Floors of plywood on the lag with their own hands in the country, in a private wooden house, on the 2 nd floor

Repair in an apartment or in a country house necessarily accompanies the life of most people. And one of the most common problems that have to be dealt with in this connection are cold or not even floors. There are several ways to get out of this situation, one of them is to make plywood floors on logs. With their own hands it will be realized or with the help of specialists, every owner of real estate decides at his own discretion.

What is the lag?

Lags are special wooden or polymer bars or pieces of metal profile laid on a concrete base, on top of which the flooring is laid. With metal, it is much easier to work, besides it is more durable than wood. But there is one significant drawback - metal, unlike wood, is critical to changing the ambient temperature, which can cause the floor to crumble. In addition, wooden beams will be cheaper.

It should be taken into account that coniferous rocks, especially larch, are the most suitable for making logs. The details must be regular geometric shapes, even and without bends along the entire length.

Selecting the material for the substrate

In order to carry out the leveling of the floor with the plywood on the logs with your own hands, it is necessary to choose the right material, since not every kind of it is suitable for this. There are such types of leveling sheets for the floor:

1. Plywood is a multi-layer material, the number of layers starts from three.
2. Cement-particle board (DSP) is an excellent material for leveling the wooden floor for the subsequent laying of tiles. It is made from shavings and portland cement with the addition of chemical ingredients.
3. Oriented strand board (OSB) is a multi-layer material in which chips are glued with resins with the addition of synthetic wax. Ecological, but bends easier than plywood, and a bit more expensive.
4. Wood particle board (DSP) has the lowest values for strength and environmental friendliness.
5. Fibreboard (Fibreboard) is a material made by the method of hot pressing of wood fibers, very flexible, unstable.

Based on the listed properties of materials, it can be concluded that the floor of plywood lags with their own hands in a private house is best done from the OSB, DSP or plywood.

About the material

Plywood is the most acceptable option. It is a specially glued veneer sheet: each new fiber layer is perpendicular to the fibers of the previous one, which significantly increases the stiffness. Plywood differs in the characteristics of moisture resistance, durability and environmental friendliness, which depend on which binder material was used in production:

• The brand FC is made with the use of carbamide glue, it is poorly resistant to moisture, swells swiftly. But it is safe for humans, can be used in rooms with low humidity.
• The brand of PSF contains phenol-formaldehyde glue, it is moisture-resistant, but not ecological due to phenolic emissions.
• Brand FB - Bakelized plywood, resistant to moisture and aggressive environments.
• FOF is a laminate (laminated-pressed) material, called a laminate. Used as a decorative floor finish.

To make the floor from the plywood on the logs with your own hands in the country or in the apartment, the plywood of FK and FSF brands from birch with the thickness of ten to fifteen millimeters is the best.

Advantages of plywood flooring on logs

The design of such a floor has a number of undeniable advantages:

• Strengthening of soundproofing characteristics;
• Increase in thermal insulation properties;
• High-quality rapid warming of the floor by laying between the lagging of thermal insulation material;
• Ensuring uniform pressure distribution to the base;
• The presence of an empty space between the lags makes it possible to arrange various communications in it;
• Quick leveling of the floors;
• Good strength characteristics of the coating;
• Possibility of easy replacement of damaged parts;
• With a job even a novice can handle without special skills;
• The device of a floor from plywood on logs does not demand presence of the specialized heavy technics or tools.

Preparing for laying

Mandatory activities before laying floors should be:

• Inspection of the base;
• Careful cleaning from large irregularities;
• Covering of cracks and cracks;
• Floor waterproofing.

Whatever the moisture resistance coefficient either plywood or any identical material possesses, it has a certain hygroscopicity, which leads to absorption of some moisture. Therefore, the main stage of preparation is waterproofing. Perform it usually thick polyethylene film (in the simplest case) or a special coating. The concrete floor is covered with the material completely, with a slight overlap on the walls. And so that after laying the plywood the film would stand for it. Parts of the waterproofing at the joints are fixed with a scotch tape.

In order to install the floors on plywood logs, galvanized hardware is used for fastening, which is three times longer than the thickness of the fastened sheets.

Which is better: two thin layers or one thick?

Plywood is a composite material. The layers in it are arranged by fibers crosswise to achieve sufficient rigidity and strength. Proceeding from this, it becomes clear that in order to increase such characteristics it does not matter at all how many layers will be laid - two ten-millimeters instead of one twenty-millimeter or more. And in the price of a particularly large win will not.

But when aligning very curved floors, the number of layers plays a significant role here. When laying one layer of unevenness, of course, smooth out, but at the joints of the sheets of plywood there will be changes. This is where the properly laid second layer will help you - the joints of the plates of each of them will coincide with the center of the plates of the other layer.

Conclusion: for the insulation of a flat base, it is possible to mount the plywood floors on the logs with one hand in one layer with sheets of thickness of twenty millimeters. When leveling the base curve, two ten-millimeter layers with staggered plywood plates are better suited.

Plywood floors on the logs with their own hands: lags and lathing

The sequence of steps of this phase is as follows:

1. To perform the installation, apply dried flat bars with a section of 10 x 5 cm and a length of at least two meters. In addition, they must stay in the room for two weeks.
2. On the prepared base is laid waterproofing, and the bars are treated with an antiseptic.
3. When installing the log, the indentation from each of the walls is 25 mm.
4. To neutralize irregularities, use MDF or MDF substrates with a side of a square of 20 cm, and to suppress noise - linoleum pieces. In places where there are substrates, the logs are fixed to the cement foundation with anchor bolts. When stacking between the lags, leave a distance of 40 cm.
5. When all the logs are mounted, they move to the device of the crate. Its slats are also installed on substrates with fixing to the floor and lags with self-tapping screws at a distance of not more than half a meter. It is important that the size of the battens match the parameters of the plywood sheets.
6. The cavities formed in the crate are filled with a heater and noise isolator.

Size fit, fastening

In order to correctly arrange the plywood floors on the logs with your own hands (photo actions are presented in the article), it is necessary to cut the plywood into the sheets of the desired size, optimally 1250 x 2500 mm. For convenience, they can be numbered.

In order to exclude the possibility of scratching during further operation, lanes of pergamina are attached to the logs before stowing the plywood with a stapler.

The sheets are laid across the log, fastened with screws at a distance of 15 cm. At the joints, the screws are staggered at a distance of 10 mm from the edge of the sheet.

When installing between the sheets a gap of the order of a third of a millimeter is left, which is then filled with a sealant or elastic mastic and glued with moisture-resistant glue.

The laying starts from the window, the metalware hats are completely recessed into the plywood into the bored holes. If communications are planned, cutouts are made for them.

Plywood floors on the logs with your own hands: mounting layers

This stage is carried out in the following sequence:

1. Laying the first layer begins from a window with an indent from the wall of the order of half a centimeter. You can use plywood of the third or fourth grade, as the presence of knots and appearance do not play a noticeable role in view of further finishing, and at a cost such material is much cheaper.
2. Addition for plywood can be intermediate lags. This is necessary to reduce the size of cells for the purpose of good binding of sheets and frame. For this, the lags are connected by cross-pieces from the scraps, by fastening them with steel corners. The size of the cells must be a multiple of the plywood sheets, so that their edges always lie on the lag.
3. The second layer of sheets is mounted with an offset relative to the first. Between each other, the layers are fixed with self-tapping screws and glued together with PVA or special glue for plywood.
4. Stitch the seams between the sheets.
5. After laying the last plate, the surface is sanded by hand or by grinding machine.

By the same principle, the floor of plywood is laid on the logs with their own hands on the 2nd floor of a private house.

Helpful Tips

For the successful execution of works it is necessary to pay attention to the following:

1. On plywood is not recommended to lay the tile: it can fall off because of the expansion of the wood layer.
2. Unevenness on the screed can be sprinkled with sand, and the cracks and holes in the corners - to commence.
3. To check the humidity in the room, you need to cover the ground for a day with a polyethylene film. If there is sweating under it, waterproofing is necessary.
4. It is important to comply with all laying rules when installing the floor of the plywood on the lag with your own hands. In a wooden house on the first floor above the ground, this is especially true - if the technology is not observed to correct the errors, you will have to remove the entire cover.
5. To ensure good sound insulation, the lugs are not fixed rigidly, but are mounted on felted or rubber pads for noise suppression.
6. Before starting the installation of the logs, find a zero level and then equalize the remaining bars.
7. Heat insulation must be cut strictly to the size of the cells, so that its edges do not bend when laying.
8. After laying the heater to the ladders of the stapler, a vapor barrier membrane can be attached.
9. For mounting it is better to use not ordinary hardened black screws, but yellow ones on wood with a powerful landing hole.
10. The sheets must be laid so that not cross-shaped, but T-shaped joints are formed.

Conclusion

With the correct installation of the plywood floor, it can last more than twenty years. Just remember that this material is suitable for styling in dry and warm rooms.

It is also worth noting that the plywood is suitable not only for fitting up the walls and rough floors. The craftsmen make of it unique decorative compositions in the interior. Using old craftsmanship - artistic sawing, pieces of plywood lay out the pictures and form the parquet.