Tag Archives: wood

How to Lay Wooden Flooring

This blog discusses how to lay wood flooring, not necassarily leminate flooring. Layinging wooden flooring, like most jobs discussed in these blogs, is not an overly difficult task once you know how to do so. Like in the tiling blog, you wnat to work out how much this is going to cost in terms of how many wooden panels you will need, so like in the tiling blog, measure the length and the width of the room and multiply to get the area of the room and then measure the length and width of one tile and multiply to get the area of one tile, now divide the larger number by the smaller number. This number is how many tiles you will need, but it is a safer bet to get a few more tiles than that number actually reads. Now to the floor laying!

First of all you must check that your sub-floor has a damp-proof membrane you will need to install some, before attempting to lay the wooden flooring, if there is not. Once you have a damp-proof membrane in place you will also need to check that the subfloor is level. To continue you need a self-adhesive underlay; these are almost essential as they mean you do not have to glue or nail the wooden boards down and creates what is called a ‘floating floor’ as the panels are not fastened directly to the sub-floor. You can purchase a roll of self adhesive underlay from DIY stores such as B&Q.

Roll your self-adhesive underlay across the floor in the direction you wish to lay your flooring, with the shiny side facing upwards towards the ceiling. Make sure that you do not allow adjoining pieces of underlay to overlap each other as this will cause a difference in height when you come to actually lay the wooden panels. Once you have laid down the underlay it is time to actually lay down the wooden panels.
To begin this, gently peel back a portion of the self-adhesive underlay that is equal to about half the width of your first panel. The first tile is always the most difficult as it justifies the spacing and location of the rest of the tiles. First, have a spacer ready so that you can place it inbetween your wooden tile and your skirting board, now take the additional plastic sheet, that you should have when you purchased your underlay, fold almost a quarter of this sheet and place it over the top of the sticky underlay making sure that it covers almost all of it. Now, place your first tile upon the underlay that is exposed and is not covered up by the plastic sheet and gently remove the plastic sheet as you place the board into place. The difficult part is now over, you can continue by peeling back the underlay and lay wooden tiles as your progress.

You may need to cut many of your end rows, the easiest way to do this I find is to place the tile upside down, still adding a spacer between it and the skiriting board, and mark with a pencil the position at which you shall need to cut the panel, now you can cut the tile using a saw. However it is suggested that you wait up to 48hours before adding trims and finishes to the floor to allow the wooden panels to settle. You now know how to lay wooden flooring, and it wasn’t even as difficult as you may have first thought!

Painting woodwork

Continuing from our previous blog, painting woodwork is the focus of this blog. In particular focussing on doors that have recently been stripped, however the general nature of this blog can relate to any sort of woodwork painting you have needs for. As usual within these blogs I have tips and techniques for you that you may wish to follow. Of course, creating that sleek, shiny, smooth finish on woodwork takes a great deal of attention and patience, but it is not a completely difficult job. Being attentive and patient will create a very good finished product. If the old paint is in a decent condition then a simple re-coat or two will suffice. However, as usual, a different approach is needed when dealing with paint that is in bad condition. Old, flaky or discoloured are synonyms that describe bad conditioned paint.

In relation to recently stripped doors; if the exterior paint is in decent condition, then there is no need to hard work the paint back to the bare timber. If there is flaky paint remove it with a scraper and then sand areas to create greater even surfaces. Always try and remove furniture decorations (handles, knobs, plates and knockers) so as not to cover them in paint.

Repainting: Fill any sort of holes with cellulose filler costing less than £8 from DIY stores, such as B&Q. Sandpaper the surface to create an area that the new paint can ‘adhere’ to. (Make sure your new paint is of the same colour as woodwork if you wish to repaint). In the same way as neutralisation in the last blog, rub the door with white spirit or warm water to clean particle to stop them from attaching to the paintbrush. If old paintwork is in good condition ignore this step, if not; an undercoat will help cover this up((If the woodwork has been stripped to timber then an undercoat is important)). Sand down any sort of ‘primer’ coating to continue with ‘upper’ layers, for which the sandpapering will create a new are for the paint to attach to again. Once enough coats have been applied and dried and your door is refurbished to the eye and the feel, you are done!

 

Happy Painting!