Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Particleboard sheet flooring
Particleboard sheet flooring is the most common product used in the construction of
straw bale houses on stumps. The flooring will be laid on the floor joists covering the
complete area of the house including the floor area that the bales are to cover. This
provides an extremely good seal against air and bugs. Sheet flooring has a weather
guarantee. Check with your supplier to ascertain the guarantee period for the flooring to
be used on your job.
It is now a requirement that all two-storey houses have sheet flooring fitted to the
upper floor joists so that the tradespeople have a platform to work on rather than to walk
on the floor joists with open space below them. Our experience shows that render being
spilt on it during the process of rendering the walls does not adversely affect the sheet
flooring. For convenience we loosely lay builders plastic on the floor prior to rendering to
speed up the process of cleaning. If you don't use plastic, I would recommend that you
scrape the floor clean of lumps of render as soon as possible after the rendering of the
walls is completed.
The likely cause of squeaky sheet flooring
I have heard the complaint that sheet flooring is squeaky. I agree that there are many
particleboard floors that are noisy, however from my experience this can be attributed to
the installation of the floor with one exception. The early sheet flooring, which from
memory first came on the market around 1976, had a moulded tongue and groove, rather
than the strip of high strength plastic that now forms the tongue. This tongue was easily
broken during installation, and has been known to break once installed.
Installing sheet flooring
Prior to installing the flooring, it is essential that the top edges of the floor joists are level.
Check this either using a straight edge or by pulling a string line across the top of the
floor joists. A joist may be level in one position and high further along the joist due to
bow in the timber. You will trim down the high floor joists ideally using an electric planer.
The low joists will have to be packed up. As mentioned above, you can purchase 3 mm
thick and 30 mm wide masonite packers approximately 2440 mm long from your timber
supplier.
The first row of sheet flooring to be fitted
The first row of flooring is to be laid with the tongue of the flooring facing the outside
wall, so that the next row of flooring will be fed into the groove of the first row of
flooring.
It is essential that the first sheets of flooring be laid in a straight line otherwise you
will have gaps between the flooring. Use a string line pulled taught over the top of the
floor joists from one end of the house to the other. This will be your positioning guide for
the first row of flooring. Apply about a 6 mm bead of construction adhesive to the top of
the floor joist and then lay the flooring down onto the adhesive. If it is necessary to fit a
packer, lay the packer onto the adhesive on the floor joist and then apply another bead of
adhesive on top of the packer onto which the flooring will sit. Complete laying the first
row of flooring, ensuring that the ends of the sheets of flooring are supported by floor
joists, and that adhesive is placed between the end joints of the flooring, as this helps
