INSTALLATION GUIDE & PREPARATION

Before Starting Installation

  1. Things to be aware of before installation
  2. Subfloor preparation

Installation

  1. Trowel glue down installation (full surface glue down)
  2. Nail down installation
  3. Install as floating floor
  4. Additional advices
  5. Installation on wall or ceiling

 

Before Starting Installation

 

1. Things to be aware of before installation: 

  1. Upon delivery, always check that planks and accessories conform to order specifications in terms of quality, quantity, moisture content and appearance. To immediately identify problems.
  2. Always carry the floor planks inside immediately after delivery – never, under any circumstance, leave them outdoors.
  3. Open a few packs and check the floor panels for visible deviations, such as damage, extreme colour differences and shape or dimensional deviations. Please contact Style Timber immediately should you find any faults.
  4. Always check the level and the condition of the subfloor before beginning the installation. It is absolutely crucial that the subfloor lives up to the requirements in this instruction manual. Verifying the condition of the subfloor and ensuring it meets optimum standards is the responsibility of the installer or contractor. If any of the conditions are not met, this must be rectified before the planks are installed.
  5. Always check the floor plan, drawings and detail finishes from the designer. Ensure all other material is ready,  such as stair nose, trims and caulking etc.
  6. Consider the humidity factor throughout, from the design stage to construction. Let the humidity factor play a decisive role from the beginning, and never allow yourself to be pressured into installing floors under conditions where humidity could be problematic.
  7. Always make sure to measure the moisture content of the concrete before installation.
  8. All work that could add moisture to the construction, such as masonry work and basic paint work, must be finished prior to the installation of the floor.
  9. For the vapour barrier, use at least 0.20 mm PE foil or
  10. The building must be dry and without construction humidity in accordance with our humidity guidelines. Never have the floor planks delivered until the building is sealed off, dry, warm, and the humidity levels are under control.
  11. Place a good hygrometer in the building and keep an eye on the humidity level. The building must be at equilibrium with the season’s mean humidity.
  12. Requirements with regard to Noise Reduction: There are situations where a sound-dampening sub-floor is required. We recommend, samples are made to be tested by the acoustic engineer  before installation commences.
  13. Check documents and conform to the values in the table below;
Measuring pointLevel
Room temperature18-25 °C
Room humidity35-65% RH
Concrete moisture contentMax.85%RHwhenavapourbarrierisused.Ifyou leave out the vapour barrier, the residual moisture content must be less than 65% RH. NB: 85% RH correspondstoapproximately2.0CMdependingon thetypeofconcreteetc.Beawareofanyrestrictions inthenationalstandardrequirements
Joist/beam humidityMax. 10-12%
Humidity in plywood/chipboardMax. 8-10%
Vapour barrierMin. 0.20 mm PE foil

 

2. Subfloor preparation

Before commencing installation, please make sure your sub-floor is permanently dry, hard, level, clean, and has adequate load-bearing capacity. The tolerance of sub-floor level is less than 3 mm height difference over a distance of three continuous meters. Unevenness exceeding 3mm should be leveled out.

Concrete Subfloors:  Level the concrete floor by grinding the higher spots of concrete or use self-leveling compound to fill the lower part of it.  If you need to glue down the timber floor, the sub-floor must be free of dust and sand. Check moisture content of concrete floor, if it’s more than 5%, water proofing needs to be applied, and fully cured before starting installation.

Wooden Subfloor:  If the subfloor is old wooden floor or timber barriers and joists, check it for loose parts and tighten the same in place. You may level the sub-floor by sanding it down or installing new chipboards. Replace any damaged sub-floor before install new floor.  Always make sure there is sufficient ventilation to allow the sub-floor to breathe.

Under-Floor Heating:  Euro Oak floors have sound stable structures that are suitable for under-floor heating, there are certain rules that you must follow. It is important to know what type of under-floor heating will be used and the sub floor condition. We advise that before you purchase your floor, you always ask for professional advice.

 

Installation

After floor preparation and sub-floor is leveled, the timber floor is ready to be installed. There are three different installation methods of Euro Oak floor, and suitable sub-floor types for different installation methods. Please see the tables below.

 

 FloatingTrowel glue downNail Down
Mega
MilanoX
Chalet
HerringboneXX
CherronXX
Super PlankX√Plus

Different installation methods for Euro oak collections

Sub-Floor TypeFloatingTrowel glue downNail down
ConcreteX
Existing Timber Floor/ Plywood/                              Yellow Tongue
TilesXX
Batters/Joints/BeamsXX

Available installation methods for different sub-floor type

1. Trowel glue down installation (full surface glue down)

Use “Sika bond” or “Regupol one part polyurethane” glue. Refer to Sika and Regupol product information before commencing installation. Apply the glue on sub-floor using 3-5mm trowel, spread them evenly on sub-floor.

Trowel glue down installation

  • It is crucial to make sure that the first three floor planks are laid out absolutely straight to provide a perfectly straight starting point, especially when installing the Chalet Collection with multi-width planks. Otherwise, the inaccuracies quickly accumulate and cause problems. The same rules apply to the Casa Herringbone Parquetry and Chevron Muse collection, ensuring the starting line is straight is extremely important. We recommend only professional timber floor layers work on these products, particularly when the floor has specially designed patterns. Please contact Style Timber for assistance.
  • Adjust the planks to make sure the starting line is straight and there are no gaps between the boards. You must clean the residue glue on the surface of timber floors. Use recommended glue removal products like “Bostik wipes” to remove the glue. If you use any solvent-based products, please test them on off cut samples to make sure they won’t damage the floor coating and surface.
  • Apply weights on the planks during the curing period to ensure sufficient pressure across the entire Place 15 kg sand bags, buckets with sand or similar weights on top of the planks. Distribute them evenly with approximately one load per m2 until the glue has cured. The areas along the edges of the floor and the last installed rows are particularly important. The floor should not be used until the glue has cured. The glue will take 24 hours to fully cure.

 

  • Glue down acoustic underlay first where you install timber floor in multi-residential buildings, make sure it complies with BCA and building acoustic requirement. To avoid any movement of timber floor, the acoustic underlay has to be rigid when installing the timber floor with durobond application. Style Timber suggests using Regupol 4515 or Uniroll 5mm thick rubber underlay. There must be no gaps between the joint of underlay. Before installing skirting boards, you need to use foam rod to fill the gap along perimeter and caulking any gaps after installing the skirting boards. For more information, please see the specification and instruction guidelines from Regupol Australia.

 

2. Nail down installation

Please note to nail down Euro Oak floor, you must add Sika T53 glue on the sub-floor, regardless if its old timber floors, plywood, battens or yellow tongue.  To achieve the best looking floor, we only recommend secret nail, not top nail installation.  Please note, only those timber floor planks with a total thickness of 19mm or more can be installed as secret nailed.  Therefore, in our Euro Oak Range, only the Mega Collection, Chalet Collection, Giant Herringbone and Chevron, and Super Planks can be installed as secret nailed timber flooring.

installation 1Installation 2

Plywood is fixed using metal anchors Secret staple nail gun

Nail down on battens | Nail down on yellow tonge | Nail down on plywood

Nail down on battens |                                     Nail down on yellow tonge |                              Nail down on plywood

 

Secret nail euro oak on concrete slab after installing plywood

Secret nail euro oak on concrete slab after installing plywood

 

  • On concrete floors, always install 0.2mm polyethylene vapour barrier, overlapping the edge at least 200mm and tape them together, let the vapour barrier continue up the wall and cut it off behind the skirting board.
  • Install at least 15mm or 19mm thick plywood on top of vapour barrier by drilling a hole and fix using metal anchors. Install at least 18 anchors on each full size plywood (2440mm*1220mm), equally spaced. It is preferable that sheets be staggered by 900 mm so that fixings do not line up from sheet to sheet.
  • Install Euro Oak floor on battens: Similar to plywood installation, after installing the vapour barrier, ensure spacing between timber battens is less than 40cm, otherwise, timber floor may be bend or warp after few years .If you need to level the sub-floor while you install the battens, you need to use a laser leveling tool to identify the highest point of floor covering the area, then pack up each batten according to pre-set laser meter mark. The hardwood battens thickness need to be no less than 32mm. The packing height is restricted to 35 mm, since the biggest anchor size is 100mm long, anchors need to go into concrete at least 35mm deep to hold the batten strongly. Compared to plywood, the negative factor by using battens is the noise where the hollow part of the floor is walked over.
  • When installing Euro Oak on existing timber floors or yellow tongue, rough sand the timber substrate, then secret nail and glue the new floor on top of it like installing on plywood.
  • Secret nail the boards at maximum spacing 250mm on substrate wooden floor or on each piece of battens. Glue must be applied on batten or plywood before the floor is nailed.

3. Install as floating floor

Although we don’t recommend our Euro Oak strip flooring be installed as a floating floor, it’s a quicker and easier way to finish installation. If installing as a floating floor, you may expect some movement as there are no nails or adhesive to connect the timber floor and substrate. Our 15mm thick herringbone collection, 15mm chevron collection and Super plank collection cannot be installed as a floating floor.

The boards are laid “floating” by gluing the panels together using waterproof PVA wood glue. If the humidity level and temperature changes, the floor may shrink or expand to some extent. For this reason, an expansion gap 10mm to 12mm should be maintained with respect to all fixed boundaries such as walls, thresholds, columns kitchen and tile. Movement joints should be installed if floors are more than 15m long or 8m wide, as well as near door openings, between rooms, at turns in passageways. These movement joints may be finished using specially developed dilation joint profiles. There should be an offset of at least 40cm between the top ends of the floor panels in consecutive rows. Always lay minimum 3mm thick underlay before starting to lay the floor, make sure you tap them down properly and there are no gaps between underlay joints.

General guides to install Euro Oak strip floors as floating floors:

  • After the sub-floor underlay has been laid, the next step is to start laying the boards. We recommend that you start in a corner of the room which is immediately visible when entering the room. First calculate the number of tracks that you will be laying. You will obtain the best results if the first and the last track are approximately the same width. Now lay the first panel with the groove of the length facing the wall. Usually the panels are laid lengthwise in the house, (in the direction of the light).
  • An expansion joint 12mm or the thickness of the floor should be installed all around the Place a spacer block at every 40cm. remove them 24 hours after the floor has been laid. Now place the second floor panel and and so on, until the installation of the first row of floor panels is completed. Now check whether the first row is straight by tensioning a rope along the length. After the third row has been laid, check again if the floor is level.
  • If the wall is not fully straight, you should transfer the unevenness to the floor panels. This may be done using a spacer with a lead pencil. After the floor panels have been marked out. Saw the same as required so that the recesses etc fit Keep in mind the expansion joint. Use a fine toothed saw for this purpose. If a hand saw is used, make sure the decor side is facing upwards. If a jigsaw is used, keep the decor side facing downwards.
  • Lay the first row of panels by gluing each subsequent panel on the short side. In the second row, start with the remaining part of the first This part, however, must be at least 40cm in length so as to ensure that the floor has optimum stability and also to ensure minimum waste of material. The panels should be glued along the entire length and width. Do not use excessive amounts of glue.
  • To tighten, use the topping block of the laying set. You can also use a wooden fillet of at least 30cm. This is to avoid damage to the panels. After the panels have been tightened, remove any residual glue immediately with a lightly moistened cloth. After the glue has dried, it will be almost impossible to remove any residue.
  • While fitting the last row of the floor panels, lay the floor panels with the decorative side down with the groove against the wall. Now make the required markings and cut with the Also keep in mind the prescribed expansion joint of 15mm and that the floor should be free all around. If it is difficult to reach the last row,  lay the boards one by one as close as possible against the boards of the last row but one. Then push them together lengthwise using a pull iron and a hammer. The cross cut ends are tightened using a stop block or a pull iron and hammer.
  • Fill all gaps between timber floor and metal door jambs with similar floor colour silicone. Install all trims during or after the floor is laid. Please refer to floor accessories install instructions.

4. Additional advices

No matter which method you choose to install Euro Oak, it is critical to ensure the instructions are followed precisely. Followings are additional advices:

  • Always install a moisture barrier layer on top of the concrete, except if the floor is to be glued down. A 3mm underlayment will be adequate from a technical point of view. You should also always install a moisture insulation product. Joints should be thoroughly sealed and the moisture insulation product should extend behind and up the full height of the skirting board.
  • Always sort the floor planks into three piles based on their structure: knots, grain and colour variations. This makes it easier to ensure a balanced distribution when installing the floor so the end result will be a beautiful and harmonious appearance.
  • When handling the floor planks, always lift them, never pull or drag them sideways over the edge of the plank below. That risks pulling splinters off the edges or weakening them so they may splinter at a later point.
  • Make sure to use a tapping block that is large enough. The tapping block should be more than 300mm If the tapping block is too small, the edges of the floor planks could be damaged, and over time, the edges might splinter. Always hit the middle of the tapping block, and use a large, heavy hammer – this will be necessary to drive large planks together.
  • Always put a protection matt to avoid flooring damages from other trades work. Inspect and vacuum clean the floor before you lay the protection. Us a 3mm foam underlay plus 3mm MDF sheet, then tape them together to give a proper protection. Do not apply tape to the finish floor as it may damage the floor coating.  Add extra protection in all high traffic areas.

 

5. Installation on wall or ceiling

  • Check the timber feature design carefully before starting installation. Make sure you know all the detail finish.
  • Make sure the wall or ceiling is dry and clean, install plywood or timber battens to set up wooden base.
  • Apply glue on the back of the timber planks in snake pattern or apply glue on the timber battens, use “finish and brad nailer” to fasten the plank on wall.
  • Start the first line on ceiling by using screws to fasten the timber planks. Put screws 1mm to 2mm into the timber surface, fill it with the same floor colour silicone. Follow installing the rest planks using glue and “framing nailer. . Install the last line using screws, same finish as the first line.
  • 45-degree angle joints need professional joinery. Check there are no splinters, if so, smooth finish before installation.