Using Solid Wood Flooring as Structural Boards

Using Solid Wood Flooring as Structural Boards

If you are a solid wood flooring owner and even if you are not, we guess that you know that solid wood flooring is made out of boards that are cut from one single piece of wood, so they are very solid, hard and, of course, bring the native beauty rough wood with all its perfect imperfections. Many different types of wood are used in the construction of solid wood boards, including oak, ash, pine walnut as the most common ones because of their regular hardness and shock and harm resistance. The difference between solid wood and engineered wood is the construction of the plank and not the fact that solid wood is natural and engineered wood is not (indeed, both options are made of natural timber and wooden products only). When it comes to solid wood, there is minimal interference from human.

For ages, people know the many targets of solid wood as structural boards and considering the point that the user has always been successful and efficient, we are sure that people are going to use solid wood timber for the same purposes in a long, long time. Simply envisioning a really old building, you are surely thinking of all those old and original solid wood floors that have been laid over the beams or joists. The process of effective laying is perpendicular to the beams and not only in the past, but even nowadays this purpose and usage of solid wood boards remain the same. Clearly, the speed, ability and cost of the process are improved in many cases, wood flooring installers select laying solid wood boards over a concrete subfloor, but fitting over joists is not that unusual even in the current days.

Actually, not that procedure of installation over joists and beams is not that uncommon, but there is even trend across the world and more and more people are going back to the old approaches and traditional construction process, which of course includes this method too. It is not that this method is achieved the proper way as in the past in terms of efficiency and effectiveness, we can see a major improvement and development. Laying solid wood boards over beams or joists can be generally seen in houses with basements and it is a good investment and extremely effective method used because by laying the boards directly over the beams they make up the ceiling of the basement and the room directly above. Clever and time-saving, isn’t it?

• Joists do not have to be too apart, more than 450mm apart is already too much and the floor won’t be solid and strong.

• There should be drying options In the space between the floor and the ceiling below in the terms of cosiness, good insulation and reasonable point of view.

• It is important to ensure quality insulation (and choose the right way for insulation) if the floor is laid over an unheated space.