Installation
HomeInstallation of Chelsea Plank Flooring and Restoration Series Plank are done according to NWFA and NOFMA standard ¾" hardwood plank flooring guidelines. The equipment used for cutting the flooring is a standard saw power miter saw or equal using a new/sharp hardwood blade. The fastening systems are specialty floor staplers or floor nailers that use hardwood flooring staples or cleats. ¾" hardwood flooring is generally installed over a ¾" thick plywood or solid wood subfloor.
The installation instructions detailed below are intended for a dealer or an in-store sales person. They are good guidelines when you are estimating, specifying, or considering specifying solid hardwood. These guidelines are important to insure that your customer's home is suitable for a quality installation and that you have some very good basic knowledge of job-site issues. The entire jobsite must be within industry standards for hardwood floor installation. Moisture and humidity conditions are particularly important.
Solid hardwood plank flooring can be installed over: For 16" O.C 5/8" or greater in thickness CD plywood or 23/32 OSB Exposure 1. For 16"-19.2" O.C. 3/4 CD or 23/32 OSB Exposure 1 or greater thickness. For 19.2" -24" O.C 7/8" Cd or 1" OSB Exposure 1 or greater in thickness. 4) Properly cured and level concrete slabs (special installation instructions are available). 5) Lightweight concrete (special installation instructions are available).
Hardwood can be installed over old vinyl floors. There are risks if there is concealed subfloor damage. Any previous water damage to the existing sub-floor must be repaired. Some manufacturers eliminate warranty coverage over other solid surfaced floors due to potential problems with liquid spills that cannot drain off with vinyl flooring.
Subfloors must be flat. Check the subfloor for uneven areas. A subfloor cannot have a deflection of over 3/16" in 10'. Any uneven areas that are not corrected or filled will result in squeaks, cracked planks, cracked tongues or cracks on groove sides of planks.
Review all transition areas with your customer and your installer. Wood to Tile, Carpet to Wood, Wood to Wood areas will need special moldings purchased or milled to provide a durable and cosmetic transition between separate surfaces.
ACCLIMATION
Carefully planned delivery time and material storage conditions are two of the most important steps in assuring that the job will be a quality installation. It is important that hardwood flooring is stored in an environment where the humidity levels are very close to the actual living conditions that will be maintained in the home. Temperature is not an important factor so long as the temperature does not result in a change in stable relative humidity. Avoid storage in a garage, uncontrolled warehouse, trailer, new home without heat, or any other location where there might be high or variable humidity conditions. The material will absorb moisture if exposed to these conditions. If the flooring is installed after it has absorbed even a small amount of excess humidity, there is a strong possibility that the flooring will lose this additional humidity and change dimension at a future date.
In all installations over wood subfloors, it is critical to inspect the subfloor for both stability and moisture content before considering installation. Installations over wood subfloors must include an inspection of the moisture content of the subfloor in several areas. You must also check the relative humidity of the installation area and the area below the installation. Inspections of solid material and subfloor should be done with a digital moisture meter that uses pins to penetrate the surface of the material to check the moisture content. Inspections for indoor humidity should be done with a digital humidity gauge that reads both temperature and humidity. Educate yourself on the relationship between temperature change and humidity variation. These important tools are available through your distributor or sales over the internet.
Area of installation:
a. Subfloor cannot be more than 4% higher or lower in moisture content than the flooring being installed onto it.
b. Relative humidity in the area must be able to be controlled and maintained in a range of between: 35% - 60%.
c. Area below the subfloor:
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Basements must have a whole house dehumidifier (high capacity) available to control and maintain humidity levels below 60%. When installing hardwood flooring in a home that is under construction, you must consider that the vapor emission rate from the concrete floors and walls will increase the relative humidity in the home for an extended period. If hardwood floors are delivered and allowed to acclimate to high humidity conditions, it is possible that they will shrink back to their original dimension once the home has "dried" out. If you install hardwood flooring in a new home when relative humidity conditions are not being controlled by additional dehumidification for the 1st 12 months, the planks may absorb this additional humidity and expand. The result will be a crackling noise when the floor is walked on that is caused by the planks expanding against themselves. This condition will disappear if the humidity levels in the basement are lowered for an extended period or the home cycles through a 1 - 1 1/2 year heating cycle that should dry out the basement. If the humidity levels are allowed to continue at a high level it is possible for damage to occur to the planks from this increased stress.
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No open water, damp areas, mold/mildew can be present. The basement must be waterproof and dry.
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Installations over crawl spaces must have crawl space inspected to meet the same humidity conditions as a dry basement.
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New construction must have subfloor moisture content and humidity conditions checked before installation is started. Purchase and installation of high capacity dehumidifiers is a strong recommendation for any home regardless of age or construction type. Newer homes and remodeling projects include vapor retardant "house wrap", energy efficient windows and doors, and high "R" value insulation. The homes' ability to "breath" through normal air change (exchange of outside air with inside air) is very limited. A dehumidifier removes excess humidity from the air. This helps prevent moisture from building up in walls, attics, furniture, and any hardwood cabinets, millwork or flooring in the home. Air conditioning alone is not sufficient for use as year round dehumidification. High humidity conditions can be present during periods of temperatures lower than normal A.C. conditions.
Make sure the subfloor is stable and properly fastened to the joists. Plank flooring must be installed on a 45° or greater angle across the joists. This is necessary to prevent squeaks from the new wood flooring "deflecting" between the joists. Joists must be 19.2" on center or less for the same reasons. The subfloor must be fastened to the joists every 9" using screws. If the installation is new, the subfloor must also be glued to the joists. This is a building code in most municipal areas and is intended to help minimize deflection of the subfloor. A vapor retardant material such as builders felt must be used between the hardwood and the subfloor. Installation of vapor retardant material will decrease the amount of seasonal movement in solid wood flooring by limiting vapor absorption into the back face of the flooring.
Solid hardwood plank flooring's standard application method is using a barbed flooring nail called a "cleat" or a pneumatically driven flooring staple with a ½" wide crown. The fasteners are driven through the "tongue" side of the hardwood on a 45° angle. The next plank's "groove" side covers the fastener. The fasteners are installed about 8" apart. They do not penetrate the subfloor enough to require them to be "nailed" into the joists. Hardwood flooring is installed to the subfloor - not the joists. A space of approximately 3/8" is left around the perimeter of the room and away from any fixed objects (cabinets, support posts, ceramic floor, etc). This spacing is required for seasonal expansion of the wood floor. The "gap" is concealed by using base board, shoe mold, or any other trim that your customer has agreed on to add a cosmetic cover. STANDARD NAIL AND STAPPLE GUNS FOR HARDWOOD FLOORING SHOULD HAVE THE NYLON/PLASTIC FACTORY FINISHED SHOE ADDED TO THE TOOL. THESE "SHOES" SHIFT THE PRESSURE ON THE TOOL FROM THE BEVELED EDGE OF THE FLOORING TO THE FRONT OF THE TONGUE. THIS WILL HELP MINIMIZE DAMAGE TO THE BEVELD EDGES OF FACTORY FINISHED FLOORING THAT CAN OCCUR FROM THE HARD STEEL PLATE. A minimum option to this is to add a thin felt pad to the plate of the gun and avoid using the plate to drive planks together.
A basic technique of installation includes "racking" the floor. The installer will lay out a substantial amount of flooring prior to fastening the planks. This allows them to switch planks positions to minimize scrap, blend colors, and insure that end joints are staggered more than 8" apart between adjacent rows. Your installer will also use long planks as a starter course. The starter course is normally positioned next to the longest and straightest wall in the home. The starter course must be perfectly straight and is anchored in place using nails and adhesives to insure that it does not move when planks are locked against it.
Your installer will start and finish each row out using a plank that has been cut on a "cut-off" saw. Most typically, a power miter saw. Many installers prefer to set up their equipment in a garage or job trailer as a cut area rather than in the customer's home. This avoids excess sawdust, potential damage from tools, and makes daily cleanup a much easier process. You installers should be working in clean soft soled shoes. Traffic mats and pads are suggested to avoid dents and scratches from tools or other trades during installation. Daily clean up of all dust, nails, cut offs, etc is important in remodel jobs as your customers may walk across the floor after hours. Any debris left on the floor may result in a claim and some required replacement of unintentionally damaged planks.
CONCRETE/ LIGHT WEIGHT CONCRETE INSTALLATIONS:
NOFMA ( National Oak Flooring Manufacturers) does offer guidelines and specifications (January 2007) for adhesive application of solid hardwood to concrete. Contact your distributor or our technical services department for more information on hardwood floor adhesives. In general, concrete must have a vapor release rate of less then 7# per 1000 sqaure feeet / 24 hour period to consider use of wood flooring adhesives and solid wood flooring. Both Chelsea Plank Flooring and Restoration Series Plank are designed and milled to be extremely flat and straight. Our side interlock system is a "tap" lock that requires our products to be tapped together. Applications to concrete must follow NOFMA specifications relating to concrete and site conditions and adhesive manufacturer's instructiuons on site preperation and trowel notch size. Any applications to concrete must have a log of concrete conditions and moisture tests maintained before installation of flooring begins. All concrete floors emit vapor throughout their life. If the "slab" is not properly sealed from vapor transmition between the hardwood and the slab, varying degrees of movement may occur. Any movement within the slab will also result in surface distortion of the hardwood planks. Contact the NWFA or our office for current NWFA/NOFMA guidlines.
RADIANT HEAT INSTALLATIONS:
Our products can be installed over low temperature radiant heating systems. The surface temperature at the sub-floor level may not exceed 83 degress(F) at any time. If the home is located in an area where their heating system will be in use for extended periods- the consumer may experience some late season shrinkage inbetween planks as the moisture content of the planks is dried out of the wood. We recommend the use of a whole house humidification system to maintain interior relative humidity over 35% during the operation of a radiant heating system. We recommend that wood flooring should be installed using a wood flooring adhesive product ( Refer to recommended adhesives under "Concrete Installations) and that must be troweled down before installation using the adhesive manufacturer's recommended trowel, notch size and shape. The recommended adhesives are elstomeric and will allow some seasonal movement of the planks as well as to seal the reverse faces. If lightweight concrete is being used, check adhesive manufacturer's specifications to make sure their product is designed for use over lightweight concrete
Outside sources for information and equipment:
Moisture meters:
Delmhorst Instrument
Lignomat USA Ltd.
General Electric Protimeter
Fasteners:
Powernail Company
Stanely/Bostitch
Porta-nails Inc
Primatech
Flooring adhesives and sealers for Concrete and radiant heat installations:
Bostik Inc: TKO Adhesive + MVP Primer
BASF : Chemrex CX-1000
DriTac Adhesive Group: DriTac 7500
Kerakoll S.P.A : Silovil 3000 ( extremely high quality)
Mapie: Ultrabond 990
Sika: SikaBond T55 ( extremely high quality)
Stauf-USA: Stauf SMP 960 / 940 ( extremely high quality)
UFloor Systems: UZIN MK100
The adhesives listed above are suggestions for manufacturers that list their products as designed for use to adhere solid hardwood
planks to concrete. We do not endorse any of these manufacturers. Before you select an adhesive, consult withthe manufacturer's
Web sites for proper application methods and conditions
Technical information on wood flooring and installations:
Your Chelsea Plank Flooring distributor's Technical Services Department
National Wood Flooring Association (NWFA)
National Oak Flooring Manufacturer's Association (NOFMA)
