leveling screed mixture is poured. At this time, the solution should be more evenly distributed over the entire surface plane.
• After working on applying the screed, you should know that air remains in it. It is recommended to drive it out by rolling out. For this, a roller is used.
• The leveler dries out during the day, but laying work is not recommended to be done immediately. You have to wait a while, about three or four days.

The final stage of the preparatory work, laying the laminate on the concrete floor, is the laying of high-quality substrates. They provide satisfactory thermal and noise performance, protecting the laminate from moisture damage.

Cork flooring is considered the most environmentally friendly underlay material, but foamed polyethylene films are more commonly used today.

Laying laminate on a wooden floor: preparing a wooden base

If the floor is made of wood, then it should be carefully considered so as not to miss anything. During the inspection, it is worthwhile to find out the strength indicators. If it is cracked or somehow damaged, then it is recommended to change the damaged parts.

It is important to check the surface for slopes. The difference should not exceed 1 m -3 mm. If they are larger, then you will have to level them.

Features of the leveling process when laying laminate on a wooden floor:

• boards that are damaged should be replaced immediately;
• if unsuitable nails or protruding elements are found, then it is recommended to remove them or drive them inward;
• parts such as floorboards must be drawn to;
• during the alignment of the plane, laying and fixing can be done, its thickness may vary, depending on preferences.

Wooden parts should be treated with special impregnations that will not allow the material to rot or deteriorate. It will be like a kind of shell. For this purpose, use a simple or automotive oil, which is used.

After carrying out the necessary work, the entire surface must be inspected and sanded.

How to level the floor using DSP

Sometimes for high-quality leveling of the surface today special plates are used, which are made on the basis of cement and shavings.

To carry out such work, it is necessary to do all the work correctly.

• boards are laid out using a building level, if necessary, substrates are laid out under them - these are kind of sheets made of;
• the structure must be securely fastened;
• the next stage of work is the cutting of cement-bonded particle boards according to a predetermined size;
• plates are distributed on top of the structure;
• with the application, it is worth fixing all the elements, remembering that the flatness at the very end should be clearly checked.

If a heating system is being installed, then the preparatory work will be a little specific.

1. In order for the floor, which is made of, not to be so cold, they are glued on the base of the screed. It must be strengthened with special ones.
2. A certain gap is left between the plywood sheets. It has dimensions of 3-5 mm. This gap will be needed so that when the humidity indicators increase, the sheets do not rest anywhere and do not rise.
3. When the screed is made in such a way that pipes or other communications pass through it, then the places of their passage are marked with chalk. After that, all drawings are recommended to be applied to plywood sheets.
4. When leveling the floor using a bulk mixture, all cracks are primed, which are in the old screed. It is important to pay attention to the places that are near the pipes. In case of cracks, they are covered with tile adhesive. This will prevent, for example, when installing self-leveling floors, the mixture will pass into the crack

Preparing the floors for the future laying of the floor from the laminate requires more careful fulfillment of many technological requirements. In any case, it is worth choosing the right materials for such work so that the result is more comforting.

The quality of laying tiles in a wooden house directly depends on the preparation of the base. Laying tiles or porcelain stoneware can be carried out both on the floors on the ground and on the beams. Let's talk about how to properly prepare the base for laying tiles on a wooden beamed floor with your own hands.

Basic requirements for tile floor construction

Floors made of porcelain stoneware or tiles must comply with the operational construction and sanitary requirements for the premises where they are installed. If this is a private wooden house, then tile floors are most often arranged in wet rooms (bathroom, sauna, etc.) or where water can get on the floor (toilet, kitchen).

The tiled floor washes well and withstands frequent wet cleanings, so the tiles are also laid in rooms where the floor surface is heavily soiled (utility rooms, hallway, etc.). The quality of a tile or porcelain stoneware floor is determined by its following properties:

• rigid and durable floor construction;
• smooth, non-slip and even surface;
• resistance to high temperatures;
• moisture resistance;
• high abrasion resistance;
• resistance of the coating to the chemical attack of substances (acids, alkalis).

To keep unexpected water leaks in bathrooms and toilet rooms, the floor in them is arranged at least 15 cm lower than in adjacent rooms. The junction of the tiled floor to the wall must be protected by a waterproof skirting board.

The clearance when laying a two-meter control rail for tiling on the floor surface is provided for up to 4 mm. When arranging a slope in the construction of a clean floor, its size is allowed 0.2% and 2 cm. The deviation in height between adjacent tiles should not be more than 1 mm.

When laying a tiled coating on adhesive compositions, the adhesion strength to separation is allowed at least 0.5 MPa for cement adhesive compositions and 2.0 MPa for polymer adhesives.

The air gap in the floors along the wooden beams should not be connected to the smoke ducts of stoves and fireplaces, as well as ventilation ducts. With a room area of ​​​​more than 25 m 2, the air space in the floors is partitioned off with boards, dividing it into compartments with an area of ​​\u200b\u200bno more than 5x6 m 2.

Floors made of piece materials (tiles, porcelain stoneware), with insufficient rigidity of their design, become “unsteady”. This creates compressive stresses in the top layer of the wood floor and leads to the destruction of the tiled floor.

The maximum deflection of the beam should be no more than 2 mm. The deflection of a wooden deck is limited to 0.1 mm (calculated for a concentrated load of 0.6 kN).

Permissible loads on the flooring are determined by the calculation of the deflection and "unsteadiness" of the beam ceiling and wooden flooring. As a result, for a given span of a beam (plating) and the load on them, the required section of these elements is selected.

These constructive measures are used both in the construction of the house and in the reconstruction of the floor. In the latter case, the structure is checked for the effect of existing loads and spans of floor elements. If, as a result of installing a floor made of tiles (porcelain stoneware), an increase in the weight of the supporting structure occurs, this is also taken into account in the calculation.

The classic composition of the floor in a wooden beamed ceiling:

1. Wooden beams.
2. Draft floor from a solid flooring of boards or wooden shields laid on a cranial bar of a beam.
3. Insulation and vapor barrier for rooms with different temperature conditions of operation (attic and basement floors).
4. Clean floor.

The design of the wooden floor: 1 - cranial bar; 2 - draft floor; 3 - beam; 4 - vapor barrier; 5 - waterproofing; 6 - insulation; 7 - air gap; 8 - clean floor (floorboard)

For a clean tile or porcelain stoneware floor under a tiled floor, an even and rigid base is required. It consists of solid boardwalk, screed and adhesive composition. It is possible to reduce the compressive stress of the "clothes" of the floor by installing a reinforced or dry screed, as well as using a damper tape around the perimeter of the coating.

Floor preparation for a clean tile floor

All wooden elements of the existing floor, on which it is necessary to lay tiles, must be inspected. To do this, the floor is opened up to the rough flooring and beams. In case of detection of defects in biocorrosion or wood strength, replacement or repair of damaged structural parts is carried out.

Even if the wooden elements are not damaged, they must be thoroughly antiseptic. Insulation and vapor barrier also need to be checked for loss of operational properties (caking, wetting, decay, integrity violation, etc.). The heat insulator, which increases the coefficient of thermal conductivity when wet, must be protected from above with a vapor barrier.

At the same time, one should not forget about the air gap that separates the insulation and the top flooring from the boards, the size of which is at least 3 cm. If it is possible to leave the existing flooring, its surface is cleaned of the old coating (paint, varnish, etc.). To do this, you can use a building hair dryer, chemical "washes", sandpaper or a simple scraper.

Before laying the wooden covering around the perimeter of the floor, a compensator for possible wood deformations from a damper tape is installed on the wall. It is attached to the wall with an adhesive coating or some kind of fastener. Instead of tape, you can use mounting foam.

Boards are laid with gaps of 3-5 mm, also to prevent deformation stresses in the flooring. It is advisable to fill all the gaps between the individual elements of the wooden coating with an elastic sealant.

Since the installation of a tile floor is justified in rooms associated with frequent use of water, wooden flooring is protected by roll materials, bituminous, bitumen-polymer mastics or moisture-proof cement mortars in at least 2 layers.

Screed device

Next, you need a leveling screed device. For the dry version of the underlying layer, moisture-resistant plywood sheets, wood chipboard, wood fiber boards are used. They are attached to the wooden flooring with self-tapping screws, and the joints are filled with the appropriate sealant or adhesive for fixing the tiles.

The screed over the moisture insulation layer from the cement-sand mortar is made using bituminous mastic with sand dressing (sand fraction 1.5-5 mm) or a rolled waterproofing layer with factory dressing. On a wooden floor, the screed must be reinforced. These can be grids:

• from metal wire VR-I with a diameter of 3-5 mm;
• polymer nets made of polypropylene;
• fiberglass alkali-resistant with a diameter of 4-6 mm;

Scheme of laying tiles on a wooden base: 1 - cranial bars; 2 - floor beam; 3 - wooden flooring; 4 - vapor barrier; 5 - thermal insulation; 6 - waterproofing; 7 - floor board; 8 - roll or coating waterproofing; 9 - reinforced screed; 10 - tile

Fiber is also used to reinforce the screeds. This is a fibrous material that is made from polypropylene, basalt or glass. There is also steel fiber, which is added directly to the dry mortar and mixed thoroughly. Then water is poured in, and stirring continues for another 10 minutes.

The thickness of the screed in this embodiment is 10-15 mm. Compensatory elastic gap along the perimeter of the floor is performed to the entire height of the screed. The floor of cement-sand tiles must actually be separated from the structure of the wooden floor and walls (floating floor) so that the integrity of the tiled floor is not violated in case of possible deformations of the wood.

The next step is the application of an adhesive composition that matches the floor covering. These can be cement or polymer adhesive compositions. So, for example, a two-component polyurethane adhesive composition is quite suitable. The thickness of the layer should be 2-3 mm.

It is possible to lay a floor made of tiles or porcelain stoneware on a wooden floor. It is important to take into account all the recommendations of professionals and regulatory requirements for the technology of the device of this floor.

Laminate is one of the young coatings. Preparing your floor for laminate flooring is the first step in laying the floor for longevity. Installation should begin on a level surface. Preparatory work involves not only manipulations with the surface, but also with the material. Laminate flooring should be brought into the room 48 hours before the laying process.

Before laying laminate flooring, the floor surface must be carefully prepared.

Preparing the floor for laying involves bringing its performance to the norm, assuming compliance with the permissible slope, which should not exceed 2 mm per 1 m. The panels must be protected from steam and moisture, which can be achieved by laying a film, the thickness of which should be equal to 200 microns. And if you want to lay the panels in accordance with all the rules, then you need to strengthen the substrate under the laminate, which can be polyurethane foam, cork or other material. This layer acts as a heat and sound insulator, in addition, it is a buffer that prevents cracks and kinks from appearing on the canvases.

Tools and materials

To complete the work you will need:

• Scotch;
• polyethylene film;
• foamed polyurethane;
• self-tapping screws;
• self leveling mix.

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Preparatory work before installing laminate flooring

Self-levelling mix will quickly hide all the differences on the concrete floor.

Preparing the floor before installing the laminate involves more thorough work compared to other floor coverings, as a result, the base should not only be perfectly flat, but also smooth.

The base can be:

• concrete;
• linoleum;
• tile;
• wood.

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Concrete floor preparation

The film will serve as a vapor barrier under the laminate.

The concrete floor can be used as a base for the laminate after it has completely dried, which will happen one month after the mortar has been poured. If the laying of the laminate is to be carried out on a long-poured base of the concrete floor, which is covered with a different finish, the old decorative material will first have to be disposed of. Next, you should analyze the condition of the concrete floor, it should not have cracks and irregularities. If there are errors, they must be eliminated using a self-leveling mixture. If there is more serious damage, the old concrete floor must be disposed of in order to create a new screed.

High-quality preparation of the floor for the laminate is of great importance so that this beautiful and practical finishing material can show all its advantages to the fullest.

Modern laminate is a material for creating a functional and elegant environment in any home. Its installation is convenient and as simple as possible, and caring for it does not cause any problems. But he is able to demonstrate all his positive qualities only if you properly prepare the floor base for its installation.

In situations where the laminate flooring is mounted on a poorly leveled floor, it quickly fails and loses its wonderful appearance.

Installation of laminate flooring

A variety of irregularities and gaps in the concrete screed, tubercles and cracks in the wooden base are literally deadly for the laminate. This is due to the fact that in such areas the interlocks of laminated products experience strong overloads. Naturally, excessive loads lead to the failure of the laminate. In addition, the material of interest to us is afraid of moisture penetrating into it from rotten wooden boards or from cracks in a concrete base.

If you do not take care of replacing or properly sealing all the gaps on the old floor, the entire external gloss of the laminate will come to naught. And after a while you won't be able to walk on it at all. For these reasons, the preparation of the base for the laminate must be carried out truly responsibly and efficiently. Only in this way will you get at your disposal a practical and beautiful floor in your home, which can be used for decades.

All work on the arrangement of a concrete or wooden base for laying a laminate is easy to do with your own hands. And you will need to stock up on only the simplest tool:

• Electric drill with mixing attachment. This device will be required in mixing the mortar for the cement screed.
• Level. It is optimal to use a laser device to determine the unevenness of the floor base. But if it is not there, the usual building level will do.
• Rule and spatula. These tools are needed to level the screed.
• Hammer and screwdriver. With their help, you will prepare the bases of wood.

In cases where it is planned to level the floors with bulk compounds, purchase a special spiked roller. Next, we proceed to the purchase of materials necessary for the preparation of the floor. These include plywood and chipboard (we work with a wooden base), sealant, building dry mix and plaster composition (treatment of concrete surfaces).

Leveling the floor with a bulk compound

You also need to choose wisely. It is very important, as it performs the function of a heat and waterproofing material that protects the laminate from water and cold. Substrates are of the following types:

1. Cork. Eco-friendly natural products. They perfectly retain heat, but are afraid of moisture. Under the cork insulators, an additional polyethylene film should always be placed. And then they will perfectly perform their function.
2. Polyethylene foam. These substrates are not subject to the negative effects of moisture. Fungus does not appear on them, microorganisms do not start in them. Polyethylene foam materials are affordable. Advice! Do not attempt to apply two layers of such films to increase their effectiveness. The result will be the opposite - the risk of violation of a single design of the laminate and substrate will increase..
3. Products from coniferous wood. Such substrates are usually made to order. They are excellent in operation (environmental cleanliness, providing an ideal microclimate in the room, durability), but objectively expensive in terms of cost.
4. Bituminous cork. Products created on the basis of kraft paper. Perfectly protect floors from moisture and retain heat. At a price they are slightly more expensive than polyethylene foam films.

After choosing the substrate and preparing the required tool, you can immediately begin to do the planned work with your own hands.

You need to remove all objects from the room, clean the room well, without leaving a single piece of debris on the surface of the old screed. Ideally, it is desirable to use a regular household vacuum cleaner for high-quality cleaning of the concrete pavement.

Household vacuum cleaner for cleaning concrete pavement

If you see that there are no significant defects on the base (hollows, bumps), just prime it, and then proceed with laying the laminated boards. If the condition of the old screed is not the best, it needs to be updated. You do it using the following technology:

1. Knock down all the existing influxes and tubercles on the surface of the screed.
2. Any tile adhesive cover the identified cracks on the concrete base.
3. Apply a primer to the floor. Use only deep penetration solutions for these purposes.
4. Mix the acquired self-leveling compound with water (the required proportions are always on the packaging of the mixture). At this stage, it is important to obtain a perfectly homogeneous solution. Do not allow the presence of even very small lumps in it.
5. Filling a new screed. The mixture should be applied to the uppermost section of the floor base. From there, it spreads across the floor. You will only need to distribute it as evenly as possible with a spatula and remove air bubbles from the poured coating by rolling it out with a paint roller. If you do not take care of the destruction of air in the screed, a large number of microscopic holes will form on it. They will reduce the quality of the fill made.

Drying self-leveling composition will be about 24 hours. But remember! Laying laminate on a new screed can only be done 2-3 days after the used mixture has hardened.

With such floors, the situation is a little more complicated, although they are leveled without the need for time-consuming and messy pouring of a new concrete screed. You will need to carefully analyze the condition of the existing wood flooring, establish the presence of cracked or rotten parts, and make sure that the boards are strong enough.

After that, try to remove the most problematic areas with your own hands so as not to dismantle the entire floor. Install new boards in place of broken boards. Now check the evenness of the wooden base. With height differences up to 3 mm, no subsequent work can be performed. Start equipping the floor with laminate. But with bulges (hollows) of more than 3 mm, you will have to deal with the alignment of the old coating. This is done in the following ways:

• remove or drive protruding fasteners into the wood;
• pull all the floorboards as tightly as possible to the lags;
• level the floor base with chipboard (chipboard) or plywood.

Leveling a wooden base under a laminate

Let's talk about the last method in more detail. You need:

1. Cover the wooden base with plastic wrap (you can lay this material only on problem areas of the floor).
2. Cut plywood sheets or chipboard to the required dimensions and lay them on boards at a distance of 5–10 mm from each other. It is impossible to mount leveling products closely - during operation they will rub against the edges of adjacent plates.
3. Fix chipboard or plywood with universal self-tapping screws (or stainless screws). Put hardware without sparing. The optimal distance between individual fasteners is about 20 cm.

In situations where the floor base is very uneven, it is allowed to lay plywood and chipboard products in two layers. At the same time, make sure that the junction of the lower sheets does not overlap with the junction of the upper ones. You have made a perfectly flat base with your own hands. Feel free to him!

Modern adhesives for parquet and solid boards are universal: they allow you to lay the coating on both plywood and concrete. Photo: Kiilto

It is very easy to prepare precast concrete slab floors in high-rise buildings for laying or roll materials - for this it just needs to be leveled with a cement-sand screed. But piece parquet and solid board are much more capricious: they are subject to warping and create a significant tearing load on the fasteners and the adhesive layer. With changes in air humidity in the apartment, the wooden elements change their dimensions, as a result of which swelling and cracks form. And if the concrete base becomes damp (as a result of a leak or a malfunction in the general house ventilation), then the tree will begin to rot. To overcome these shortcomings, a properly executed sub-base of the floor helps.

Based on joists

The material is applied using a glue gun or notched trowel. Photo: Delta

Logs allow you to quickly create an even and solid base for a plank or parquet floor. Usually they are made from antiseptic coniferous bars and securely, with a step of no more than 1.5 m, are attached to the floor slab with screws with a diameter of 4.5 mm or metal dowel-nails. To level the level differences, linings made of non-rotting materials (for example, plastic) fixed with mastic are used.

Floor boards from engineered and heat-treated solid wood with a lock joint can be laid in a floating way (without fastening to the base) on.

When installing the floor on the logs, it is advisable to use special mounts with a vibration-damping rubber insert. At the same time, to isolate airborne noise, the space between the lags should be filled with mineral wool or expanded clay. Photo: SoundGuard

Before installing the log, the entire floor area must be treated with cement-polymer waterproofing. In addition, experts recommend filling the space between the lags with expanded clay gravel, and spreading a vapor barrier film on top so that moisture from the lower room does not penetrate into the floorboards. If it is necessary to significantly improve the sound and heat insulation characteristics of the floor, expanded clay should be replaced with mineral wool slabs.

A solid board with a thickness of 35 mm or more can, in principle, be fastened directly to joists with a cross section of 50 × 70 mm or more, laid in 600 mm increments, using hidden edge fasteners for this. However, more often thinner (up to 30 mm) coatings made of solid hardwood and precious woods are used in apartments. In this case, you can not do without a solid support "base", which is made of two layers of plywood with a total thickness of 16–20 mm. Parquet dies or tongue-and-groove boards are attached to plywood with nails (using a special gun) and polyvinyl acetate or polyurethane glue.

Note that between plywood sheets it is necessary to leave compensation gaps 3–5 mm wide, and 8–10 mm along the perimeter of the room.

Before installation, plywood should be kept indoors for five to seven days, and after laying it should be sanded to remove small waves that interfere with laying the parquet.

Metal threaded studs make it easy to adjust the position of the lag in height and set them on the same level, but they eat up to 20 mm of ceiling height. Photo: Opora-77

The lag subfloor is not cheap, it is extremely demanding on the qualifications of workers and, moreover, steals at least 70 mm of the height of the room. However, it has a small mass, which means it does not create a large additional load on the floor. In addition, the lags allow you to quickly eliminate significant level differences (while the magnitude of the latter does not affect material consumption) and immediately proceed with the installation of the finishing coating, rather than waiting for several weeks, as is the case with. Finally, a significant plus of the lag subfloor is that its main elements react to humidity fluctuations in much the same way as a wooden floor. Due to this, significant internal stresses do not arise in the structure.

Base options for parquet: lag floor (a) and screed with plywood flooring (b)

Visualization: Vladimir Grigoriev/Burda Media

A: 1 - coating cement-polymer waterproofing; 2 - expanded clay backfill; 3 - lag; 4 - vapor barrier film; 5 - plywood (two layers with a total thickness of 20 mm); 6 - polyurethane adhesive for parquet; 7 - parquet;

B: 1 - rubber waterproofing membrane; 2 - cement-sand screed with the addition of fiber; 3 - polymer mounting adhesive; 4 - plywood (two layers with a total thickness of 16 mm); 5 - polyurethane adhesive for parquet; 6 - parquet.

How to adjust the lag floor

For a long time, factory floor sets made of adjustable logs or adjustable plywood were popular. The adjustment in them was provided by hollow plastic threaded bushings, through which fastening to the ceiling was carried out. However, the load on these nodes is very high, and the structures often turned out to be unreliable due to the poor quality of the plastic. Metal threaded studs are more durable, but they are more difficult to attach to concrete. Comfortable and durable plastic wedges. They are cheaper than bushings and studs, can be positioned with any pitch, and “tuning” them is not at all more difficult.

The subfloor must withstand high static and dynamic loads and be perfectly even: even slight bumps and pits interfere with walking and cause premature wear of the coating. Photo: Kahrs

The device of the lag subfloor

No extra details

Modern wood - multi-layer engineered board and dry parquet slabs with compensation cuts - warp slightly, so they can be laid on a cement-sand screed. True, for this, its compressive strength should reach 15 MPa (150 kgf / cm2), and the tear strength of the upper leveling layer should be 3.5 MPa. And it is very important that the residual moisture content (mass moisture content) of concrete is no more than 3.5%. The inspection of the screed is carried out according to the methods of SNiP, and it can be entrusted to a specialist of a parquet installation company or a construction expert.

Perforated cork underlay dampens impact noise and springs when walking. Photo: Parquet Hall

It is advisable to sand the concrete base, remove dust and prime it. When the soil is completely dry, you can start laying the floorboards, having previously applied a thick (3–5 mm) layer of a polymer-based elastic-elastic mastic, such as Berger Bond M1 (Berger-Seidle), Pavi-Col p25 (Adesiv) or PUK-446 P ( STAUFF).

However, mounting on a continuous layer of elastic mastic is more reliable. Photo: Parquet Hall

For logs, ordinary solid bars with a section of 50 × 50 or 50 × 70 mm are suitable. However, it is important to choose high-quality products without large knots, wane and other defects.

There is another solution designed for apartments with low ceilings, where you need to lay ordinary parquet or solid board. The overlap is leveled with a high-strength bulk mixture (layer thickness 10–30 mm) or a thin (up to 40 mm) reinforced cement-sand mixture screed is arranged, and then sheets of waterproof plywood 12–15 mm thick are mounted using polymer glue and dowel-nails. Note that in this case, no less stringent requirements are imposed on the strength and moisture content of the screed than when laying parquet on concrete. The plywood layer will cost 1200–1400 rubles. for 1 m² (material + work), but it will not allow the floorboards to warp.

Typical mistakes when preparing the base for solid board and parquet

1. The device of floating prefabricated draft floors, for example, from mineral wool mats and tongue-and-groove chipboard.
2. The use of logs made of low-grade wood and linings made of soft material, unreliable fastening of the log. Over time, the floor begins to creak and sag.
3. Lack of compensation gaps between plywood sheets and along the perimeter of the room. If the humidity rises, the floor may swell in places.
4. Insufficient strength of the screed and its poor adhesion to the overlap. Drying, the boards are quite capable of tearing off the leveling layer from the plate.
5. High residual moisture content of the screed. Most likely, the finished flooring will have to be completely disassembled, and usually the reuse of the floorboards is impossible.