We have a dilemna and I am very confused with lots of different opinions. We have an old stone cottage which now has a level concrete floor throughout the downstairs. We have a reclaimed solid maple floor (3" wide x 1" deep x 1-4' long, tongue and groove) that we want to put down, the area is about 26m square.
Half the concrete floor was already done, the other half we removed the original quarry tiles and put down concrete but with no DPM as we had planned to stick the floor down with bitumen ie. the bitumen being the DPM. We have no reason to think that the other concrete floor has a DPM either but there are no signs of damp, albeit we have not tested it. We have since had second thoughts about sticking down, it just doesn't sit well with me, I'm a forester and I believe the wood needs to be able to breath and move and I'm not sure these glues have been around long enough to stand the test of time. This also seems to be the general opinion of traditional joiners. So we would like to baton it down. But what DPM can we use that we can directly fix the battens to by gluing as obviously if we screwed them down it would compromise the DPM? We are totally confused and I would really appreciate some advice as although everyone has an opinion, nobody seems to have direct experience of batoning down on a concrete floor with no DPM underneath.
I have heard of an adhesive foam layer that you can stick the battens down with but can't find anything? We have also heard that we ought to put insulation down between the battens, but I have also read that there needs to be ventilation ie. space between the boards and concrete for air to flow through.
Any advice would be appreciated!! Sorry for the long post. Thank you!
Half the concrete floor was already done, the other half we removed the original quarry tiles and put down concrete but with no DPM as we had planned to stick the floor down with bitumen ie. the bitumen being the DPM. We have no reason to think that the other concrete floor has a DPM either but there are no signs of damp, albeit we have not tested it. We have since had second thoughts about sticking down, it just doesn't sit well with me, I'm a forester and I believe the wood needs to be able to breath and move and I'm not sure these glues have been around long enough to stand the test of time. This also seems to be the general opinion of traditional joiners. So we would like to baton it down. But what DPM can we use that we can directly fix the battens to by gluing as obviously if we screwed them down it would compromise the DPM? We are totally confused and I would really appreciate some advice as although everyone has an opinion, nobody seems to have direct experience of batoning down on a concrete floor with no DPM underneath.
I have heard of an adhesive foam layer that you can stick the battens down with but can't find anything? We have also heard that we ought to put insulation down between the battens, but I have also read that there needs to be ventilation ie. space between the boards and concrete for air to flow through.
Any advice would be appreciated!! Sorry for the long post. Thank you!
