Flooring: 1st floor part 4 - bedrooms

Having completed the engineered oak in the landing and main bedroom, it was important to get the two upstairs bedrooms finished as soon as possible. Although we had sealed the dry screed that contained all the underfloor heating pipes, walking through these rooms kicked up bits of sand and grit that could easily scratch up our brand new floors.  

We decided to tackle bedroom 2 first. The initial step was to carefully measure the room and check all the walls were square; a string line across the centre of the room helped establish exactly how parallel the walls were.

Next, we tested out the first few rows. We cut the boards to size and chose the placement of each one carefully to ensure that the joins were all staggered properly and looked 'random' (uniform, repeating patterns do not generally work with these types of boards).     

Once we were happy with the layout of the first few rows, we began fixing them in place. As before, we used a combination of specialist floorboard adhesive and concealed screws to secure the planks. 

It didn't take long to complete the first 6 rows. The battens in the sub-floor had been VERY firmly attached to the joists below, so we were confident that the engineered oak boards would feel extremely solid underfoot.

Adhesive laid down and awaiting the next plank. The idea to use both glue and screws was decided after discussing our situation with the very helpful technical rep of the adhesive manufacturer.

The final planks nearing completion in bedroom 2. The hat-shaped doorway piece had to be installed first, as it needed to be slid under the door linings and would not go in if the rest of the row was already in place. Luckily we discovered this when dry-fitting the boards, or it would have meant undoing (and ungluing) a row of planks...

Originally we wanted to have the whole of the upstairs as one continuous floor with no gaps, but when planning the layout we discovered that this wasn't possible. The manufacturers recommend that there should be an expansion gap every 7-8 meters (width), so having already put a continuous run of boards from the main bedroom through to the landing, we'd planned to leave the required gap in the doorway to bedroom 2.

We will be covering it with a thin oak threshold at a later date so hopefully it won't be too noticeable.

Looking from the landing into the freshly-boarded bedroom 2. No more grit! Hurrah!

After leaving the glue to dry overnight, we were able to apply treatment to the floor. Once again we used Fiddes Natural hardwax oil which we knew from our experience with oiling the other rooms, would give us exactly the colour and sheen that we wanted. 

Oiling was pretty straightforward. The product is applied thinly with a brush and then worked into the grain with a lint-free cloth. It looks a bit shiny at first, but dries to a much-more natural sheen. The Fiddes really worked on our boards, giving them a warm, oak-ey look.  

Once the first coat was finished it transformed the room completely. 

Unfortunately we didn't have time to paint the room before installing the floor, so that will have to be done later (with lots of dust sheets to prevent any paint spillages...) 

Once the first coat of oil had dried, we de-nibbed the floor with special abrasive pads to get a smooth, unblemished finish, before applying the second coat.

Bedroom 3 had been used as our 'cutting station' for the upstairs flooring, so before we could get started, we needed to remove all the saws, power tools, wood offcuts and (tons of) sawdust. Once the room had been cleaned up, we sealed and filled the dry screed.

Bedroom 3 mirrors bedroom 2 so the layout of the boards was fairly similar.

Fitting floor boards in the cupboard was a bit of a tight squeeze.

It's always a pleasure to watch someone who so clearly enjoys their work...

We were still making use of the pre-oiled boards (the supplier did not have enough untreated boards in stock) by sanding away the finish so they matched our existing planks. It was a bit of a pain but we ensured we only used the pre-oiled boards when absolutely necessary.

Just as in bedroom 2, we would be leaving an expansion gap in the doorway which would later be covered with an oak threshold.

Bedroom 3 flooring fitted. In total, we'd installed about 60 square meters of engineered oak upstairs. 

Before the untreated floors could get messed up, we protected them with hardwax oil.

Oil drying out.

Naturally the job could not be signed off until the site inspector had conducted his final survey.

Replacing all that dusty, gritty, crumbly screed upstairs with new, clean oak dramatically transformed the feel of the rooms. Everything just looked, smelled and felt so much better.