[AGL] putting in a wood floor

[fmaverick at austin.rr.com]

Thanks. This sounds like a possible solution to a flooring problem I have, maybe. I have an old concrete floor in the back with large cracks (it had been a garage, and has no rebar atall) I have covered the bedroom floor with carpet, and it looks okay - but carpet is a poor solution for a bathroom. I'm going to run this by my  roommate. 

---- Michael Eisenstadt <mike.eisenstadt at gmail.com> wrote: 

> i am slowly S L O W L Y putting in a wood floor

> in our 1 bedroom condo apt.

> 

> this is a snap together wood product cheap from

> Costco which has a sale on it 2x a year. C H E E P

> real C H E E P: about $1.25 a square foot.

> 

> this is usually installed floating. it looks good 

> but except for the perimeter it is not really

> secured to the floor. To walk on it spoils 

> the eye candy of what seems to be maple

> flooring as you bounce up and down

> slightly. 

> 

> So I am fastening it to the featherweight

> concrete below the cheap wall-to-wall carpet.

> there is a pad between the carpet and the 

> concrete. this makes the visual effect a 

> bit odd as there will be lots of steel washers

> set flush into the 5/16" thick wood product.

> 

> The maple grain is actually a photograph

> embedded in a very thin plastic ply on 

> top of the wood product. There is also 

> another ply on the backside of the 

> wood product, a brown antislip dappled

> plastic. 

> 

> above the 1 1/4" outside diameter of the

> washer is a 1" fender washer with a

> countersunk fastener in its hole. the puzzle

> as to what would be the best fastener into

> this sort of concrete, the answer has seemed 

> to be ordinary sheetrock self-tapping screws, 

> long skinny black sheetrock screws.

> 

> the 1" fender washer is 1/16" proud of the

> floor but you can hardly feel it when 

> standing on it with your bare feet. 

> 

> i soaked a piece of this in water for a 

> week, the wood product part of it did

> not swell as far as i could see. 

> 

> name withheld by administrator

>