Course: Non-bearing Structures Date: 3rd semester, 2013/14 Name: Viktria Zacharov Topic: Wood floor finishes Floors

are significant structural elements of a building influencing the final architectural expression of the space. Considering the construction-technical terms we mean by floor horizontal surface structure forming top surface of ceilings or top surface of ground layers. The concrete or timber board surface may be used as a finished floor surface.[1] Floor consists of four floor layers such as base, insulations, screed and floor finish layer shown in Fig.1. Not every floor structure must have all of these layers. Thicknesses are in multiples of 50 milimeters.

Fig. 1 : Floor layers basic division and terminology

Base is the horizontal load-bearing structure. It can be ceiling constructin or ground surface. Insulation layers improve thermal, acoustic and waterproof

characteristics of floor. The most important layer is a screed layer. It provides a level surface to which a floor finish can be applied and serves as protection of insulation layer. The most usual material is cement, sand and water which are thoroughly mixed. This mix is spread over the base, then compacted and smoothed to a level finish.[1] The term floor finish means material or materials that are applied to a floor surface as a finished surface. When choosing materials there must be considered some determinants such as different types of building, either residential, industrial or commercial, then foot traffic flow and labor and manual costs. Moreover other special requirements such as resistance to liquids, non-slip or easy to clean surface must be 1

taken into mind. Floor finishes can be classified into 4 groups : jointless, flexible thin sheet and tile, rigid tile and stone slabs, wood and wood based finishes. [1]

Wood and wood based floor finishes Wood floor finishes are used mainly because of their thermal and acoustic insulation characteristics and interiors look more cozy with wood flooring. The big advantage is variety of colour, grain and texture of this natural material which is warm, resilient and comparatively quiet underfoot. [2] The disadvantages of wood finishes is that they are difficult to clean and maintain. Wood floor features depend on the type of wood, method of processing wood and method of surface treatment. Every type of wood has different hardness of material and dimensional changes influenced by thermal changes and relative humidity in room. The Brinell hardness test is commonly used to determine the hardness of different wood types. Wood floors are divided into wood strip flooring, parquet block and strip flooring and engeneered wood flooring . The oldest and the simpliest type of flooring are wide-board floors (or sometimes called carpentry floors). In most areas they were constructed of softwoods such as pine or spruce. The boards in 150 200 mm wideness, maximum 6 m lenght and 30 mm thickness were laid next to each other tightly or with small gaps. Afterward they were face-nailed to supporting beams or joists. Flooring was embed into dry construction. This type of floor finish is often seen in early buildings and rural areas. Nowaydays wide-board floors are mainly used as a subbase for parquetry flooring. Wood strip flooring is mainly from softwood (spruce, pine, fir or oak) and the strips are 25mm thick and 100 140mm wide. The strips should be in good quality and free of knots. The most pronounced drying shrinkage of wood is across the long grain so that wood boards shrink across their width. As the shrinkage is circumferential to the round section of the log from which the boards are cut, the boards will both shrink across their width and deform out of the flat section. [1] That is the reason of cutting narrow strips of board to avoid loss of width and shape. Either plain edge or strips with tongue and groove are used. The edges of the strips are cut so that one edge is grooved and the other edge tongued. Then when they are put together the tongue fits tightly into the groove as it is shown in Fig.2. The strips are said to be T&G. The main purpose of this method is to cause the strips to interlock so that any slight twisting of one strip is resisted by its neighbour. [1]

Fig.2. : Tongue and groove strip flooring

The wood strips are securely nailed to wood battens set in a screed layer or to battens secured in floor clips as it is illustrated in Fig.3. Since the wood strip flooring is an expensive the strips are nailed to the battens so that the heads of the nails are not visible on the surface floor finish. This is called secret nailing. The battens should be impregnated with a preservative. Either a waterproof membrane should be used in or under the concrete oversite or the surface of the cocrete subfloor should be covered with a coat of bitumen. [1] Subsequently floor finish surface is treated by sanding, pickling and paintcoating. Hard wax finish is a thin, non-gloss surface enhancing the colour and grain of the wood. Quality of flooring depends on quality of laying itself and adequate drying of wood. Wood strip flooring is typical for buildings with country and recreational character.

Fig.3.: Strip flooring fixed to battens and clips 3

Other type is parquet flooring (or block wood flooring) defined as a floor surfacing consisting of wood blocks or thin strips, often on plywood or softwood backing, laid in a patterned or parallel arrangement.[3] Parquet strip flooring is traditional type of floor finish made of planed plates from solid wood with tongue and groove. Standard dimensions are 30 80 mm wideness, 200 600 mm length and 11 -23 mm thickness. Typical materials are beach, oak, maple, birch, cherry, mountain ash, elm or hornbeam wood. Sometimes exotic wood such as merbau, teak or ipe is used. The advantages of exotic wood are that it can be used for rooms with high humidity, they are hard, stiff, UV-resistant and resistant to insects. Parquet strips are laid on a thoroughly dry, clean, level cement and sand screeded surface. Traditional method of laying is a spreading a thin layer of bitumen over the surface of the screed into which parquet strips are pressed. Now special anhydrous adhesives are used instead of bitumen. Alternative installation method is secret nailing to wood battens. The parquet wood strips are laid on the floor in bonded, herringbone, basket or other typical patterns shown in Fig.4.

Fig. 4. : Examples of parquet strip wood flooring patterns

Top surface is treated by sanding to provide a level finish. The word sanded describes the operation of running a power driven sanding machine with rotating plate surfaced with carborundum or sand paper which removes the top surface. Subsequently either a polyurethane seal is applied to provide an easy to clean finish or a wax polish, which needs bigger maintenance, is applied. [1] Basic conditions for maintaining properties of flooring and avoiding origin of damages are sufficient drying of wood, adequate surface treatment, correct installation technology and regular maintenance. Parquet strip 4

flooring is seen in residential houses (living rooms, bedrooms, corridors, etc.) and in historical buildings. Except for parquet strip flooring we know parquet block wood flooring which are squared boards consisting of smaller pices of solid wood arranged in geometrical patterns mosaics shown in Fig.5. The floor boards are tongued and grooved which means that the same secret nailing installation method is used as for the parquet strip flooring. Other method is bonding blocks side by side. Squared boards are laid on a thoroughly dry, clean, level cement or other monolitic or prefabricated subbase. Wide-board floors served as a base for parquet block wood flooring in the past. Finally surface is treated by disperse, polyurethane seals or oils. Residential buildings (living rooms, bedrooms, corridors, etc.), recreational buildings, buildings with purpose of temporary accomodation and historical buildings are the most common building types with parquet block wood flooring. Thanks to todays technologies many new types of parquet floors were created.

Fig.5. Example of parquet block wood flooring pattern

Engineered wood flooring compared to all solid wood floorings mentioned above is easier and cheaper to install. It is also called composite wood or manufactured board floors. These large wood boards are called lamellas. Dimensions of lamellas are very various now. Some manufactures have lamellas which are 7,2 15 m long. [2] Engineered wood flooring is suitable as a floor finish where wear is light for instance in residential buildings. The most common material is oak, beach, mountain ash, cherry tree, maple, birch or some exotic wood as bamboo, merbau, doussie or jatoba. Engineered floors consists of three or more layers of solidwood shown in Fig.6. stuck together under extremely high pressure. The top layer (0,6 6 mm thick) is made of fine wood veneer wood with the parquete and wood strip flooring patterns. Afterwards it is surface-treated by sanding and varnishing. Middle layer is transversly placed softwood such as spruce or fir. If there is a need for thinner

lamella, it is replaced by HDF high density fibres wood.board. The lower layer is a supporting layer. This layer is key to providing stability to the board, giving a strong foundation for the flooring.

Fig.6. : Engineered wood layers

Laminated flooring is not wood floor finish, but can be mentioned when talking about wood floor finishes because it is based on the agglomerated wood materials. It could be called an imitation of the large engineered wood flooring. Typical dimensions are 200/1200, 1280 and thickness is 6 12 mm. Laminated flooring is easy to maintain and its colour remains the same over time. Same as the engeneered wood flooring laminated flooring has three layers (top layer consists of decorative laminate and overlay) as it is illustrated in Fig.7. There are two ways how to make top layer. First method is use of melamin foil under which decorative paper as a photo wallpaper is laid. Second type is application of several layers of high pressure laminate (0,6 0,8 thick) with molded decorative paper imitating natural veneer wood. Laminated flooring is often seen in residential buildings (living rooms, bedrooms, kitchens, corridors,etc.), public, Office buildings, galleries or school facilities. [2]

Fig.7. : Laminated flooring layers 6

There are several pros and cons when choosing wood floor finish material for interior designs. Especially for residential buildings. As mentioned before hardwood flooring is good quality and timeless but on the other hand it is expensive. That is why sometimes laminated flooring or other imitations of wood flooring is used instead. Everyone has to choose what properties of different wood floor finishes prefer.

Resources [1] Emmitt S., Gorse Ch.: Barrys Introduction to construction of Buildings , WilleyBlackwell, 2010, Oxford, The Great Britain [2] J.Vinarkov, D.Lavrinkov: Praktick pruka funknch a technickch poiadaviek na vstavbu, as 5, diel 8 Stavebn interir, kapitola 2 [3] Nikolas Davies, Erkki Jokiniemi: Dictionary of architecture and building construction , Architectural Press is an imprint of Elsevier, 2008, Oxford, The Great Britain http://15123.fa.cvut.cz/?page=cz,pozemni-stavitelstvi-iii