Laying a wooden floor with your own hands

A country house on your own plot of land is the dream of every metropolitan resident. This is where city dwellers enjoy spending their weekends in nature. However, before comfortable operation can begin, all finishing work must be completed in a wooden house. One of the most difficult operations is covering a plank floor. Not every homeowner has the opportunity to hire professionals, and many of them are forced to do the work themselves.

Floor in a wooden house

Do-it-yourself wooden floors in a private house on joists

One of the flooring technologies is to build wooden floors in a private house on joists.

We prepare a high-quality base: remove part of the soil (5 - 10 cm), pour out sand and tamp it.
We lay crushed stone of the same thickness on top and compact it again.
We lay a vapor barrier (roofing felt, oilcloth) and begin laying the logs on the racks in approximately half-meter increments.
We fill the space formed between the joists with a heat-insulating pad.

Wooden floors in a private home have a subfloor on which the final covering is laid. This completes the formation. Next, all that remains is to clean it and varnish it.

How to independently calculate the required distance between lags?

When you install a floor on logs, use the rule: the thicker the floor board, the wider the installation and the farther apart the logs are located.

For example, for a board whose size is 5 cm, you can make a step (the distance between the lags) of one and a half meters.

If you use thin boards, you can take small steps so that the board does not sag. The most common step length between joists is 50-70 cm.

The distance between the lags is most often 50-70 cm

Also keep in mind that you will need additional space to make it convenient to lay the insulation inside. If the size of the base does not correspond to the values in the table, then it is calculated upward.

Material requirements

There are only two basic requirements for flooring materials:

Environmental friendliness. If you live in the house permanently, then you can choose respectable coating options such as parquet, tongue-and-groove boards, porcelain stoneware

If a private house is used for living only in the warm season, then you need to pay attention to how the coating tolerates changes in temperature and humidity. In this case, linoleum and tiles are optimal. Strength and Durability

If the house is designed to last for several generations, then the service life of the material is of primary importance. Replacing flooring in a spacious private home requires financial, time and labor costs.

Less significant, but also important requirements include the design and comfort of coatings.

Repair of linoleum, carpet, stone coverings

Repairing the floor in an apartment with your own hands is carried out in stages as follows:

The most common defects in linoleum can be swelling, cracks, peeling or tears. Such problems can be easily solved like this:

using special glue, which should be drawn into a syringe and injected under the damaged area;
then place a weight on this part of the floor and allow time for the glue to dry completely;
if the damage to the coating is significant, then in this case the sections are replaced with new ones.

In order to repair defective areas of carpet flooring, you need to have spare parts:

the damaged area is cut out and a patch is put in its place. It is attached using double-sided tape or glue;
to prevent the edges of the patch from unraveling, they are pre-treated with latex glue;
Before cutting and gluing the patch, it is worth considering the pattern, as well as the direction of the pile.

In order to give an aesthetic appearance to the stone flooring, the following series of actions are carried out:

various cracks and chips can be easily removed by grinding the stone and then polishing it;
polishing is performed with special chemicals that are rubbed into the stone and make the coating impervious to dirt;
Such simple manipulations will help get rid of cracks up to 5 mm deep.

Preparatory work

When choosing materials and methods of floor installation, you should first pay attention to the average soil moisture under the house. In some residential areas, logs are laid on the ground, with cut-off waterproofing laid under them. Such floors reliably last for several decades, but such dehydrated soils are quite rare.

Below we will consider a method of preparing the foundation, which is used almost everywhere in our area. The whole point of this method is to install a concrete screed on a waterproofing pad. In a country house, a concrete screed will serve two functions at once: to insulate the floor from moisture and to serve as a rigid foundation for a wooden floor.

When starting to lay out a concrete base for a wooden floor, you must make a small pit in the house and carefully compact its bottom. A layer of sand 20 mm thick or more must be poured into the hole. You can also add an additional layer of crushed stone under the sand, but this step is often skipped. After you have made the sand cushion, cover it with a cut-off waterproofing material, which can be used as cellophane film or roofing felt. It makes no sense to use vapor-permeable waterproofing, because its properties are not needed at this stage, and the overpayment will be significant.

How to make a floor in a private house from boards

The floor is made of planks in one layer. It is the simplest flooring option. This design is suitable exclusively for summer buildings or housing in warm countries. If the building design stipulates that floor beams are mounted in the walls, then the distance from one beam to another is most often too large to immediately lay the boards.

To provide the necessary strength, you will need to lay joists. If you plan to install the floor on top of the support pillars, then the placement of the beams can immediately be made as required.

Now, logs are laid on top of the supporting beams, which are set strictly horizontally; for this, wooden spacers and wedges are used. After checking the location of all the joists with a level, they need to be attached to the beams using nails, and then the floorboard should be nailed to them.

Floor made of two layers of planks

Installing such a floor will require significantly greater costs and effort, but this is compensated by a reduction in heat loss. It is better to use coniferous wood for the construction of the subfloor. To save money, you can use a non-edged board or slab.

Most often, thermal insulation is installed in the space from the rough to the finished floor.

As thermal insulation, you can use expanded clay, a mixture of clay and sawdust, or straw. Naturally, you can also use modern materials - polystyrene foam or extruded polystyrene foam. For thermal insulation, a finished floor (tongue and groove board) is laid.

Concrete floor

The concrete floor is installed in several stages:

First of all, marking is done. Here it is better to use a laser level. After installing it, he will mark the walls in the right places for the future floor. To mark the level in the center of the room, threads are pulled from the marks in the walls.
Next we make gravel backfill. This is the insulation in your floor. The ground should be cleared of plants to prevent them from growing through the floor. After this, drive in the stakes so that their level does not reach the level of the future floor by 100 mm. The backfill starts from the wall opposite the door. After filling the entire area, the gravel is leveled and compacted, and the pegs are removed.

At the next stage, sand is poured, compacted and leveled.
Proper waterproofing plays a huge role; moisture insulation of a concrete floor is usually done with polyethylene film, the thickness of which is at least 250 microns.
Next, we fill. First of all, you should set a level of beacons, which are used as wooden or metal slats, the distance between which is from 1 to 1.5 m. The upper edge of the slats should be in contact with the stretched threads. Then, the rope markings are removed.
Now the space between the slats is filled with concrete, from the end of the room to the door. After this, the concrete is leveled using a rule.

After the concrete has “set,” the slats should be dismantled and the voids filled with mortar. To level the mortar in the cracks, use a “grater” under the plaster. After this, the floor is covered with plastic film for a month. It is better to periodically moisten the concrete. This will make it possible for the concrete to gain maximum strength.

Laying boards on a concrete base

Options for attaching tongue-and-groove boards to joists using screws
To level the concrete base, you need to install beacons and pour a self-leveling mixture. Wood can only be laid on a perfectly flat floor, but the cement should not come into contact with the wood. To do this, the screed is covered with foamed polyethylene. It is laid with an overlap, creating excellent waterproofing. You can use mastic.

Final floor treatment

Upon completion of installation, the floor:

Grinding;
Leach;
Primed;
Paint or varnish.

Important! Impregnation and varnishes/paints are applied parallel to the wood fibers. Then marks from a roller or brush are not so noticeable.

Flooring Tips

In order to properly lay the flooring in your home, you need to adhere to the following recommendations:

The boards are laid out so that the age-old rings face in different directions.
The installation of floorboards is preceded by marking. They are numbered so as not to get confused in the order of installation.
Nails are driven into wood at an angle.
After laying the first floorboard, at a distance of 6 cm from the edge, staples are driven into the joists. The gap is closed with a thin strip. A wedge is driven between it and the bracket. When nailing it, the boards are pressed tightly together.
Next, the floorboards are nailed and the staples are removed. The following elements are pressed with a lath and a wedge, and hammered in with a punch and nails.
The last board is usually leveled with a plane, then glued and fixed with nails.
Gaps between the floor and the wall are perfectly masked with skirting boards with grooves.

Pouring the floor in a private house instructions

To pour a concrete floor yourself, you do not need any special construction skills. The main thing here is to prepare the necessary consumables and calculate their quantities. If this is done, then filling the floor in a private house will be effective and simple.

Don’t forget, installing a durable and level concrete floor is the key to quality installation of any floor covering. To carry out quality work you must use:

vibrating rammer;
roofing felt;
plastic film;
expanded clay;
foam boards;
reinforced mesh;
restrictive slats;
building levels.

Work procedure or instructions for pouring a floor in a private house

1. First of all, you need to prepare the base surface for the future concrete floor. To do this, the top layer of soil must be removed to the required depth. Make an effort to ensure that the plane is as even as possible. Now, it must be compacted using broken bricks or crushed stone. A vibrating rammer will help you with this. If you do not have the opportunity to use such a tool, and you need to arrange the floor in a small area, then compaction can be done manually.

2. At the next stage of work, waterproofing and thermal insulation should be installed. It is most rational to use roofing felt for these purposes. If you want to save a little money on installing insulation, and you are sure that the groundwater level will never reach the floor in your house, then floor insulation can be done by laying several layers of a material such as ordinary plastic film. Here your personal preferences and financial capabilities play the main role.
3. When the waterproofing is completely installed, you should begin laying the heat-insulating material. For these purposes, you can use expanded clay or foam boards. Although this material is being used less and less, glass wool can also be used to create a heat-insulating layer. When insulating a concrete floor, take a responsible approach to the process of calculating the amount of consumables, otherwise, performing such repairs can cost you dearly.

4. Now, you can begin the process of filling the floor with mortar. Concrete is laid on top of the prepared surface from the end of the room opposite the door, while gradually moving towards the beginning of the room. The use of limit rails, which are set in accordance with the floor level, will help you in this process. It is very important here to strengthen the final layer with a metal frame. To carry out reinforcement, a regular chain-link mesh can be used. Using these actions, you can increase the impact resistance of the top layer.

5. Well, now we can proceed to the final stage. Here you will need to carefully make a screed using a leveling layer of cement, which has been diluted with water, until it turns into a liquid slurry. For these purposes, you can use a special leveling mixture, which is freely sold in specialized stores.

Surface finishing

Floor thermal insulation diagram.

In order for wood to last as long as possible, it needs to be properly cared for. If you do not plan to use any additional covering such as laminate or parquet, the flooring needs to be finished off. It can be sanded, treated with soda, primer, paint or varnish. When applying paint, varnish or impregnation, you need to move in a direction parallel to the grain of the wood.

As a rule, when choosing a material for flooring, people are guided by personal concepts of comfort and beauty, as well as the quality and cost of the material. There are currently many different solutions available on the market, so you are sure to find the option that best suits your needs.

Thus, wooden floors can be laid without special skills, special knowledge, time and money. You just need to do everything according to the instructions and follow the rules. Good luck!

How to lay an array with your own hands

The solid board is laid on plywood sheets. The base can be either a concrete floor or a wooden floor on joists.

It is necessary to measure 15 mm from the walls to create a ventilation gap and in case of seasonal deformations.
The finished floor boards must be laid so that they are located across the subfloor boards. The first row is placed with a tenon to the wall and screwed with self-tapping screws. It is necessary to tighten the screws so that they are covered by the baseboard near the wall. On the second side, the screws are screwed into the groove at an angle of 45°.
A wooden spacer is placed in the gap between the board and the wall. If the size of the room is greater than the length of the floorboards, then the boards are laid “staggered”. This will make the floor more durable.
The second and subsequent rows of boards are laid with a tenon in the groove of the previous row, compacted with a mallet and fastened with self-tapping screws on the other side into the groove. If you want your wooden floor to last as long as possible, you need to lay the boards in such a way that the growth rings are located opposite each other.

The parquet board is laid "staggered". Solid parquet boards can also be used as a finished floor. In essence, this is the same tongue-and-groove solid board, only shorter. Its installation is slightly different:

Can be fixed with self-tapping screws only from the tenon side.
Installation is carried out only “staggered”.
If the base is made of plywood, then it is better to glue the parquet board first and then additionally secure it with self-tapping screws.
If you lay the board diagonally, the room will visually look larger.

Material selection criteria

The wood must be from the same batch, then the material will not differ in color or pattern.
How do you choose a floorboard?

The material is carefully inspected for cracks, splits and stains. Wood with such defects is absolutely not suitable for laying floors.

What are the material requirements?

The optimal length for boards is 2 meters. More is possible, but not less.
The material must be dry. If you lay damp boards, after some time the coating will lose its shape, and overdried wood may become deformed.
It is recommended to buy 15% more than the required number of boards.
The wood must be from the same batch, then the material will not differ in color or pattern, and there will be no doubt that the wood was processed using the same technology.

Important! The boards are unpacked immediately before installation. Otherwise they may become deformed.

The following video will help you choose material:

Parquet for renovation

Parquet as a floor covering has been known since the 17th century, when it was first used in the palaces of the kings of France. The main advantage of parquet flooring is its environmental friendliness. Modern manufacturers offer a wide selection of colors, sizes and methods of laying parquet and parquet boards, which allows you to renovate the floors in a room in a style unique to each room.

Before laying such a covering, the floors are leveled with a special screed so that the differences in the heights of uneven surfaces do not exceed half a centimeter. Next, the humidity of the room is determined, for which a small piece of plastic film is laid on the floor for a day, the edges of which are secured with tape. If there is high humidity in the room, the film will become covered with perspiration from the inside. In this case, it is not recommended to lay parquet.

The disadvantages of this coating are the high price and instability to moisture. Also, this material cannot be used when installing “warm floors”.

Methods for laying wooden floors

The installation of a wooden floor can only begin after the frame structure of posts and beams is finally ready. A layer of roofing material is laid on the posts, which serves as good waterproofing. Beams are installed on the waterproofing layer, and for additional strength, logs are fixed to the beams. It’s good when the width of the room corresponds to the length of the logs, but if you have to connect the logs, then it is better that the joints are directly on the supporting pillars, and they are fastened with self-tapping screws.

The structure of the wooden floor itself can be either single or double. Single floors are not very durable and are usually installed in summer cottages. This type of floor does not withstand weather fluctuations well and is not intended for year-round use. To make you feel comfortable in winter, it is recommended to build double insulated floors. It will require a lot of time and the necessary material. But the extra effort is worth it because it increases durability and reliability. To do this, a list of works is performed in a certain sequence:

Install logs;
Lay moisture-resistant plywood between them, and lay insulation on top;
Lay the rough subfloor on the joists.

Double plank floor pie
To create a subfloor, low grade boards with a thickness of 15-50 mm are suitable. Such boards, carefully processed, are adjusted to each other. Then the finished boards are attached to the joists using self-tapping screws.

The boards are laid 15-20 mm from the wall. This promotes ventilation and prevents the floor from swelling during seasonal wood deformation. Waterproofing is carried out using a polyethylene film with a thickness of 200 microns, and additional thermal insulation is made of polyethylene foam. The film is laid overlapping, the edges are glued together with tape. You need to make an overlap of 20 cm on the walls and glue it with tape. After this, the finishing floor and finishing coating are laid.

Sheets of plywood or solid wood are used for laying the finished floor. The plywood is placed on top of the thermal insulation layer and secured with self-tapping screws.

The solid board has an attractive appearance, is convenient to lay, and is also easy to use. The advantage of solid wood flooring is that you can apply varnish or paint to the floor and thereby avoid additional costs for finishing materials. Solid boards are produced in two versions: regular and tongue-and-groove. The difference between them is in the installation method. A tongue and groove board is much easier to install. However, before installation, it must lie indoors for three days.

How to determine the thickness of floor insulation

The thickness of the floor insulation is selected according to calculation, providing standard heat transfer resistance R = 4-5 m2oK/W. If the base is not insulated, then the thickness of the floor insulation is determined from the condition that the temperature of the space under the floor is equal to the temperature of the outside air. The recommended thickness of mineral wool insulation in this case is no less than 150-200 mm.

For a house with an insulated foundation and plinth, the thickness of the floor insulation can be reduced so that the sum of the heat transfer resistance of the plinth + floor is no less than the standard (see above).

how to calculate the thickness of floor (floor) thermal insulation here.

A sheathing of bars with a thickness of at least 50 mm is laid across the joists. Another layer of insulation is placed between the sheathing bars. This two-layer insulation design ensures that the insulation covers the cold bridges through the joists. The distance between the sheathing bars is chosen in the range of 300-600 mm, a multiple of the width of the subfloor covering slabs.

This two-layer construction of the floor base (joists + sheathing bars) allows you to conveniently place both insulation boards and floor covering slabs (CBF, plywood, etc.).

The insulation with the lathing on top is covered with a vapor barrier film. The joints of the film panels are sealed. The junctions of the film to the walls are connected to the waterproofing of the walls and the same is sealed.

It is recommended to choose the thickness of the sheathing bars at 25-30 mm. greater than the thickness of the top layer of insulation. This will allow, by lowering the film on both sides of each sheathing bar, to create a ventilated gap between the vapor barrier film and the floor covering.

Pouring a concrete floor

The installation of a concrete floor in a private house begins with preparatory work. First, markings and gravel filling are made on the site of the future floor. The soil is first cleared of plants and the top layer, and then compacted. Next, a layer of gravel is poured, which also needs to be compacted well. In the construction of a concrete floor in a private house, gravel will act as thermal insulation. Sand is poured on top of the gravel. After compacting it, a thick polyethylene film is spread on the surface, acting as a waterproofing material.

How to make a concrete floor in a private house? After installing the waterproofing layer, you can begin pouring the screed. A cement screed in a country house is poured in the same way as a screed in an apartment: levels are set and the mortar is poured, which is leveled from wall to door according to the rule.

When pouring a concrete screed, several features should be taken into account. The solution for pouring must be fresh; for its preparation it is recommended to use cement of a grade not lower than M-300, screening out sand and water. To increase the strength of the concrete layer, you can add special compounds to the solution - plasticizers, which will give the future coating additional strength.

When pouring a screed with a height of 5 cm or more, you can use reinforcing elements or a reinforcing mesh, which is laid on the waterproofing layer before pouring. In the case of installing warm water floors in a private house, the use of reinforcing mesh and the addition of plasticizers to the cement mortar are mandatory procedures.

When the concrete hardens a little after pouring, you can remove the beacons. The voids left after their removal are filled with the same solution. After filling and leveling all the cracks, the floor is covered with polyethylene and left to dry. Drying a concrete floor is a long and responsible undertaking. The concrete must dry on its own within a month; if you have a heated floor system, heating should not be turned on until the screed is completely dry. By turning on the heating elements, you will help the concrete crack before the room is used. When drying, it is recommended to periodically moisten the concrete screed with water and cover it again with polyethylene: if this requirement is met, the coating will gain maximum strength and will not crack.

In order to correctly fill the cement, remove the beacons and dry the concrete, it is recommended to look at photos of the work of builders who specialize in arranging floors in private homes.

Lag function

Despite the large number of different methods for leveling the floor, joists remain one of the most effective types of construction. Their main function is to create a perfectly flat surface. It will allow subsequent work on the interior decoration of the premises.

It is also worth emphasizing that this type of coating makes it possible to maintain a certain distance between the embankment and the floor surface. It is this distance that will provide excellent ventilation and prevent the process of rotting of materials.

The biggest danger occurs when the logs are laid on the ground. In this case, the wood may fail too early. Therefore, professionals always raise the floor level a little to ensure proper ventilation. There are also several other main functions that logs perform:

load distribution throughout the foundation;
the ability to lay various types of communications that are undesirable to be placed above the floor;
the appearance of free space makes it possible to use thermal insulation materials. There are a large number of them. Therefore, you can choose the most suitable one - sawdust, expanded clay, mineral wool and many other types.

If the owners of the room are not satisfied with the height of the floor, it can be adjusted to optimal levels using logs. The use of high-quality materials guarantees the reliability and immobility of the structure. Special support points provide a strong foundation for a durable floor. Simple and inexpensive materials allow anyone to install them; no specific knowledge is required for this.

Floor repair sequence of actions

You can make a floor from scratch in a private house with your own hands. First you need to remove the old structure, which usually in an old private house is made in the form of a system of logs and wooden covering. If you plan to create a floor covering made of ceramic tiles, you need to make a screed. Tiles cannot be laid on a wooden base. For other types of flooring, for example, linoleum or laminate, you can restore the joist system and insulate the structure.

The process of repairing floors in a private house.

A new floor in a private house with a screed is created in the following sequence:

The old structure is dismantled and the base surface is leveled.
A cushion is constructed from gravel or brick chips and sand.
A layer of film or roofing felt is laid to prevent moisture from penetrating from the soil.
The level of the future screed is determined and marks are placed on the walls.
Insulation is laid (expanded clay, polystyrene foam, mineral wool).
Reinforcing mesh is laid.
The base is divided into sections of 2 m using slats. The height of the slats must correspond to the height of the future screed (at least 7 cm).
Cement mortar is mixed and poured into each section.
The solution is leveled using the rule.
The finished subfloor is covered with film and left to dry for 2 weeks. Concrete should be moistened periodically.
After the concrete has dried, a leveling screed is made.
The flooring is being laid.

Concrete base can be used for any type of flooring.

A multi-layer cushion of crushed stone and sand serves as a shock absorber in case of subsidence and heaving of the soil.

Scheme of pouring a heated floor with concrete.

In addition, it is a container for all communications that exist in a private home. Pipes and wires are insulated in special boxes and hidden under a layer of sand and crushed stone. The bulk pillow is created as follows:

A layer of gravel (5 cm) is poured, then it is leveled, moistened and compacted.
A layer of sand (10 cm) is poured, moistened and compacted.
A layer of gravel (10 cm) is poured and compacted again.

Concrete flooring is more reliable and durable than wooden flooring on joists. It can serve for decades, maintaining its qualities. Concrete does not contain harmful components, retains its strength, remains dry, and does not deform due to temperature fluctuations.

Wooden structures are susceptible to external factors. Logs can be destroyed by pests. When temperature fluctuations occur, the boards become deformed, cracks appear in the floor covering, and the boards begin to creak. Mold can form on wood if there is high humidity. But creating a wooden structure is a more economical way to make a floor in a private home.

Mounting methods

Depending on the location of the logs, there are several methods for attaching them. Previously, when installing this floor on a concrete screed or reinforced concrete beams, the logs were attached using simple long nails, but this method was not distinguished by its durability.

Currently, more reliable devices are used for fastening - U-shaped fasteners or galvanized metal corners. The corners, on the one hand, are fixed with self-tapping screws to a wooden beam , and on the second - to the base with dowels. The depth of insertion of the fastening into the beam is 3-5 cm. If you arrange the floor on the ground for brick pillars, then the algorithm of actions is similar.

Sometimes the logs are not long enough, so many are interested in how to build up the timber so that it is as strong as solid material. The logs can be joined end-to-end or by notching , and in both cases the length of the extended element is at least one meter. And if you need to increase several of them at once, you need to shift the joining points by 50 cm or more so that the load is uniform.

The logs are fixed to the wooden floor beams using screws . The length of the fasteners must be 2.5 times greater than the width of the joist, and the diameter must be at least 6 mm. To protect the wood from splitting, before installing the fasteners, the joists and beams should be drilled in the required location. And the diameter of the hole should be 2.5 mm less than the mounting diameter.

Clean coating from an environmental point of view

Wood floors come in different types.

When choosing, both price and prestige play a decisive role:

Solid board is an expensive classic material that is often used for flooring. Perfect for a log house. Solid layers are always quite good.
Parquet boards are made of wood and are equipped with grooves that make joining easier. The thickness of the standard material reaches 0.25 cm, and the length up to 200 cm.
Parquet glue board is not much different from the previous version and is not inferior in quality. Has a long service life. Its top layer is usually made of valuable wood, its thickness can be up to 5 mm. Other layers are not so large.
Regular parquet is a set of planks that have grooves. This material is ideally suited and is often used for creating exquisite floors.

What types of subfloors are there?

Not all novice builders know what a subfloor is, the purpose and structure of this element of the building. This structure is a shield made of boards located on the lower part of the log. The design is intended to create the opening necessary for the thermal insulation layer between the house and the ground. During the construction process, various approaches can be used that best suit the operating conditions of the building.

You can make a subfloor in a wooden house with your own hands according to one of the following schemes:

According to the lags. The material is fixed to the bottom of the base for finishing the flooring.
Along the beams. This technique is used in cases where beams serve as a base for laying boards, and logs are not used. This approach allows you to save up to 40% of lumber.
On a hard base. The material is laid or glued onto a screed or reinforced concrete slab. Waterproofing is used to protect against moisture.

You can make a subfloor with your own hands from any inexpensive materials you have on hand. The panels are made from particle boards, plywood, and pieces of boards. It is allowed to use products of different thicknesses, because... height differences will be compensated by insulation.

Please note that the bottom shield will be exposed to moisture and insects. To properly make a subfloor, it is necessary to treat the material with an antiseptic and drying oil, paying special attention to the ends of the products.

Plywood subfloors

Plywood is an inexpensive material that is easy and convenient to work with. You should choose waterproof boards with a thickness of at least 8 mm. If it is not possible to purchase the required product, you can give the plywood the necessary properties yourself. To do this, you need to cover it with drying oil several times.

You can fasten plywood in strips, but it’s better with squares, because... it's lighter, simpler and more convenient. Sections are cut according to a template that measures the distance between the joists or beams. It is necessary to treat workpieces with hydrophobic agents after sawing in order to capture the edges of the products.

Plywood is a brittle material that can be cracked by nails. It is advisable to screw the plates with self-tapping screws through pre-prepared holes.

Wood floor repair

Repairing old wood floors begins with identifying creaking floorboards and joists, as well as those parts of the structure that are covered in mold. Defective parts found are replaced with new elements. The entire floor area is treated with an antifungal agent. If certain areas of the floor in the room are more often exposed to moisture than others, then they should be covered with waterproofing materials, since antifungal impregnation alone will not be enough.

Often, cracks form in wooden flooring due to drying out of the wood. You can eliminate them as follows:

The floor is treated with a sanding machine.
The cracks are sealed with a primer and another layer is removed with a sanding machine.
The boards are primed with nitro varnish.
After the nitro varnish dries, it is primed with a finishing coat (matte or glossy).

Installing a concrete floor

To properly install a concrete floor with your own hands, first make markings and fill the soil with gravel for thermal insulation. A layer of sand is poured on top of the gravel, each layer is carefully compacted. Then the sand is covered with waterproofing material in the form of polyethylene film or sheets of roofing material.

Insulation in the form of crushed stone or another layer of gravel is laid on top of the waterproofing, then the waterproofing is laid again and only then a concrete screed is made. The solution is used only of fresh grade not lower than M-300. To increase the strength of concrete, special plasticizer compounds are added to the mixture.

It is important to dry the concrete properly. Typically this takes three to four weeks.

During drying, the surface should be covered with film and the screed should be periodically moistened with water. Do not use heating elements or turn on the heating in the house before the concrete has dried! Otherwise the surface will crack.

To enhance the thermal insulation of a concrete floor, you can use additional insulation. The concrete is covered with wooden materials on top or a “warm floor” system is laid.

What is the floor made of according to the joists?

In addition to wooden logs and boards, the floor in this category consists of the following mandatory structural elements:

Leveling screed - can be installed not over the entire floor slab, but locally, directly under the logs, since the top of the beams must be at the same level.
Thermal insulation layer - this element is necessary when installing joists on the first floors, or provided that adjacent rooms differ in temperature expansion.

Thermal insulation is made from fire-resistant mineral wool, extruded polystyrene foam, or from low-density bulk materials.
In some cases, hygroscopic insulation must be treated with water repellents, or covered with an additional layer of dense polyethylene film.

Sound insulation - there are 2 basic types of sound insulation - protection from structural noise, which is damped using elastomeric pads under the joists, as well as under the floorboards, and insulation from general sound vibrations. The role of the second material can be played by the same mineral wool slabs, or special rolled mats that are rolled out on top of the thermal insulation.

Vapor barrier - when there is a significant temperature difference between adjacent rooms, as well as in the case of flooring in humid conditions, condensation may accumulate in the space between the boards and the floor slab. To avoid this, a special vapor barrier membrane is installed under the thermal insulation materials, which eliminates the risk of vapor formation. Such materials are widely available in the form of special rolls consisting of synthetic fibers.

Load-bearing beams - in some cases, floors on joists can be installed in the absence of a main foundation slab or floor elements. In such situations, the timber is laid out over metal or wooden beams, which form the basis of the floor frame. The insulation of such structures is carried out from the outside, using fungi or adhesive compounds.

In some cases, if the home owner wants to play it safe and prevent any deformation of the floorboards, he also installs small distribution beams on top of the joists, which reduce the free span between the finishing materials, significantly reducing their ultimate flexibility.

Installation of wooden floors

When building a private house, many people prefer to make the floor out of wood. This desire to have high-quality wooden flooring under your feet is explained by the desire to use environmentally friendly materials, which include wood. In addition to being highly environmentally friendly, such a floor has a number of other advantages.

Wooden floors are easy to install and easy to repair during use. Due to the low thermal conductivity of the material, such a floor will retain heat inside the house without letting it out. Plank flooring made from high-quality wood has a long service life and an attractive “natural” appearance.

To make a floor in a private house, you need to choose the right wood. The choice of source materials should be based on the design features of the structure itself. The installation of a floor in a country house must necessarily include the presence of a subfloor that acts as an air gap. If such a layer is missing, the wooden floor will quickly become unusable due to exposure to moisture.

In addition, for a good floor it is important to have all the layers of the structure, including joists, rough flooring, hydro- and thermal insulation, finishing coating

The floor in a private house is subject to significant mechanical loads, so for its construction it is necessary to choose wood with good technological characteristics. The boards must be well dried, the recommended moisture content is no more than 12%. Any chips or cracks on the surface of the material are not acceptable. Experts recommend giving preference to coniferous wood; pine, larch, fir, and cedar are suitable. To increase the service life of the future floor, all boards must be treated with an antiseptic and fire retardant.

Installation of a wooden floor begins with determining the locations for the support posts and their installation. The fertile layer of soil around the entire perimeter of the house is removed and removed, gravel is poured in its place, and sand is poured on top of it. Layers of gravel and sand must be compacted well. Waterproofing material is laid on the ends of the support pillars; most often, ordinary roofing felt is used for these purposes.

Next, we make beams that need to be secured to the posts with metal corners. It is better to make floors in a private house with double insulation. Experts suggest first laying plywood sheets on the sides of the beams, and then placing mineral wool or other insulating material on them.

When the insulation layer is ready, you can begin laying the rough covering. The boards of this layer should fit well to each other; ordinary screws can be used to attach them to the beams. It is better to leave some distance between the flooring and the walls of the house: a gap of 1.5 cm can be considered the norm for this part of the floor. These gaps provide ventilation to the entire floor structure and protect the walls from expansion of the floor boards as they subsequently dry out.

A layer of vapor barrier made of polyethylene film with a thickness of 200 microns is laid on top of the subfloor. The joints of individual pieces of film must be taped, and the edges must be folded onto the walls to a height of about 20 cm - the height of the final coating. When the film is laid and secured, you can proceed to assembling the finished floor.

The finished floor is assembled from solid wood boards or plywood sheets. Plywood sheets are easier to attach, but in the end they don’t look very attractive. Therefore, if you want to leave wooden floors in your house, then it is best to immediately assemble the final covering from a tongue-and-groove board, and if you plan to cover it with decorative material, just secure plywood sheets. After assembling the finished floor, plank floors must be coated with varnish, which will not only protect the material from external influences of a mechanical and chemical nature, but will also emphasize the decorative qualities of natural wood.

Briefly about the main thing

The floor in a wooden house can be installed with your own hands, provided that you have high-quality material, the right set of tools, and follow the technological map. The floor covering in a wooden building is divided into rough and finished, each of which has its own distinctive features. Floors can be laid on joists or on concrete. If it is necessary to install tiles on the second floor, the structures are covered with asbestos cement sheet. Non-flammable insulation is laid between the joists to ensure sound insulation of the building and eliminate the transmission of structural vibrations.

What repairs and when to do them

Repairing a floor on your own is a rather complex, time-consuming and responsible process. First you need to understand the types of manipulations that will have to be carried out

To do this, it is important to assess the condition of the structure and decide what needs to be done: cosmetic or permanent. repair

Owners of new buildings have a floor with a ready-made and well-made screed. In this case, it will be possible to get by with cosmetic repairs: if necessary, fill in the leveling mixture and lay the floor covering.

An old apartment often requires capital. floor repair, especially if wood was used as a covering. Wooden floors have a limited service life; over time, the floorboards begin to creak or collapse when walked on. There can be no talk of cosmetically finishing a wood covering that has expired.

Types of floor repairs largely depend on the type of coating that will be used. There is a standard classification of coatings used in floor repairs. It includes such materials as parquet, laminate, ceramic tiles, linoleum, solid boards, stone coating, carpet, self-leveling floors.

Installation of concrete screed

There is no strict thickness of the expanded clay layer, however, it must be at least 40 mm. It is worth noting that the larger the fraction, the thicker the expanded clay layer should be. The thickness also depends on the local climate, in some cases the thickness of such a layer can reach 100 mm. If you cannot decide on the thickness yourself, then use the universal size of 80 mm.

There is no need to dwell in detail on the construction of a concrete screed, because our website provides many articles about its installation. A solution made from sand and cement, or a ready-made mixture, is poured between the beacons installed directly on the expanded clay. Remember that it will take several weeks for the screed to dry completely. This base can last for decades; in addition, it extends the life of the floor itself.