Laying reclaimed boards - glue down or battens?

Looking some advice on method here. I've been offered some really nice reclaimed maple boards which I'm planning to lay in long 20m corridor on the ground floor. The boards are various 2m - 4m in length. The current floor is concrete slab topped off with an approx 50mm sand/cement screed. I was considering two different options:

1. glue down - Do people think glue down will last? Main concern is boards working loose or lifting over time. I'd flatten off the screed with a smoothing compound first if necessary. The reclaimed boards are not warped but not 100% true and not going to be dimensionally stable like engineered wood would be. So not convinced glue down is right.
2. fix battens to subfloor - I can't raise the floor height with battens on the screed, but I could lift and remove the 50mm screed layer, fix 50mm battens at 400mm centres direct to the concrete slab, and then boards fixed on top of the battens. The option of 50mm insulation between battens is appealing. Wasn't sure whether a DPM under the battens would be necessary. I'll test the floor for moisture but expecting it to be OK, I know there's a DPM. Was thinking just to lay strip DPC (like used for bricklaying) to the back of each batten.

any advice appreciated.

 

High compression screed. Liquid dpm full bond its the best way.

 

thanks for the reply.

Interested in views to why this would be preferable to batten method? My only inclination toward it is the added insulation and maybe my possibly mis-guided fear of direct bond.

For your suggested method - in the past I've used FBall F75 two part liquid DPM followed by stopgap 200 screed. Would that work, then direct bond onto that? Still slightly concerned about boards lifting loose, but if I get the screed nice and flat and use a decent adhesive it should be OK? Don't do much flooring, as you can probably tell.

 

are you a fitter mark?

 

no, flooring experience is limited to work I've done in the past on my own properties. I've laid a couple of floating engineered wooden floors - DPM was suspect and the screed was lumpy, hence the F75/stop gap as I said above. That all went alright down alright, no bounce which was nice. But I'm no flooring pro hence the stupid questions.

 

If you don't know the answer there is no such thing as a stupid question.

 

you cannot lay battens direct to a concrete floor , they will need a barrier between to prevent migration of moisture,every subfloor has a level of moisture so it needs testing but i would dpm anyway to prevent any probs in future. with battens it can sound hollow when walked on. i would always full bond with liquid dpm

 

thanks for the advice.

I had a look at FBall's site. Their F75 DPM can be followed with flexible/high perf wood glue (B95) for direct bond. Has to be easier than lifting the old screed and battening out.

One further question - when I get the carpet up and see the current screed, how flat is flat enough? Will a couple of mm across a meter be acceptable? I can whizz up a few buckets of stopgap to smooth it out if necessary (I think I've still got the spiked roller somewhere in the garage )

 

You could uplift screed , level floor with latex, lay 2000 gauge plastic sheeting, lay 18mm plywood cut into batten size and fix foam to the back( or buy thin blubat battens with foam) loose laid at 400 centres, then lay maple across the top.
Like these pictures below but smaller battens

 

Better picture of the Junckers job

 

I prefer nailing solid as you can pull it in tighter.

 

That's why I am suggesting battens, having to jack boards off a wall is a real pain

 

I'd planned to the full bond option, the work would be less. I had some carpet up for a look last night and the screed is good and flat, so it'd just be F75 and bond on that. Mind you, I can see the potential hassle on laying tight without nails.

out of interest, the 18mm ply batten option - you're saying just loose laid? Movement or bounce not a risk with that?

 

or could I also take screed up, latex to smooth out the concrete, DPM/sheet, float sheet ply 18mm or maybe even 22mm, maple nailed on the ply

 

If you get the slab smooth/flat and you put a dense foam/ rubber on the back of the ply to take out any minor imperfections, by the time the maple is fixed to the ply the weight of it shouldn't give you any movement or bounce, we have done as you are talking about and laid plastic, foam rubber and then used t&g 22mm ply sticking them all together loose laid and then laid flexible latex and laid vinyl with no problems, we have also nailed wood to the ply, so it can be done, you just need to 1 make sure the floors are flat at each stage, use good quality products that lay flat before you start and you should be ok ,these pictures are of a TV set ,and they use very heavy cameras and it hasn't moved

 

Can't see the pictures mate