Wood Flooring over Concrete???

[karoc]

Most of my life I spent walking on wood floor in wood frame house. Now that I am more modern now and walking on laminate flooring which on concrete slab I would like to have that old wooden floor experience again. My place that I am building as retirement home around 1000sq ft I would like a wood floor over concrete. I know several ideas has been given to me to go with laminate flooring but that is mainly for the looks. Where I work at I have watch flooring people install maple in gyms. They would put sleepers down then nail the maple down to sleepers, but what I am thinking about is just plain T&G 1x6 pine painted with good grade paint. I know that over time the paint will wear out where the highest foot traffic. Personally I like the idea, but lot of times my ideas don't work out. Question is does this sound doable and does it make sense? Should I just look for other ways for wood flooring that not over the top expensive? I know its going to be hard keep cost down for this idea with todays prices. Any suggestions, ideas and thoughts on this?

 

[theoldwizard1]

If the wood has no ventilation under it, it will warp/buckle over time.

 

[paredown]

If the wood has no ventilation under it, it will warp/buckle over time.

Not necessarily. If you have a modern dry, properly insulated and vapor barrier applied slab, it should be fine, although the general recommendation is to use an engineered wood, especially if you want underfloor (radiant) heat.

We did a remodel where we added maple engineered (with a thick enough real wood wear layer that it could be refinished more than once). Installation is glue down, using an acrylic adhesive (which is a little bit of a PITA to work with, since it is pretty sticky, but water based).
The guys got an excellent job and AFAIK it is wearing well.

Old wizard is right though--if you get water encroachment from the edges of the slab because drainage/vapor barrier/insulation was not done correctly, the chances are pretty good that it will tend to buckle over time. But the same moisture (if present) will destroy the glue bond on seamless or vinyl--or cause mold issues in carpet, so the real point is get the slab right to begin with

 

[karoc]

Thanks guys I did watch few Youtubes about engineered flooring which seems pretty good. This is a new build, which there was a vapor barrier put down so I am hoping that moisture will be at a safe level for wood flooring.

 

[duneslider]

If this is a new build another option to consider is designing the house in a way you can put a layer of insulation down then ply on top of that, then you can do the solid wood flooring of your choice. I know in some areas the full glue down over concrete works but I have seen a lot of failures in my area with that type. It also creates a colder floor. We don't do a ton of slab on grade houses here so it isn't as common as other areas of the country.

 

[infinkc]

they put down engineered hardwood on slabs all the time now. I guess some will say it’s still not real hardwood, but you get the more solid feel from it. Our whole house has engineerd wood glued straight to the slab.

 

[Skooterj]

New build and want that real hardwood feel, put it on a crawlspace.

 

[Hubmonkey]

We have real hardwoods and are on a concrete slab house. Has been down for almost 5 years now (built in 2017) and we do not have buckling and warping. Does it expand and contract? Yes but all wood does even engineered flooring. They put down tar paper, then 1/4" ply wood on the slab then the hardwood floor. Ours is 3/4" red oak.

Hub

 

[duneslider]

We have real hardwoods and are on a concrete slab house. Has been down for almost 5 years now (built in 2017) and we do not have buckling and warping. Does it expand and contract? Yes but all wood does even engineered flooring. They put down tar paper, then 1/4" ply wood on the slab then the hardwood floor. Ours is 3/4" red oak.

Hub

That's not really over concrete then. I haven't seen it done that way but it is decoupled from concrete. 1/4" seems too thin to me but I guess it is working. I have done what you have but used 3/4 ply under the wood with good results.

 

[duneslider]

New build and want that real hardwood feel, put it on a crawlspace.

I personally like this build plan. I just don't dig slab on grade. Doing a conditioned crawl space has a lot of advantages in my opinion. Put a deeper trench down the middle to allow for full standing and all the utility runs. Make the rest of it whatever depth you want (I would want at least 4 feet and use it for some extra storage.

 

[billconner]

I was working on an old school - 1930s - and they had set wood nailers in concrete - dovetail shaped - and used them to nail strip wood floor to. Fascinating the many variations over time.

 

[Skooterj]

I personally like this build plan. I just don't dig slab on grade. Doing a conditioned crawl space has a lot of advantages in my opinion. Put a deeper trench down the middle to allow for full standing and all the utility runs. Make the rest of it whatever depth you want (I would want at least 4 feet and use it for some extra storage.

I'm fine with a slab build, but if you want a true hardwood floor feel, the floor needs to flex a little. Wood over concrete just feels different.

 

[b-boy]

Not exactly the same, but I put vapor barrier, sleepers, foam board, and exterior plywood down over my basement concrete floor. My basement is extremely dry. I didn't do hardwood, but I did do laminate.

I think you could do the same above grade and use hardwood. It does give you the same bounce of a wooden floor.

 

[FMB4]

Yep, wood and other flooring material is applied over concrete slab foundations all the time. The important thing is to make sure that you, or the installers, store the wood floor strips inside the residence long enough for said wood etc to acclimatize to the moisture before it's installed. This also goes with MDO and OBS under flooring.

 

[Yankeefarmer]

Over 20 years ago I finished a room in our not dry basement by nailing pressure treated 2x4’s to the slab, covering with a poly vapor barrier, then laying down 3/4 plywood. I painted the plywood with a flooring paint. No issues whatsoever.

 

[larry4406]

If you have stairs, be mindful of the buildup from your flooring as it can effect the riser height adjacent the flooring if not taken properly into account.

The only "wood" flooring on concrete I have had experience with was a glue down engineered product (Shaw) on a slab on grade townhouse. Our slabs have vapor barriers under them. We had some problems with floors buckling (maybe 2 of 60 units?). When we tore the floor up to investigate, it was found to be poorly bonded to the concrete due to the wrong notch trowel having been used and perhaps too large of an area had glue applied before the wood was installed and the glue skinned over not adhering to the flooring. When they reinstalled it, they used an upgraded glue which also sealed the concrete from moisture even though we had a vapor barrier.

 

[nadogail]

Wood flooring over concrete seems pretty common around here.