One of the most important structural components of any building is the floor system - not the finishing touch. decorative coating, but the whole “pie” consisting of several layers. There are several types of floors, differing in raw materials, manufacturing method and characteristics. Anyone who encounters a construction site or major reconstruction, makes a choice in favor of one of the systems based on its capabilities, preferences and building parameters. Conveniently, some designs involve the simultaneous creation of a contour underfloor heating– singular or additional. Let's consider the main floor systems in demand among users of the FORUMHOUSE portal:

• how to make floors;
• how to make floors using joists;
• how to make floors on floor slabs.

Floors on the ground

Monolithic flooring is a multilayer structure installed directly on the ground inside the perimeter of the foundation, a type of concrete screed.

The system consists of the following layers:

Compacted soil– it needs to be leveled. Depending on the level, the soil is added or extra centimeters are removed. The more thoroughly the surface is compacted and leveled, the stronger and more reliable the screed will be.

Bedding– sand is most often used. If, due to the height of the “pie”, a thick layer is required, it is recommended to backfill in several approaches with tamping each layer (10-15 cm). In order to level and compact the soil and bedding as much as possible, a layer of coarse crushed stone is poured and compacted on top of the sand. It is also possible to use a general layer of ASG instead of individual layers of sand and crushed stone; compaction is required regardless of the type of backfill. A vibrating plate, in several approaches with changing the direction of movement, is the best friend of floors on the ground.

Rough screed– a layer of concrete several centimeters without reinforcement. It is relevant for strong pressures of groundwater and when creating in-depth structures - in basements, ground floors. Bituminous waterproofing is fused over the screed, sealing the surface and requiring a flat, rigid base. If we are talking about ordinary floors on the ground and there are no problems with waterlogging, they can do without installing this layer.

Waterproofing– cuts off moisture that will come from below, are used various materials, but in most cases it is a thick film (from 150 microns), overlapped with a margin (15-20 cm), in one or two layers. The joints are taped with tape for tightness, and 20 cm of film is placed on the walls.

Insulation– to insulate the ceiling, slab materials (PSB-25 or EPPS, with a thickness of 100 mm or more) are used, laid end-to-end on top of the waterproofing. When using extruded polystyrene foam, another layer of film is needed on top to prevent direct contact with the cement mortar. Polystyrene foam is not afraid of such a neighborhood.

Screed– the thickness of the concrete layer and the brand of mortar used are calculated based on the expected loads, on average it is 50 mm. The screed is reinforced with a metal mesh with a thickness of 4 mm. The thicker the screed layer and the greater the expected loads, the thicker the mesh should be. To ensure that the concrete layer protecting the filling from external influences is uniform, special plastic stands or improvised devices are used. To maintain the filling level, beacons are used, installed at an equal distance.

At standard pie There are two ways to create a floor on the ground - with the combination of the slab and the foundation (rigid ligament) and through a damper tape (floating screed), more information about the damper tape can be found in the material. In the first case, the design is dependent on the possible shrinkage of the foundation, in the second the screed lives on its own life and is not subject to deformation.

The advantages of floors on the ground include their energy efficiency - they accumulate heat, versatility - suitable for various types of soil, durability - you can forget about a properly made screed for many years. Also attractive for owners of private houses is the opportunity to immediately pour an underfloor heating circuit into the screed - water or electric. Plus, for most finishing materials, the resulting slab will be the optimal base with minimal finishing touches or no finishing at all, if you try and maintain the level. For concrete base - best option.

But there are some drawbacks - the process is also very labor intensive (one of the forum users suffered disc protrusion without calculating own strength), and the inability to carry out communications in the ground, and the rise in cost per square meter with large volumes of backfill. This is one of the most popular types of flooring, mastered by portal participants.

Staryjdub FORUMHOUSE Member

• Region of residence - Stary Oskol, Belgorod region;
• Foundation type - TISe;
• Type of walls and number of floors - walls made of gas silicate with mortar, plastered on the inside, not yet insulated on the outside - thickness 300 mm;
• Construction of the floor on the ground (layer-by-layer) - soil, sand, polyethylene, roofing felt, concrete, EPS (2 layers of 25 mm each), heated floor: 50 mm screed with polypropylene fiber, 10 mm finishing screed, special substrate for TP, finishing - laminate 8 mm.

The screed is floating, we have been living with this floor for several years, no problems or disadvantages have been noticed, everything is fine.

Another FORUMHOUSE user chose ground floors as the best option for heat conservation.

chicken-A Member of FORUMHOUSE, Moscow

The house has a total area of ​​135 m², I use it all year round as a short-term resident - a couple of weeks in it and the same amount in the city. Partly thanks to the floors on the ground, which do not break the thermal contact of the internal volume of the house with a huge earthen heat accumulator, I spend very little on heating. True, other methods used to save on heating also help me here.

And this craftsman built a concrete foundation that has served faithfully for two decades.

motiv FORUMHOUSE Member

• Samara Region;
• A mixture of strip and pile foundations (non-hanging grillage);
• The house is one and a half floors, well masonry with expanded clay inside, two bricks thick;
• The house is about twenty years old;
• The ground floor is simply there, and I don’t remember any problems with it. You can defer the construction of the floor to a later stage in construction.

​Floors on joists

Beam floor, as opposed to a monolithic concrete slab. When creating floors using joists, the base is a “lattice” of longitudinal elements - wooden, metal or reinforced concrete beams.

In one-story and frame private housing construction, wooden beams or logs are more in demand - they can withstand heavy loads, their installation does not require much time or wet processes. The required beam thickness is calculated based on the expected loads, optimal indicator- 1/24 of the length. Coniferous wood is used for beams, as it is more resistant to external influences; humidity should not exceed 14%. Before use, it must be treated with special antiseptic compounds to prevent decay and damage by pests and microorganisms.

Depending on the type of foundation, beams are installed in special grooves (left during pouring or laying, cut into wooden bases) or laid on top. If the beams are in contact with metal, concrete or brick, you need to make additional waterproofing at the joints (resin, roofing felt, film).

A typical beam floor pie consists of the following layers:

Floor beams– the step between the elements depends on the expected loads and span length, on average – 1 m.

Logs (sheathing) – wooden beam, laid perpendicular to the beams, the greater the distance between the beams, the stronger the logs should be. To maintain the level with curved beams, wooden spacers are used; the distance from the wall to the joist is 20 cm. When calculating the step, this nuance is taken into account. When the distance between the beams is less than 80 cm, you can immediately install the subfloor, without logs.

Subfloor– necessary for laying insulation, laid between joists or between beams, with a small pitch. Skull bars (beams with a smaller cross-section) are used as fasteners, attached to beams or joists. Laying boards onto bars is done without the use of fasteners; the boards are placed closely, but lie freely.

Moisture protection– protects the insulation from absorbing moisture from the subfloor, but should not retain steam, so ordinary film is not suitable. You can refuse waterproofing if the subfloor is dry and the groundwater level is low.

Insulation– slab or roll materials are most often used: stone wool, PSB, EPS or backfill materials such as ecowool.

Vapor barrier– this can be a special membrane or ordinary polyethylene film.

Ventilation gap– when designing the ceiling, it is recommended to choose logs that will be slightly higher than the insulation layer - this automatically leaves a gap for ventilation. If this was not done, then after laying the insulation, a beam is filled, which will give the required distance.

Whether to lay another layer of subfloor after insulation depends on the future finishing coating - plank or slab varieties are self-supporting; for linoleum and carpet you will have to spend money on a base layer.

The advantages of such a floor system include the speed of construction, reduced load on the foundation, and the absence of heavy physical stress during production (no need to drag tons of sand and crushed stone, pour cubic meters of concrete).

Among the disadvantages are the need for effective ventilation of the underground, a lower load limit, the fire hazard of wood and less durability compared to concrete. To make a floor water heating, you will need to spend additional money on screed or use alternative systems, etc. But this type of flooring is chosen by many developers, including portal participants, modifying the standard pie to suit their parameters.

kolyaseg FORUMHOUSE Member

I hemmed an inch board 15 cm wide from the bottom at intervals of 7-8 cm, and placed fiberglass mesh on top of the resulting grid for facade plaster and there is already insulation on it - three overlapping mats, it turned out to be 15 cm. On top of the joists and insulation I put a bed of Izospan B. Next, I will also stuff a 100x50 mm board across the joists, spaced 24 cm apart. On the boards there is already OSB-12 or 15.

Fiberglass mesh colyaseg replaced the waterproofing film, considering that it would more reliably protect the insulation from destruction, taking into account the gaps in the subfloor.

Mishgun21 Member FORUMHOUSE

Log bathhouse/house made of logs 23 cm, 6x6 meters (with attic floor), the distance between the logs is different - from 1 m to 1.5 meters. The logs are made of logs, the frame stands on screw piles. The floor pie is like this:

• Forty block;
• There is a subfloor on it;
• Waterproofing and windproofing membrane on top, smooth side towards subfloor(so that moisture does not pass into the insulation), rough - to the insulation so that moisture comes out of it;
• Insulation - 150 mm basalt wool, I will build up the beams with a fifty-fifty block;
• I cover everything with a vapor barrier;
• Counter grille to create a ventilation gap (bar 50x25 mm);
• Batten.

Installation of floors on floor slabs

Like floors on the ground - a beamless floor, with the difference that the reinforced concrete slab is not poured on site, but is purchased ready-made.

Floor slabs are a popular option for houses with a full basement or basement, when the slab is also the ceiling of the lower level. Unlike floors on the ground and floors on joists, it is necessary to use construction equipment, since it is impossible to lay even the lightest slab by hand. But in terms of speed, slab flooring devices outperform all other options.

Floor slabs are made industrially in two categories - single-layer solid and multi-hollow. The former are a reinforced monolith, the latter have through round holes (channels) into which it is convenient to hide communications. In private construction, hollow-core slabs are mainly used. Their thickness is 220 mm, they are lighter than solid ones, have reduced thermal conductivity and better insulate sound. At standard thickness slabs are able to withstand different loads, depending on the grade of concrete and the parameters of the reinforcement frame. Length varies from 2.4 meters to 6.8 meters, width - from 1.2 to 1.5 meters, weight - from 0.9 to 2.5 tons.

Floor on floor slabs in a private house.

How to make a floor in a private house using floor slabs

The work of laying slabs is carried out in several stages:

Preparing the base– the foundation for the slabs must be perfectly level. If during pouring there are minor differences (up to 5 cm), they are leveled with a cement-sand screed. In areas with a slope, pouring a concrete armored belt or brickwork may be required.

Preparation of slabs– before laying, the channels at the ends are sealed with insulation (pushed inside) and cement mortar (covered).

Leaning– how much the slab should rest on the base depends on its type: the overlap on brickwork is from 125 mm, on concrete – from 60 mm, the long side of the slab does not rest on the foundation. If the slabs laid next to each other have lugs, they are tied together (welded with reinforcement); if the slabs are without lugs, after removing the jig (laying device), they are moved close together. At the points of contact between the slab and the base, a layer of cement mortar (M100) - 2 cm is laid; a reinforcing rod (10-12 mm thick) laid in the center of the seam will help prevent extrusion. Installation on a dry base is also possible, but this is not the case when it makes sense to save money. If the slab is both the base of the floor and the ceiling of the lower room, it is laid with the smooth part down to simplify later finishing.

Updating or replacing an old, worn-out floor in an apartment is one of the most labor-intensive operations in the overall renovation process. Just imagining the scale and cost of what is to come, many homeowners very often refuse to repair their floors, limiting themselves only to changing the decorative covering on them. But time takes its toll, and sooner or later a moment comes when it becomes simply impossible to delay such work.

In this case, it is not at all necessary to immediately look for a team of craftsmen - especially since in such a service sector you can very often meet outright “hack workers”. As a result, everything can result in a completely unnecessary waste of time, nerves and money with a low-quality result. Why not try it yourself? If the owner has certain skills in general construction work, and if you carry out repairs to the floor in the apartment with your own hands step by step, in compliance with the recommended technological rules, then everything should work out!

The stages of repair, of course, depend on the type of floors, their original condition, the purpose of the premises in which the work is being carried out, and the type of finishing coating. This publication will discuss several of the most common options.

Since the owner of the apartment is thinking about renovating the floor, then, most likely, there are motivating reasons for this, unless, of course, this is a cosmetic replacement of the covering at the next whim of the wife. Therefore, first you need to identify and clearly formulate problems - the entire scale of further preparatory and repair work will depend on this.

This publication is about a city apartment, and in the vast majority multi-storey buildings any floor has a base in the form of a reinforced concrete floor slab. But further design may differ significantly. The floor can be built on joists fixed to the base, or laid directly on a concrete screed.

• A wooden floor on joists usually begins to show its defects with creaking, instability of the coating - the floorboards “play” underfoot, the appearance unpleasant odor rot, formation and gradual expansion of cracks. It’s even worse if suddenly one of the boards cracks or a fragment of it falls down.

The dilapidated wooden floor reminds of itself with creaking and “playing” boards

• An old screed on which a coating is laid can also begin to present surprises due to “old age,” especially if it was once filled with poor quality. So, it is also possible that there may be obvious creaks and rustling sounds from sand or small pebbles, “bumping” of the screed, the appearance of dented areas of the surface, disruption of the evenness of the finishing coating, and sometimes obvious instability of an entire large fragment.

In any case, if there are obvious defects, remove the old coating.

Removing old coating

• All furniture will need to be removed from the room, completely freeing it for further work. If the renovation is not carried out in the entire apartment at once, but from room to room, it will be necessary to provide protection against the spread of dust, for example, by covering the entrance with a curtain made of thick plastic film or frequently moistened fabric, and covering the gap under the door with a roller made of a wet rag. True, the full effectiveness of this method is very doubtful, and the best option is still to provide for the resettlement of family members during the renovation. However, a barrier to dust is necessary in any case.
• Next, the old baseboards are removed. They do this carefully so as not to damage the lower part of the walls to which they are attached. If the skirting boards are intended to be used further, they are numbered according to their location and temporarily removed.

If anyone has not encountered this issue before, we can remind you that the baseboards are attached to the wall, and not to the floor surface, that is, you need to correctly direct the lever force. It will be easier if the baseboards are secured with self-tapping screws or special brackets.

The next step is actually removing the old coating. There are several options here:

A. If the floor is covered with some kind of rolled material, then they pry it up on one side and try to carefully roll it into a roll - this will make it easier to remove it. If the covering (for example, linoleum or carpet) was once laid without glue, directly on a concrete screed, this will not be difficult to do. To facilitate the action, you can first make parallel cuts with a sharp construction knife, thereby dividing the entire canvas into several narrower strips.

But there are often situations in which old material comes off along with the layers of peeled screed. Then you will have to remove it in fragments and immediately take it out of the room along with pieces of concrete so that this construction debris does not interfere with further work.

It happens that once well-glued linoleum, when removed, begins to delaminate itself, leaving dried layers on the screed. In this case, you will have to work with a scraper (trowel), warming these areas with a hair dryer or moistening the old adhesive layer with a solution of floor detergent.

B. Old “playing” parquet can cause more trouble. If it is of no value, then its dies are sequentially removed and immediately loaded into bags, which are taken out as they are filled. If the parquet was once glued to bitumen mastic or organic-based glue, then removing individual dies or even entire fragments can be difficult. The “recipe” is the same - scraper, chisel and heating with a hairdryer.

IN. To remove the old one tiles, it is most convenient to use a rotary hammer switched to chiselling mode with a spade chisel installed. If such a tool is not available, then everything is done manually, using a hammer and chisel.

G. When removing a plank floor covering, the most difficult thing is probably to pick up and separate the first floorboard. Then, when you can freely move the lever, the work will go faster. To work, you will need a nail puller with a long lever handle, a hammer, and pliers. You should try to remove the nails carefully, without destroying the boards, since, quite possibly, this material will still be used for a new flooring after repairs or for making joists.

If the old coating was attached with screws (self-tapping screws), then you can try to dismantle it using a screwdriver.

Well, if the board covering is no longer of any value, then the most convenient way would be to make cuts using a manual vertical circular saw (carefully and prudently, so as not to catch the concrete base, damage the joists, or “run into” a nail). After separating the long floorboards this way, removing them will be an easy task.

Is it worth removing the entire plank floor covering if obvious defects were observed only in certain areas, and there are no plans to replace it with a different type of surface finish? Of course, you can limit yourself to only partial repairs - replacing worn out or damaged parts. But experts unanimously advise - remove everything completely. There is no guarantee that if the deterioration process has manifested itself in one area of ​​the floor, then it will not show itself in another in a year, or even earlier. It will be cheaper to renew the base and re-lay the floor, even using old material, than to return to such repairs again after a short period.

Conducting a foundation audit

After the floor covering has been removed, it is necessary to carefully inspect the base.

• If there are logs left on the floor, and you plan to re-lay the plank flooring, you should carefully check the condition of these load-bearing elements and the supports on which they are installed. Log beams should not have areas of decomposition, rottenness, or fungal damage - such parts must be replaced. Each joist is checked under load - it should not dangle, sag, creak, etc. If necessary, update the linings that hold the guide at the desired height.

If the condition of the joists does not cause concern, then after thorough cleaning, a new coating can be laid in the spaces between them. Most old floorboards will probably work just fine. After such a bulkhead, the floor will stop creaking and gain the necessary stability. If required, thermal insulation material can be laid between the joists, which will also act as a sound insulator.

However, on the old wooden floor very often the logs themselves are quite worn out, and their repair is impossible or does not guarantee durability. In this case, they will have to be dismantled in order to subsequently install new ones. When removing joists, remember that they may be quite firmly attached to the base. You need to be careful and careful to prevent severe destruction of the concrete base and not add unnecessary worries to its restoration.

After removing the joists, the subfloor is cleaned as thoroughly as possible so that you can proceed to further steps.

In the case when, after removing the old finishing coating, a concrete screed underneath is exposed, it is inspected most carefully. You need to trust that the concrete is strong in itself, and repairing such a surface is not necessary.

The screed must be tapped - this will help to remove areas of its detachment, which must be removed to a “healthy” base. The surface is checked for the presence of loose areas, those where, due to a violation of the pouring technology, the solution has not gained strength or has been eroded due to exposure to moisture. Such areas also require cleaning.

Large cracks should not be left on the surface - this may continue the process of destructuring the base. Slots and cracks must be cut in width and depth by at least 10 - 15 mm for subsequent repairs.

Sometimes, after removing unstable sections of concrete, a completely unsightly picture is revealed, such as, for example, shown in the photograph. However, this too is completely repairable.

After removing defective areas and cutting out cracks, a thorough cleaning is carried out. It is best to use a powerful construction vacuum cleaner– using other means to qualitatively clean the surface and formed cavities from small debris and dust is extremely difficult.

Sometimes you have to resort to complete dismantling of the entire screed down to the floor slab. This may be caused by the extremely low quality of the coating, which is impractical to repair, but it is better to completely refill it. Often, mold or mildew finds refuge in screeds in damp rooms. Another option is when the floors require additional insulation and sound insulation, and the ceiling heights and dimensions doorways in the apartment will not allow raising the level of coverage (taking into account the thermal insulation layer and finishing). The same measure is resorted to when it is planned to make a wooden floor on joists instead of thin coverings.

A complex, but often simply necessary operation - complete removal of the old screed

Of course, the process of completely dismantling the screed using a breaker tool is very tedious, noisy and dusty, but no other method has yet been invented. This requires some care to avoid damaging the concrete floor slab. The screed is cut into separate pieces, which are immediately shoveled to the side and packed into bags for removal. It is not recommended to use even small fragments as material for filling a new solution, since they will not enhance, but rather worsen the quality.

After removing the old screed, thoroughly clean the surface - as described above.

Base surface repair

Whatever the floor was, it was not planned for the flooring in the future; the concrete base under it needs to be put in order. Thus, poorly sealed seams between floor slabs, cracks around the perimeter of walls, potholes or cavities, etc. may be exposed.

Such repairs are necessary even if a new screed is planned to be poured. The solution may not penetrate into these defects; air cavities will remain there, reducing the solidity of the coating and becoming the starting point for the destruction of the screed. This is especially important and mandatory if the screed will be poured onto a separating layer or onto a waterproofing film (floating screed).

All surface defects must be thoroughly cleaned, if necessary (for example, slab joints) cut, and then even the smallest chips and dust removed with a vacuum cleaner.

The next step is to carefully prime the surface, at least twice, with a deep-penetrating compound that is designed specifically for concrete.

This treatment will significantly strengthen the surface, which is especially important when it is loose, will increase the hydrophobic qualities, reduce the absorption of concrete, and improve adhesion with repair compounds. Further work begins after the last applied layer of primer has been completely absorbed and dried.

As a repair composition, you can use ordinary cement-sand mortar. However, it takes quite a long time to dry and gain the required strength, and it is better not to waste money on special repair compounds, also cement-based or epoxy-based.

Primed surface defects are filled as tightly as possible with the repair compound, comparing with the general floor level. You can use a regular spatula for this. Some repair compounds are sold in plastic tubes, and it will be more convenient to apply them using a construction syringe or a special “gun”.

If the defect is large in volume, then in some cases you can resort to filling it polyurethane foam. After it dries, the excess is cut off, and then this area is brought to the general surface level with a repair compound.

The repair “patches” are given time to completely harden, in accordance with their instructions, after which the surface can be smoothed using sandpaper wrapped on a block. Then it is recommended to go over the entire surface with primer again. If increased absorption of the composition is noted in areas where repairs are being carried out, then these areas are primed twice.

After the soil has dried, the surface can be considered ready for further work.

Leveling screed

If an old screed or wooden floor was removed and the floor slab was exposed, then most likely its level is very far from horizontal. The house shrank over time, and even when it was built many years ago, the builders may not have cared much about the strictly verified level of floors. So, no matter what the floor was, it was not planned to do anything further, it is recommended to strengthen the base and at the same time level it with a screed. The thickness of this poured layer must be at least 30 mm at the highest point

First of all, it is necessary to determine the magnitude of the difference, that is, to identify the peak, highest and lowest points of the surface and “break through” the zero level line. The beacon system will be set at this mark.

To fill the screed, you can use a regular cement-sand mortar, which is prepared directly at the work site. Usually they start from the proportion of three parts of sand to one of M-400 cement - this ratio gives a surface that is optimal in terms of strength and wear resistance, on which any of them can then be mounted. existing coatings floor.

Those novice builders who do not want to deal with drawing up proportions on their own can be recommended to use ready-made dry construction mixtures. Their composition has already been optimized for screed, and all that remains is to properly seal it with water, in accordance with the attached instructions.

How much materials will be needed in this or that case? It all depends on the level of height difference at the extreme points, the planned minimum thickness of the screed, the area of ​​the room, and the characteristics of the solution.

Typically, the packaging of dry building mixtures indicates their normalized consumption in kilograms per 1 square meter of poured area with a layer thickness of 10 mm. Based on this, you can use simple calculations to determine the required amount of material.

To make the task easier for readers, here is a calculator that allows you to quickly and accurately make such calculations:

Calculator for calculating the amount of dry building mixture for screed

room length, m

room width, m

height difference, mm

screed thickness, mm

Indicate the passport value of the average consumption of the selected dry mixture (kg per m² with a pouring thickness of 10 mm)

average consumption, kg/m²/10 mm

To calculate a cement-sand mortar made independently, we start from several different positions. The volumetric ratios of the components and their density are important here. In order not to bore the reader with formulas, a calculation calculator for this case is also included:

Calculator for calculating the amount of cement and sand for preparing concrete mortar for screed

Enter the requested values ​​and click the "CALCULATE" button

Specify the parameters of the room: its length and width (in meters), and the difference in level between the highest and lowest points of the floor (in millimeters)

room length, m

room width, m

height difference, mm

Specify the planned thickness of the screed

screed thickness, mm

conversion to meters

After pouring the leveling screed, it is given time to fully mature and gain strength. After this, you can proceed to arranging the selected type of flooring.

Which floor is better for apartment premises?

There are many options for finishing flooring in an apartment. The most common include natural wood - solid board, parquet or cork, linoleum, laminate, carpet, ceramic tiles.

Wooden floors

They are rightly considered the most “cosy” and cleanest from an environmental point of view. They are mounted on logs, between which you can freely place insulating and sound-absorbing material - this will only add comfort to the floors. The coating itself can be laid directly on the joists, or, for example, parquet - on plywood mounted on the joists.

• Wooden floors can be used in any living room.
• They should be used with some caution in the kitchen - the abundant odors characteristic of this room can be absorbed into the wood and become intrusive or even sharply unpleasant over time.
• Won't fit wood flooring for a bathroom or toilet - due to the high probability of water getting on it.
• The hallway is also not the best place for wooden floor. Firstly, due to the increased intensity of movement in outdoor shoes, this leads to rapid abrasion of the wood. Secondly, the humidity level here can also be elevated. And thirdly, there may be difficulties with installing the covering on the joists - this may be hampered by the floor level in the entrance and the location of the front door.

One of the most difficult operations when installing a wooden floor is installing a joist system. They must be durable and stable, and their level must be brought perfectly into the horizontal plane.

For logs, high-quality wooden beams are most often used. There are a lot of ways to install and align logs horizontally, from the simplest by placing bars or pieces of plywood under them, to using adjustable supports or various brackets.

How are wooden floors installed?

The first step is almost always. Then this base can be laid immediately, or plywood can be laid. But plywood will already become the basis for many other coatings. In particular, it is comfortable to wear. All these issues are covered in detail on the pages of our portal.

Laminate

This type of coating, made from a wood-polymer composite, has gained enormous popularity over the past 10 ÷ 15 years. Such floors surprisingly accurately imitate natural materials, but are more affordable. And some types of laminate are significantly superior to wood in terms of wear resistance, moisture resistance and service life.

Disadvantages include the fact that wood-based composites are still made using phenol-formaldehyde resins. Therefore, when choosing, special attention must be paid to the environmental class of the material. It is considered acceptable to emit no more than 0.01 mg of formaldehyde, and 0.003 mg of phenol. These types are classified as class E1, and can be installed in any residential area. Classes E2 and E3 are absolutely not suitable for bedrooms and children's rooms.

Choosing a laminate

In addition to environmental friendliness, laminate is divided according to several other indicators, and is not equally suitable for different rooms.

For high-quality laminated flooring, an almost perfectly leveled base is required. In this case, plywood or OSB sheets mounted on joists or directly on a concrete screed are ideal.

Video: one of interesting ways leveling the floor with plywood without using joists

You can lay a laminated floor on a concrete base using special polyethylene foam backings. However, the evenness of a conventional screed, made manually using beacons, may not be enough - the coating will soon begin to creak. It is best to pour a self-leveling floor under the laminate - then the tightness of the panels to the surface over the entire area will be ensured.

Self-leveling floor is the solution to many problems!

Overwhelming majority modern coverings flooring requires a perfectly level surface. This can be achieved by filling. All the nuances of performing such work are described in detail in a separate publication on our portal.

Linoleum

Despite the emergence of new types of coatings, linoleum does not give up its leading position. This is due to its relatively low cost and the ability to install it yourself.

Linoleum is a material not without its drawbacks, but quite suitable for an apartment

Modern types of linoleum are distinguished by high wear resistance, water resistance, and a rich variety of decorative designs. This material has become more favorable from an environmental point of view. The coating can vary in thickness and material of manufacture, be on a soft foam, fabric or insulated base, and produced in rolls of various widths.

Linoleum at making the right choice can be suitable for any type of room, with the possible exception of the bathroom. The requirements for the base are almost the same as for the laminate - one must be perfectly smooth, since all defects will inevitably appear through the plastic material over time.

What to do if you want to cover the floor with linoleum?

First of all, you need to navigate the classification of the material in order to be able to choose the one that is optimally suited for specific operating conditions. And secondly, know the technology to cope with this yourself. About all this – on the pages of our portal.

Carpet

This coating was very popular not so long ago, but gradually the number of its supporters decreased significantly due to the characteristic shortcomings of the material.

Carpet: beautiful at first, but generally impractical

While the carpet is new, it looks very advantageous, it is pleasant to walk on it - the surface is always warm and soft. However, even the most quality material Quite quickly this “period of youth” ends - the pile becomes wrinkled, rubbed, and loses its color. It is very difficult to remove an accidental stain from such a coating. But the main thing is that dust inevitably accumulates among the fluff, and to clean it out you need a powerful vacuum cleaner.

It would seem - perfect solution for a children's room, especially since there are many coatings on sale with very interesting design. But the softness and warmth of the coating in no way compensate for the increased risk of allergic reactions or even chronic respiratory disorders in the child. For children's optimal choice- a coating that can be frequently tidied up by wet cleaning. For the same reason, this material is not particularly suitable for an adult bedroom.

Carpet is also not suitable for walk-through rooms - very soon there will be a “trodden path” on it, and the pile will become clogged with dirt and dust brought on shoes from the street.

The only place where it can be used with a certain amount of caution is the living room. But even in this case, frequent cleaning with a vacuum cleaner cannot be avoided.

And the use of carpet in apartments where pets are kept is almost completely excluded. This is both permanent fur, tangled in a fleecy surface, and a “testing ground” for cat claws. Well, if a pet accidentally “does something” on such a floor, it’s generally akin to a “catastrophe.”

If, nevertheless, the choice is made in favor of carpet, then its installation, in principle, is not much different from working with linoleum. A clean, flat surface is also required, such as plywood or a base filled with a self-leveling compound.

Ceramic tile

Flooring with ceramic tiles is most appropriate in rooms with high humidity. When properly installed, such a coating is not afraid of dampness and does not absorb fat or oil into its surface that was accidentally poured in the kitchen.

For some rooms perfect option — ceramic tile

High-quality tiles are not afraid of long-term abrasive loads, that is, they are perfect for rooms with maximum traffic intensity - for a corridor or hallway.

The ceramic coating is easily and quickly washed from external contaminants, while freely withstanding any household detergents and solvents.

Even direct contact with water, which is quite likely in the bathroom, will not cause any harm to the tiles.

Ceramic tiles are available in a wide variety of colors, textures and patterns. For floors, of course, it is best to choose a material with a micro-relief surface, so that the roughness does not make it possible to slip on a wet floor.

Ceramic flooring can, in principle, be laid on any prepared surface, and the ideal smoothness of the base is not critical here. Including, there are technologies for laying a new tile covering on top of the old one, without tedious dismantling.

Ceramic coating certainly has its disadvantages. So, it is always very hard, and, for example, a cup or plate dropped on the floor is practically doomed to be broken. This same factor also reduces the comfort of such a floor, which is why it is extremely rarely installed in living rooms.

Another important drawback is that ceramics are “cold” materials, and walking on them with bare feet or even in light house shoes can be not very pleasant. True, this drawback can be completely eliminated by installing an electric heated floor under such a covering.

How to lay ceramic floor covering?

Whatever material is used for laying new floors, it will not be superfluous to think about insulating the surface. There is not always a need for this. For example, if there is a residential and well-heated apartment below, then most likely no additional thermal insulation will be required. But residents of the first floors, whose apartments have unheated basements or ventilated basements, have something to take care of.

There are many options in this matter. Thus, the technology of laying an insulating layer of extruded polystyrene foam is used, followed by pouring a screed or installing a finishing coating.

Another option is to use special compounds for pouring insulated screed. Such building mixtures with the addition of polystyrene foam or foam glass granules can be found in the store. Expanded clay is also widely used for these purposes.

Expanded clay is an excellent insulation material for floors!

This thermal insulation material is highly environmentally friendly, so it is ideally suited for residential premises. It can be used for backfilling between joists, for preparing mortar for pouring, and for creating floors using dry screed technology. How to do it yourself is in a separate publication on our portal.

So, the owners’ further actions directly depend on the type of coverage chosen. The links to other pages of the portal offered in the article should give a complete picture of the technology for independently performing work on replacing floors in an apartment.

Once the flooring or finishing of the flooring has been completed, all that remains is to finish the walls and move on to installing the baseboards. This last detail will add completeness to the interior appearance of the updated room.

Video: example of floor repair with replacement of old coating

Not only the aesthetic side of the interior, but also the environmental and sanitary conditions depend on which floors are chosen for residential premises. To know which floors are best for an apartment, you need to consider their basic technical and operational characteristics. Each room requires a special approach to choosing flooring, and this must be taken seriously, since the material laid on the floors can positively or negatively affect the health of family members.

As a rule, the floors in the apartment have a concrete, fairly flat base, and this fact is already a help for the installation of any of the existing types of coatings. Depending on what effect you want to get from the floor being installed, the desired type and the material required for it are selected.

Concrete floors are strong and durable, but they have two significant drawbacks that all owners of modern apartments are trying to combat - cold and high sound conductivity. To eradicate these shortcomings, you can resort to one of several methods of insulation and sound insulation. Since floor slabs are designed for a certain maximum weight, heavy loads on them are prohibited, and therefore lightweight material should be chosen for these purposes.

Methods of heat and sound insulation

You can make heat and sound insulation in an apartment in several ways using the following materials:

1. The first, most famous and used method is to lay thin polyethylene foam under a decorative coating. But this method will not give the full desired effect, it will only muffle the noise from below a little and make the floor a little warmer. Therefore, it is better to use polyethylene in combination with other materials that have the characteristics necessary to create comfort in an apartment.

2. Another, more effective method is to attach wooden logs to a thin polyethylene sheet, between which you can lay foam plastic 50 ÷ 100 mm thick, expanded clay or mineral wool. Then, such a heat- and sound-insulating “fur coat” is covered on top with a floorboard or plywood, which in turn is covered with one of the decorative coverings.

3. The third method is a floor made of dry screed. This type of thermal and sound insulation will fulfill its assigned tasks well. It is easy to install and perfectly protects the room from noise and cold.

4. Recently, pleasant and lightweight materials have been considered a little-known, but very effective method of insulation - ecowool, made from cellulose, and shumoplast, consisting of polystyrene foam, rubber and acrylic additives.

Video: sound and thermal insulation using shumoplast

5. Quite famous and in a simple way To achieve silence and warmth in the apartment is to lay extruded polystyrene foam directly onto the concrete. If necessary and the ceiling height is sufficient, the material can be laid in several layers, and a hard decorative coating is laid on top of it, for example, parquet board or laminate.

Flooring

Having decided on insulation or having made the risky decision to leave the floor cold, you can move on to the next stage - choosing and laying the final floor covering. It must be remembered that for each room it is necessary to choose its own material that will meet the requirements of staying in a given room. In addition, much will depend on the base of the floor, which will be covered or filled with a decorative coating.

Today, construction stores have a huge selection of flooring from which you can choose the appropriate option for a particular room.

So, you can choose from the following list:

• ceramic tile;
• laminate;
• carpet;
• linoleum;
• cork covering;
• batten.

Ceramic tile

This material can be laid on a concrete or wood floor lined with plywood or moisture-resistant plasterboard. The tile is intended mainly for tiling floors in bathrooms, hallways, kitchens or corridors, but if heated floors are installed in the rooms, then they are suitable for any of them.

Ceramic tiles come in a variety of colors and designs. So, for example, you can choose:

1. For large room with a heated floor, an elegant floor panel will come in handy, which will give the room the appearance of a palace hall.
2. For the hallway and corridor, rich dark tones of the material are suitable, which can hide dirt and dust brought from the street. In these rooms, it is better to lay unglazed tiles with a corrugated surface to avoid the possibility of slipping and injury.
3. The floor in the bathroom and bathtub should also be laid with corrugated or matte tiles, for better traction with bare feet when leaving the shower. The color scheme can be chosen to suit every taste, and match it to the wall decoration.
4. Tiles are also best design floor in the kitchen, as it is easy to clean and does not absorb grease and oil that accidentally gets on its surface. The material is strong and durable, which is very important for kitchen flooring.
5. If the balcony is not insulated and is used only in the summer, the tiles will be an excellent protection for the concrete covering from moisture. In this case, when choosing tiles, you need to pay attention to the frost resistance of the material.

Linoleum

Linoleum is one of the most popular coatings today, largely due to the fact that it has an affordable price, is easy to install and comes in a variety of colors and patterns.

1. This material can be made using natural materials and polymer-based. The first of them is used very rarely, as it has a fairly high cost, and mostly the second coating option is purchased.

2. In addition to the first criterion, linoleum is divided into commercial and non-commercial types.

• the first of them is more durable, and is laid in public buildings with a high intensity of human flow, but it is absolutely not suitable for residential premises, as it has harmful impurities;
• For an apartment you need to choose only a non-commercial type of flooring. Its strength is quite sufficient for home use, and it will last for many years, subject to proper installation and careful use.

3. Linoleum is produced without a base or on a warm and thick base, as well as on a medium-thick foam base.

The disadvantages of linoleum include the following: unnaturalness, deformation due to temperature changes and when heavy objects are installed on it.

Linoleum is laid on a concrete or plywood covering, most often using a polyethylene foam backing. It is suitable for flooring in any room. The only place where it is not recommended to lay it is the bathroom, due to the fact that this room has high humidity, and ceramic tiles are more suitable for it.

The choice of linoleum design in color and pattern completely depends on the tastes and preferences of the apartment owners.

Cork covering

Cork flooring is quite expensive, but it is worth it if you look at its characteristics. Cork is an environmentally friendly material, an excellent heat and sound insulator, has elasticity and resilience, is pleasant to walk on, and has the ability to create a cozy, favorable atmosphere in the room.

Cork is suitable for any room except the bathroom - due to its humidity. It can only be laid on a flat and hard surface, for example, plywood. If you plan to lay it directly on concrete, then you must lay a substrate underneath, otherwise, solid fragments will even small size may damage the material.

Cork coating is available in three types:

1. Floor decorative option, which is produced in the form of rolls and slabs. This material has a special impregnation of the top layer, which protects it from moderate humidity. In addition, often such tiles have an applied adhesive composition, which allows you to easily install them on the floor.
2. For the substrate under another floor covering, for example, linoleum or laminate, a technical version of the coating is used, which is of lower quality. It is used for thermal insulation and sound insulation of floors. The substrate is produced in the form of roll and tile material.
3. In addition, MDF is covered with cork, which serves as its base. This coating is produced in the form of panels measuring 18.5x90.0 cm, which have special locks for assembly into a common coating.

The material is almost not deformed by temperature changes, can withstand heavy loads, and does not shrink when heavy pieces of furniture are installed on it.

Laminate

In recent years, flooring called laminate has increasingly appeared in apartments and houses. It successfully imitates parquet or natural boards, but is much more affordable. Laminated panels are produced in standard sizes, most often 25x150 cm; at the edges they have locks of various designs, with the help of which they are connected into a common plane.

Structurally, the laminate consists of four layers, each of which plays its own role, and the complex produces a fairly reliable, durable and aesthetic material.

1. The top transparent layer not only emphasizes the decorative nature of the laminate, but also plays a protective role for the underlying ones, guaranteeing them moisture resistance and protecting them from mechanical damage and abrasion. This part of the laminate is made of acrylic or melamine resins, which contribute to the performance of protective functions.
2. The second layer is the decorative layer, which imitates one or another pattern - this can be not only the texture of wood, but even different types of stone or sand.
3. Pressed wood fiber makes up the third layer, which is the basis of the entire panel, as it has the largest thickness - from 4 to 8 mm. It is at the level of this layer that the locking elements - tenon and groove - are located that fasten the panels together.
4. The lowest layer consists of special paper impregnated with resin, which is designed to protect the material from moisture that can damage the material from below. Some types of laminate are also equipped with a heat- and sound-insulating waterproof backing.

This flooring is divided into operational classes, and laminate classes 21-23 are mainly used for installation in residential premises.

Laminate cannot be called a 100% environmentally friendly material, since phenol-formaldehyde resins are used in its production. But each manufacturer can use them in different proportions, and the norm is considered when the formaldehyde content does not exceed 0.01 mg, and phenol 0.003 mg - these data can be found on the packaging of the floor covering.

Laminate is well suited for installation in the living room, hallway and kitchen, but it is better to avoid laying it in a children's room or bedroom for the reasons described above.

Carpet

Carpet is a floor covering made from synthetic or natural fibers. It can be long-pile or even have no pile at all. This covering is made on a rubber, felt or jute base.

Carpet is good only when it is new, but it gets old very quickly.

1. The material is pleasant to walk on and aesthetically pleasing in appearance, but only when he's new. Quite quickly it loses these attractive qualities - the pile wrinkles in places and becomes not so soft and beautiful. In addition, a lot of dust collects in the carpet, so when purchasing this covering, you should immediately purchase a powerful vacuum cleaner.
2. It is tempting to lay carpet in the bedroom or nursery, especially since there is a wide range of such options. But you need to remember that in addition to heat and sound insulation, this coating can also cause allergies, which will be difficult to get rid of. Therefore, it is better to choose a coating for these rooms that can be subjected to regular wet cleaning.
3. It is not recommended to lay carpet in the hallway and corridor, as it will look beautiful for only a short time and will quickly become clogged with street dust carried on shoes.
4. If you really want to have carpet in at least one of the rooms, then the living room is best suited for it. But you need to remember that you will have to clean it very often.

Wooden floor

A wooden floor will be the most comfortable of all the coatings presented if it is laid on logs and insulated with mineral or eco-wool. Wood, due to its structure, is a warm material, and when laid in combination with insulation, it will make the floors absolutely comfortable.

Video - Wooden flooring with insulation

Video - Wooden flooring. Step by step

The environmental friendliness of this coating allows it to be laid in the nursery and bedroom. Its soundproofing properties will make the rooms calm and conducive to relaxation.

You should not lay wood floors in the kitchen, bathroom and hallway.

1. There are a lot of odors in the kitchen, which tend to be absorbed into floor and wall coverings, and wood is predisposed to the perception of various aromas. But their mixture over time can lead to the smell being very unpleasant and ineradicable. Therefore, in the kitchen it is best to use a neutral material for the floor - ceramic tiles, laminate or epoxy self-leveling floors.
2. Due to high humidity, you should not install plank and plywood floors in bathrooms. Wood absorbs not only odors well, but also moisture, which causes it to swell and become deformed, so it is better to abandon this idea.
3. The floors in the hallway are on the same level as the floors in the entryway. If you install logs and floorboard, then they will rise by at least five centimeters, and you will get an uncomfortable step, and if the door opens inward, then it will have to be reinstalled or replaced. Therefore, the best option would be to cover the hallway with laminate, tiles or linoleum.

In addition to the floor coverings described above, there are others, such as epoxy 3D floors, parquet boards, polymer tiles and, of course, the well-known parquet.

For more detailed information on how to make self-leveling floors with a 3D effect, read the publication

Video: quartz-vinyl flooring, still unfamiliar to many

The material from which the floor is made determines how warm the rooms will be. In addition, the flooring has a special impact on the design of its entire interior. Therefore, it is very important to approach this issue with all seriousness, to calculate all the pros and cons so that the floor covering lasts a long time and also does not cause harm to the residents of the apartment.

LECTURE 9

Floors play a large role in ensuring the overall stability of a building and, depending on the system of connection of their elements with walls or individual supports, affect the load-bearing capacity of the latter.

Floors are classified according to the following criteria: by location in the building: above the basement, between floors, attic; by design: beam, where the main element is beams on which decking, beatings and other covering elements are laid; slab, consisting of load-bearing slabs or decking, resting on the vertical load-bearing supports of the building or on crossbars and purlins; beamless, consisting of a slab connected to a vertical support by a load-bearing capital; by material: prefabricated reinforced concrete, monolithic, wooden and steel beams.

Floors must meet strength requirements, i.e. safe perception of all permanent and temporary loads acting on them.

An important requirement, which determines the performance qualities of the ceiling, is the rigidity. Rigidity does not allow deflections exceeding established by standards limits. If it is insufficient, then under the influence of loads, significant deflections occur in the ceiling, which causes the appearance of cracks.

Floors must have sufficient sound insulation. In this regard, layered floor structures with various soundproofing properties are used. The slabs are supported by soundproofing pads, and leaks are also carefully sealed.

Thermal protection requirements are imposed for attic and basement floors. Special attention it is necessary to pay attention to the design of the floor in the places adjacent to the load-bearing walls, since the formation of “cold bridges” in the walls is possible, which can lead to uncomfortable conditions.

Floors must meet fire safety requirements.

Depending on the purpose of the premises, special requirements may also be imposed on the floors: water resistance (for floors in bathrooms, showers, baths); fire resistance (in fire hazardous areas); airtightness (when placed in the lower floors of laboratories, boiler rooms).

Reinforced concrete floors have great strength, fire resistance and durability. They can be monolithic or prefabricated.

To the main structural types prefabricated reinforced concrete floors include beam floors from prefabricated elements, decks or slabs and floors from large reinforced concrete panels.

Beam floors consist of T-section beams with inter-beam slab or block hollow core filler(Fig. 45). The material for the manufacture of slabs and blocks is warm concrete, gypsum, etc. The distance between the beams is from 600 to 1000 mm. The gaps between beams and slabs or blocks are filled with cement mortar. This type of flooring is used in low-rise construction in the presence of cranes with a lifting capacity of up to 1 ton.

b

Rice. 45. Prefabricated floors reinforced concrete beams:

A– with interbeam slab filler; b– with block-hollow

Beam floors. They are installed on reinforced concrete beams. Floors on reinforced concrete beams in industrial buildings consist of crossbars and floor slabs. The crossbars are installed on the console of reinforced concrete columns and connected by welding. Ribbed floor slabs are laid on the shelves of T-bars or on top of rectangular cross-sections. They are secured by welding the embedded parts of the slab with the embedded parts of the crossbar.

Fig.1. Layout diagrams of prefabricated floor crossbars. 1 – crossbar; 2 – column; 3 – plate; 4 – wall

All longitudinal gaps between the slabs, as well as the gaps between the end transverse ribs of the slabs and the crossbar, are filled with class B20 concrete on fine gravel (crushed stone). The slabs are grouted after the supporting units of the crossbars have been grouted. As a result of embedding, the floor turns into a solid reinforced concrete slab, ribbed at the bottom and smooth at the top, with a width equal to the width of the building and a length equal to the distance between expansion joints. This slab is a good base for flooring.

Overlappings in the form of floorings consist of the same type of hollow or ribbed reinforced concrete slabs, laid close to each other to form a continuous flooring. The gaps between the slabs are filled with cement mortar. Hollow decks (Fig. 46) with a height of 160 mm for spans up to 4 m and 220 mm for spans of more than 4 m have become widespread. The decks have longitudinal voids of a circular cross-section, oval-vaulted or oval cross-section.

Rice. 46. ​​Flooring made of hollow-core panels

with round holes

Large panel ceilings. Large floor panels are called decking large area, weighing from 3 to 5 tons, which can cover entire rooms. There are flat, ribbed and hipped floor panels (with ribs along the contour).

Monolithic reinforced concrete floors are manufactured directly at the work site. Monolithic reinforced concrete floors can be ribbed with transverse and longitudinal main beams, ribbed coffered with slabs, supported along the contour and beamless(Fig. 47).

For large spans, ribbed (beam) floors are used, which are a combination of reinforced concrete elements - slabs, secondary beams and main purlins of different shapes and purposes.

A caisson ribbed floor supported along a contour is a type of ribbed floor. The beams (ribs) in this ceiling run in two directions, with slabs resting on them, forming panels.

In beamless floors, the slabs rest directly on the columns. The grid of columns is square, its dimensions are 5–6 m. Structurally, it is advisable to complete the columns with capitals, which increase the plane of support of the slab and reduce its design span.

A - ribbed; b– with slabs supported along the contour (with beams located along the axes of the columns); V– caisson; G– beamless; 1 – main beam; 2 – minor; 3 – plate; 4 – column; 5 – capital

Floors on wooden beams. Floors on wooden beams most often have the following design (Fig. 48). The load-bearing elements are block beams of rectangular cross-section, the dimensions of which depend on the span of the beams and the load on them.

Rice. 48. Interfloor covering on wooden beams:

1 – parquet riveting on a layer of construction paper; 2 – black plank floor; 3 – plate lags; 4 – dry or mortar plaster; 5 – shield roll; 6 – clay-sand lubricant; 7 – backfill, 8 – cranial bars; 9 – soundproofing gasket

Floor is a building structure on which the entire production process and human life activities are carried out and on the condition of which the quality of the products or people’s health depends.

When using floors, the following requirements are imposed on them:

general technical- the floor must have adequate strength and wear resistance to resist tensile, compressive and bending forces, impacts and abrasion. The floor must withstand physical and chemical aggressive factors (water, high or low temperatures, oils, acid solutions, alkalis, etc.);

technological- the floor must be smooth, but not slippery and ensure safe and comfortable movement of people and Vehicle;

sanitary and hygienic- the floor should not have a harmful effect on human health during operation, i.e. emit dust, hazardous gases, odor, and in some cases provide comfortable thermal conditions. Charges of static electricity should not accumulate on the floor surface, and in some cases the floor should be dielectric;

operational- the floor must allow for quick and convenient repairs and be easy and quick to clean.

Floors Based on the type of materials and structures used for them, they are divided into solid monolithic, piece and sheet materials. They are installed both on floors and on the ground.

By design, the floor can consist of one or several layers.

The top layer of the floor is called covering or finished floor, it is directly exposed to operational impacts. In floors made of several layers, a layer may be located under the coating, which plays the role of an intermediate connecting layer between the coating and the underlying layer or serves as an elastic bed covering.

Screed – a layer that forms a hard or dense crust; it is laid if it is necessary to level the surface of the underlying layer or base, as well as to give the floor the necessary slope. Screeds are often laid on non-rigid and loose sound and heat insulating layers of floors.

Substrate or preparation– a floor element that distributes loads along the base.

Base under the floor are load-bearing structures of interfloor ceilings or soil for floors laid on the ground.

In addition to these layers, waterproofing, soundproofing and heat-insulating layers can be laid in the floors.

In floors between floors, a waterproofing layer is laid under the floor covering to protect against water. In floors on the ground, a waterproofing layer is laid under the underlying layer for protection against ground moisture, and directly under the floor covering or layer for protection against industrial liquids.

Depending on the purpose, location and design of the floor, waterproofing can be coated, glued or monolithic. Coating waterproofing is often made from two layers of bitumen or tar mastic, glued - from 2-3 layers of rolled bitumen, tar or polymer materials on appropriate mastics. Monolithic waterproofing is arranged in the form of a layer of cast asphalt, a layer of crushed stone spilled with bitumen, compacted into the ground, and in some cases in the form of a screed or layer made of moisture-proof solutions.

Based on the covering material, floors are divided into the following: wooden (planks and parquet), stone, concrete, asphalt, ceramic tiles, linoleum, relin, xylolite, fiber boards, polymer-based floors.

According to the method of installation, floor coverings can be solid, made of piece elements and rolled. In civil engineering, the most common floors are planks, parquet and linoleum.

According to the design solution, the floors of residential buildings are divided into the following three main groups:

a) single-layer - the coating material of which (for example, heat and sound insulating linoleum) is designed to absorb shock acoustic influences and meets the standardized requirements for heat absorption;

b) separate - consisting of a continuous soundproofing layer of bulk or elastic-soft materials, screeds and coverings made of piece, slab or roll materials;

c) hollow - consisting of a coating, joists and soundproofing pads underneath them.

Based on the materials used, floors in residential, public and administrative buildings are divided into the following two main groups:

and from wood materials;

b) from synthetic materials.

Plank floors (Fig. 49) have low heat absorption, are silent when walking, are elastic and do not slip, but are labor-intensive to manufacture and maintain, are flammable, prone to rotting and require a large consumption of wood.

Rice. 49. Construction of the wooden floor of the first floor

Parquet floors. Parquet is laid from small rectangular or square planks (staves) made from hardwood: oak, beech, ash, maple. There are two methods of laying parquet – stacked and panel. Prefabricated parquet floors are installed on a plank or concrete base. When laying on a wooden base (Fig. 50), parquet rivets with grooves are used, connected to each other by end pine slats and nailed to the flooring. For better sound insulation and to eliminate squeaking when walking, cardboard or thick paper is laid between the parquet and the base.

Rice. 50. Parquet flooring on nails on a wooden base

Floors made of linoleum and relin. These types of floors are silent, have low thermal conductivity, resist abrasion well, are hygienic and do not require much labor and time to keep them clean.

Ceramic tile floors (Fig. 51). Ceramic tiles have different sizes and geometric shapes - square, hexagonal, etc. They come in yellow, red, etc. in color. The top textured layer of the tiles can be smooth or grooved. Corrugated tiles are recommended for use in wet rooms where smooth ones become slippery when wet.

Terrace floors are highly durable and beautiful, but are labor-intensive and expensive. They are used in lobbies, bathrooms, staircase landings and in other rooms public buildings with enhanced architectural finishing. The top layer of such floors, laid on the preparatory layer, is 10–20 cm thick and consists of colored cement mortar with marble chips or small pieces of marble. These floors can be monolithic or with seams (Fig. 52) in the form of brass, glass and other plates, installed on edge before laying the top layer.

Rice. 51. Insulating the floor of a sanitary unit with bituminous fabric:

1 – wall facing tiles; 2 – ceramic floor tiles; 3 – concrete preparation; 4 – bitumen fabric; 5 – adhesive mastic

Rice. 52. Terrace floor:

1 – concrete preparation; 2 – sand 6 mm; 3 – cement preparation; 4 – layer of cement mortar; 5 – glass slats; 6 – terrazo of different colors

Cement floors are made from cement mortar with a composition of 1:2 - 1:3 in a 20 mm layer on a concrete base. These floors are used only in non-residential premises of civil buildings.

For a variety of reasons wooden houses And concrete plates With cement-sand screeds don't fit well. In the vast majority of cases, floors in buildings built of wood are made using wooden beams. Accordingly, the floors here are special. We'll talk further about how they work, what options exist, and which floor design will be most effective.

Principles for the implementation of floors in wood construction technologies

Let us note that beam floors are typical not only for a frame, log or timber house; they similarly create a very large percentage of private cottages built from brick, various blocks, or cast from concrete in one way or another. That is, almost everything stated below will be relevant for private construction in general.

Modern requirements for comfort, energy efficiency and durability of residential buildings are growing every year. In order for the house to serve as long and trouble-free as possible, you need to pay due attention to all its elements, without exception. It may seem that the floor is some kind of secondary structure, but this is far from the case. Wooden floors must be considered in conjunction with the floors, because they, in fact, function as a single whole.

When considering the design of wooden floors in a cottage, two types of systems should be distinguished:

• 1st floor floors,
• floor on interfloor ceilings (one and a half, second, third level...).

They will work differently, and the requirements for them will be different. In the first case, we have an enclosing external structure, regardless of what is underneath - ground preparation with an air cushion or a basement/cellar. Here it is necessary to protect the interior space from cold, as well as from moisture that tends to penetrate into the room from below.

The floors of the second or third floor do not need insulation and waterproofing (with the exception of those located above bathrooms, swimming pools, steam rooms...), but it is extremely important to create a system that will prevent the spread of impact, airborne and structural noise.

In both cases, the task is to obtain the construction:

• its performance characteristics comply with all current building codes;
• capable of living no less than the entire house;
• as light, simple and inexpensive as possible;
• technologically advanced in terms of installation and maintenance;
• environmentally friendly;
• ensuring the correct functioning and aesthetics of the final floor covering.

Along joists or beams

Obviously, it is quicker and cheaper for the homeowner to lay the deck directly over the floor joists and then apply the topcoat. But the problem is that the beams, as a rule, are tightly tied to load-bearing walls. Because of this, any impact noise: walking, moving heavy objects, the operation of engineering equipment and household appliances - all this is immediately “emitted” to adjacent structures and disperses throughout the house. That is, there is a huge risk of generating structural noise.

In addition, some movements are possible in a wooden house (even if we do not take into account the shrinkage of the “log houses”), they can affect the quality of fit of the flooring elements and cause the appearance of gaps, creaks, and deformation of planes.

In some cases (especially in basement floors), the step between the beams is too large to allow sewing directly to them without using a board with an excessively large cross-section and mass. Very often, the upper edges of the beams lie relative to each other with a fairly large horizontal difference, which greatly complicates or makes it impossible to create an even flooring along them.

The use of joists located perpendicular to the floor elements helps to avoid such problems, since they do not need to be rigidly attached to the beams; moreover, it is recommended to install them through elastic damper pads without the use of any fixing brackets or through metal fasteners. The logs are not tied to load-bearing walls and other stationary structures, such as flights of stairs, columns, etc. They are not even brought close, leaving a technological gap of 10-15 mm between the ends of the beams and the walls, and the outermost logs in the room are placed at a distance from the walls (up to 10 centimeters).

In essence, this creates a “floating” flooring base, which is valued for its soundproofing capabilities and stability.

Important! Some craftsmen offer customers to make floors in which “joists” run along the floor beams (sewn to their sides). Thus, they get the opportunity to level the rough plane, but even with the use of vibration-damping pads, the noise of such floors is too high. The secondary role of installing logs in this way is to create a ventilation gap (in our diagram above, this is already provided for).

The optimal spacing of the logs, as well as the appropriate cross-section of lumber for their creation, depends on many variables (material and thickness of the flooring, distance between the support points - beams, design loads...) and is determined in each specific case separately.

If we talk about the type and quality of lumber used, they are usually produced from a bar or board of the 1st grade in such a length that they are enough from wall to wall without joints. Basically, products of natural moisture or “dried” are used; you can find out how to dry lumber in the article Atmospheric drying, ideally planed. Pine or spruce as raw materials for logs have proven themselves to be excellent, primarily due to the good ratio of cost, moisture resistance and strength characteristics. An integral rule when working with lumber is antiseptic treatment of all wooden elements. We recommend using OZONE-007. You can also use aspen boards, which are usually easy to buy.

Why and how to make a subfloor

When talking about a subfloor, we can talk about two things. Either about flooring on top of beams or logs, which carries one or two more layers (depending on the option you choose - finishing flooring and finishing coating); or about filing from the bottom of the floor beams.

We'll look at the first version of the subfloor below, and we'll talk about the filing here. Hemming beams performs several functions:

• It is a supporting load-bearing basis for insulating materials, because in most cases they are located just between the beams. Not only the insulation rests on the lining, but also sound insulation, films and membranes - the whole technological pie.
• It can simultaneously serve as the final covering of the ceiling, both with continuous cladding, when the ceiling is hidden, and in interiors where the beams remain visible on the lower floor (a rather fashionable solution in the “country” style these days). In both cases, the lining material hides the “contents” of the ceiling - frame elements, hidden communications, insulating layers.
• Due to the high coefficient of heat transfer resistance of wood, the lining works as an element that reduces the amount of heat loss. As part of a complex multi-layer structure, it helps stop the flow of airborne noise between floors.

Technically, hemming can be made from any materials designed to create planes. But when implementing a load-bearing base, it is most profitable to use grade 2 edged boards, with a thickness of 20-25 mm and a face width of 100 to 200 mm. If it will play the role of a ceiling, then it makes sense to use lining with a “classic”, “softline” or “calm” profile, the front side of which will be facing down.

Installation of rough filing or “facing” is sometimes done using cranial bars, which are secured between the beams. This option is quite complicated, since the master has to fasten a lot, measure and cut very accurately a large number of boards of short length so that they fit as tightly as possible between the load-bearing elements of the floor. It is more convenient and faster to hem the beams along the lower edge with long lumber, obtaining a continuous plane. But, it should be noted that sometimes it makes sense to use boards 3 meters long, which will be easy to place under the beams (especially important when filing basement floor, where there is quite a bit of space), but at the same time it will be possible to fix the part on several beams at once.

Types of flooring, what to make of

Finish coating. A classic of the genre can be considered a solid tongue-and-groove board with a thickness of 28 to 45 mm and a width of 110 to 140 mm. This type of lumber is specially designed for creating a wooden floor; it is made from pine needles dried to 12-15 percent moisture content, and usually has a well-planed front surface. This material is made from high-grade raw materials (products belong to category “A”), environmentally friendly without any compromises.

But the main advantage of such products is the presence of a groove and a tongue. Firstly, we get a flooring that does not have through gaps along the plane, unlike technologies using edged boards. The lock prevents blowing, sound and cold. Secondly, the tongue-and-groove elements make it possible to attach the finished floorboard to the joists hidden, when a nail or screw is installed at an angle through a groove or ridge, the so-called “parquet” method. Thirdly, most models of floor tongues are equipped with a groove on the back side, which in any design ensures ventilation of the flooring.

Rough flooring (floor). To create a base for laying finishing floor coverings, it is not necessary to use a tongue-and-groove planed board, although it, of course, is also great. IN in this case Edged boards of the first and even second grade will perform normally.

Important! The rough flooring (floor) from edged boards is made even before creating wooden floors from tongue-and-groove solid wood. By installing a floor tongue across a solid subfloor, it is possible to obtain a structure that is very resistant to bending loads and completely eliminate the occurrence of squeaking in the future. After all, its cause is usually the friction of adjacent lamellas against each other when the fixation is weakened and the boards sag when walking.

Also, when choosing components for assembling a finished flooring, you should pay attention to sheet materials, which make it possible to make the floor quickly and with a minimum of joints. These include:

Do wooden floors need insulation?

Unfortunately, a wood floor can only be considered “warm” figuratively. If it is operated on the ground floor, then insulation is indispensable. Whatever modern insulator is used, with indicators of 0.3-0.44 W/(m*S), its thickness should be from 100 mm. Polystyrene foam, cotton wool or EPS are available in this thickness, but it is better to use 2-3 or even 4 layers of 50 mm each to arrange the plates in a “checkerboard pattern” and cover all the gaps.

If we consider the performance properties and practicality different types insulation, then the clear leader (many experts believe that for a wooden floor in a wooden house is the only option) will be mineral wool. It is distinguished by elasticity and some compressibility, so it can easily be adjusted to any pitch of beams where it becomes awkward without obvious gaps. It is vapor permeable, therefore it is able to remove excess moisture from the room without causing condensation inside the structures. It does not burn, therefore it significantly increases the fire resistance of wooden floors, becoming a fire barrier. Mineral wool slabs are absolutely safe for humans and can be used in residential premises without any problems.

Due to its fibrous structure, cotton wool absorbs sound air waves and impact noise in the best way. Therefore, it is this material that is laid in the ceilings of the upper levels to ensure proper sound insulation. These can be both universal models and products specifically designed to combat noise.

It is allowed to use both fiberglass-based wool and those made from basalt rocks (stone wool) inside the structure of a frame wooden floor. Considering that there is no pressure on the insulation, products of relatively low density (from 23 kg/m3) are suitable for installation in such systems. And since the orientation of the thermal insulation is purely horizontal, and no slipping is expected, there are no contraindications to the use of cotton wool mats supplied in rolls.

It should be said that for normal operation of mineral wool, it must be supplemented with construction films. In the floor of the first floor and in the floors above wet rooms, before laying the insulation, a waterproofing sheet is first placed on the rough filing. As a rule, this is reinforced polyethylene, which differs from ordinary polyethylene in increased strength and durability.

Important! No matter how perfect the waterproofing and vapor barrier measures may be, all elements wooden floor and wooden floors must be treated with impregnating compounds with an antiseptic effect, which in the event of an “accident” will help avoid the spread of rot or fungus, for example, OZONE 007.

On top of the cotton wool, to prevent the emission of fibers into the room and to protect the insulator from external moisture from the room, the insulating layer is covered with special membranes, including superdiffusion membranes, which allow the wool to always remain dry. There is one very important point: the finished flooring of a wooden floor should not touch the insulation or any of the films with its back side, otherwise there will be problems with subfloor ventilation and a possible decrease in the durability and efficiency of the structure. Therefore, it is necessary to create a ventilation gap with additional spacer elements. This can be a rough flooring (floor) under a tongue-and-groove floor board, joists, or a counter-batten up to 40 mm thick if the floors are laid directly on the floor beams.