Installing Timberwise flooring is easy. Installing Timberwise flooring according to instructions is simple. Check the illustrations at each stage and you are certain to succeed! The products are packaged in recyclable materials.
Please read all instructions carefully before installing WiseLoc flooring!
Note that the subfloor must be level. The greatest subfloor height difference allowed is ±1mm per 1 metre. The levelness of the subfloor can be checked by placing a floorboard tongue against the subfloor and measuring the gap remaining between the subfloor and the floorboard. Excessive height differences must be levelled out by grinding or applying appropriate filler. The subfloor must be immovable, strong, dry and clean. All fitted carpeting must be removed. Suitable subfloors include: wooden or chipboard flooring, concrete surfaces, flagged and marble floors, linoleum or PVC. Note that concrete surfaces always require a moisture barrier (e.g. 0.2mm-thick construction plastic, seams overlapped approx. 200mm or taped).
PREPARATIONS:
All other construction work must be completed. If other construction or surface work is carried out in the room after the flooring has been installed, it must first be tidied with a vacuum cleaner, after which it must be protected with a moisture-permeable material (e.g. cardboard). N.b. When using corrugated cardboard, the smooth surface should be against the parquet with the corrugated surface facing upwards! Remember to ensure that the material does not discolour the flooring. When the flooring has been covered, you MUST NOT switch on the underfloor heating!
The packages must be stored unopened (the room must be dry, with a relative humidity (RH) of <60% and a temperature of +18-24 C°). The packages must remain in a room temperature equal to the installation room temperature for 2-3 days before the installation. Open the packages only when you are about to begin the installation and only use a few packages at a time (to obtain a floor as evenly coloured as possible, alternate between the floorboards from different packages while installing the flooring). Before the installation, check the floorboards under proper lighting. If product defects appear, do not install the floorboard! The manufacturer is exempt from liability in complaints where floorboards have been installed on the subfloor without quality inspection.
To ensure long-term durability of the flooring, it is particularly important to monitor the relative humidity (% RH) of the room; during and after the installation, the RH should remain between 40-60 %. Wood is hygroscopic and it conforms to relative humidity either by absorbing or losing water (when RH > 60 %, wooden materials, including the flooring, will expand; when RH < 40 %, wooden materials shrink). If the relative humidity of the room is not properly addressed, gaps or fissures may develop in the flooring. The relative humidity of a room can be adjusted, for example, by using an air humidifier during winters and by ventilating the room during summers.
The room temperature must be between +18 and +24 C°.
Ensure that the subfloor is dry and level, and that the underlayment materials (moisture barrier and sound insulation material, when required) as well as the tools required for the installation are available.
- Impact sound insulating materials include, for example: foamed plastic, Timberstep textile underlayment material (requires a separate moisture barrier) or Tuplex.
- Required tools include: metric measuring tape/ruler, marking pen, try square, fitting wedges for expansion joints, circular or crosscut saw, clamping device, wooden block for knocking floorboards into place, chisel + hammer, knife, wood glue (PVAC glue).
The relative humidity of the subfloor should be measured before installation. Ensure that the subfloor is dry along the whole installation area (also under any stored construction materials). Subfloor humidity is easy to assess by spreading an approx. 1m² plastic sheet over the subfloor for 24 hours, sealing it tightly by taping the edges. Any humidity that accumulates underneath the plastic sheet and on the subfloor (concrete) indicates excess evaporating humidity: this means that the installation should not yet be started. Precise subfloor humidity measurements can be obtained by using the appropriate moisture meters. If the relative humidity of the subfloor is higher than 80% (max. weight percentage 3,0), DO NOT start installing the flooring!
First calculate the amount of floorboards you require. Use a metric measuring tape/ruler to measure the total width of the room, divide the total width with the width of the floorboard and check how many complete rows of floorboards will be used for the room. Also, narrow off the first row of floorboards if the calculations show that the width of the last row of floorboards remains less than 50 mm. If the width of the room is considerably less than its length, it is recommended that the flooring is installed in parallel with the room's maximal length. When installing crosswise in narrow, long spaces/corridors, an expansion gap of at least 10mm must be left every 6 metres! When installing flooring equipped with the WiseLoc-Locking system, it is easiest to start near the wall which contains most of the doors in the room. If one of the room's gable walls contains a door(s), start the installation near that wall. Start from the corner and install the floorboards sequentially, moving from the left to the right.
To account for the expansion/shrinkage of the flooring with respect to fluctuations in air humidity, the parquet must be separated from the surrounding and a penetrating part of the building by an expansion gap approx. 10mm wide. If necessary, special cover plates should be used during installation. Such a gap must also be left around heating ducts, doorframes, pillars, etc. Expansion gaps left in front of doorways or floor raisings (e.g. stairs, thresholds, etc.) should be covered with appropriate skirting boards. In large continuous rooms (over 10m long or over 8m wide), it is necessary to prepare for larger expansion gaps. Make use of thresholds, for example. The main rule is that an expansion gap of 10mm is sufficient for a room that is 6m wide, and that for every additional metre, the expansion gap must be increased by 1.5mm.
In addition, the following points concerning expansion gaps MUST be taken into account during installation:
- Steps and handrails should be installed on a base, so that the floor has a 10mm expansion gap from the mounting points. Load-bearing structures connected to steps (e.g. stringers or handrail supports) must never be installed on top of parquet!
- Fixtures or load-bearing structures, such as partitions must never be installed on the floor! If they are locked to the floor, the floor cannot freely expand or shrink. For example, 10mm holes should be drilled in the kitchen unit for expansion/shrinking purposes, and the feet of the unit should be against the concrete/base. The same goes for wardrobes, kitchen equipment and fireplaces. Large fridge/freezer units must be installed on a cut tile. The cut must be made between the feet and the plinth, leaving an expansion gap of 10mm. As far as sliding-door cabinets are concerned, the expansion gap must be made under the cabinets' runner (10 mm) and the runner must be fixed to the parquet with short screws (12 mm) from the cabinet side.
- Gluable split-level boards may only be fixed to the other surface of the floor. If there is, for example, a T-board glued between two different rooms, and it is glued to both surfaces, TW's guarantee does not apply. Such a board locks the floor so that the ‘tile' may not freely expand or shrink. Skirting boards and thresholds must be fixed so that they do not prevent the parquet from moving.
- Each room must be fitted with separate floorboards. The floor must be cut in front of each doorway. The floor should always be installed in a square or rectangular shape (e.g. in an L-shaped room, it should be installed as two separate floors). Gluing the parquet to the base in front of doorways is strictly forbidden! In a situation where more rooms are being combined into one floorboard, we recommend the use of traditional glue-joint products and gluing the floor to the base.
- The floor must be allowed to expand/shrink. No pointed object or bracket that prevents movement can be left on the floor. The expansion gap may not be filled with cables, for example.
- When installing, the WiseLoc end-tongues must never be hit. The tongue must be put in place by pressing. If an end-tongue is hit, there is a danger that it will break.
Saw the doorframes; see "Ducts and Doorframes". NOTE: WiseLoc slides into place longitudinally. For instance, floorboards can be inserted under doorframes in the following manner: place the floorboard as close to the doorframe as possible and use a hammer carefully to tap the floorboard, sliding it into place.
INSTALLATION ON TOP OF UNDERFLOOR HEATING:
- Important issues when installing on top of underfloor heating include the following:
- The floor's surface temperature must not rise above +27 °C. Note that regular loose carpets raise the floor's surface temperature by about +2 °C!
- Floor temperatures must not fluctuate regularly by more than +2 °C; night-time electrical heating is not recommended for Timberwise flooring
- A moisture barrier (0.2mm-thick construction plastic, seams overlapped approx. 200mm or taped) must ALWAYS be installed together with underfloor heating facilities, regardless of the subfloor material (even wooden floors require a moisture barrier when underfloor heating has been installed)
- Use an expansion gap to separate floor areas which do not have underfloor heating
- Floor heating cables or ducts must be installed at no less than a 30mm distance from the underlayment material of the Timberwise product
- In wooden flooring, an air space
- In concrete floors, a filling layer
Prior to installation, the subfloor must be dried for about 2 weeks. Raise the floor heating temperature daily by about 5 °C until at least half of the full heating capacity is utilised. After this, use the maximum heating temperature for 3 days; the heating temperature is subsequently lowered so that the substrate temperature decreases to 18 °C. Ensure sufficient ventilation during heating and cooling. Turn off the heating 24h before the flooring is installed. Install the flooring according to the instructions. Cork grain underlayments are not recommended. Do not switch on the underfloor heating until at least 24h after the flooring has been installed. During the next five days, raise the temperature but make sure that the temperature of wooden flooring never exceeds +27 °C. At this stage, do not even partially cover the floor. The relative humidity of the air must be maintained continuously between 40 and 60 %. The recommended room temperature is 18 - 24 °C.
Hygroscopic changes in the flooring may be exaggerated by exceptional conditions. The manufacturer, seller or installer cannot accept liability for these changes.
INSTALLATION:
WiseLoc flooring can be installed either by using an auxiliary floorboard (Figure 1), or traditionally by starting the installation directly against the wall (Figure 2).
Using an auxiliary floorboard:
Place an auxiliary floorboard (one or more, depending on the size of the room) against the long wall. Using an auxiliary floorboard ensures that the first row of floorboards is positioned in a straight manner; this is extremely important to the installation process.
Place the first row of floorboards at an approx. 10mm distance from the gable wall. Start from the corner and mount the floorboards against the auxiliary floorboard as shown in Fig. 1a, moving from left to right, with the floorboard tongues facing the room. Before pressing the floorboard down with a single movement, attach the long side of the first floorboard to the long side of the auxiliary floorboard at an approximate longitudinal 45° angle (Figure 1).
Later on, after 2 or 3 rows of floorboards have been installed, the auxiliary floorboard(s) are removed by using one hand to press the long seam between the first row of floorboards and the auxiliary floorboard, and using the other to carefully lift up the wall-facing, long side of the auxiliary floorboard (Figure 1a).
Traditional installation by starting directly against the wall:
Install the first row of floorboards at an approx. 10mm distance from the gable wall. Start from the corner and place the floorboards from left to right, with floorboard tongues facing the room. Insert fitting wedges between the gable wall and floorboard and press the floorboard against the long wall. Later on, after three rows, you may insert fitting wedges between the long wall and the floor, using an expansion gap of about 10mm (Figure 10).
Note: If the wall is not straight, draw its outline on first-row floorboards as illustrated in Figure 11 or 12.
Second floorboard, first row:
Place the floorboard tightly against the end of the first floorboard at an approximate longitudinal 45° angle (Figure 3). Press the floorboard down with a single movement (Figure 4).
At the end of each row, measure the required distance from the wall by using a measuring tape/ruler, ensuring that the required approx. 10mm expansion gap has been accounted for (Figure 5).
or
Turn the last floorboard around so that the lock system is facing the wall (remember to insert a fitting wedge between the floorboard and the wall), and write down the length on the board. The minimum length of the last floorboard should be 300mm.
Use a circular / crosscut saw to cut the floorboard to an appropriate length (Figure 6), turn the floorboard back to its correct orientation (with the sawed end facing the wall) and install it.
Starting the second row:
Use a sawn floorboard for starting the second row (Figure 7). The minimum length of the first floorboard is about 400 mm. Insert a fitting wedge between the wall and floorboard.
The distance between the end seams in the adjacent rows of floorboards must not be less than 400 mm (Figure 8).
Second floorboard, second row:
Insert the long sides into place and tightly attach the end-tongue to the groove by sliding the floorboard at an approximate longitudinal 45° angle before pressing the floorboard down with a single motion (Figure 9).
The gap between the wall and the flooring can be adjusted after the three first rows have been installed (Figure 10). Insert fitting wedges between the floor and the wall.
After the three first rows have been installed, check the straightness of the wall. Measure the distance between the first row of floorboards and the wall by using a metric measuring tape/ruler.
NOTE: At this stage, you must measure the total width of the room and check whether the first row should be narrowed off more than required for straightening the wall (last row minimum width 50 mm): use a metric measuring tape/ruler to measure the total width of the room, divide it by the width of the floorboard, and check how many complete rows of floorboards will be used for the room. Also, narrow off the first row of floorboards if the calculations show that the width of the last row of floorboards will be less than 50 mm.
If the wall is not straight, the first row of floorboards must be sawn to conform to the shape of the wall (min. width 50 mm). The outline of the wall can be drawn on the first row of the floorboards, either by using a metric measuring tape/ruler to measure the distance from the wall along the even distances (Figure 11) or by using a piece of floorboard containing a drilled hole for marker pen use. Place the other end of the piece of floorboard against the wall and draw the wall outline (Figure 12).
Then separate the first-row floorboards from each other by pressing the seam gently with one hand and simultaneously using your other hand to lift up the long side (Figure 13). Use a circular / crosscut saw to cut the floorboards along the line you have drawn, so that the floorboards conform to the shape of the wall. Insert the floorboards back into place (Figure 14).
If you must narrow off a floorboard's width more than 35 mm, the WiseLoc locking spring system cannot be used and the end seams must in that case be glued to each other. Spread glue on the groove, press it against the previous floorboard's end-tongue and place a weight on the end seam to ensure that the gluing holds (Figure 15).
The last row (possibly the first row as well):
The minimum width of the last row is 50 mm! Remember to account for the expansion gap, approx. 10 mm. Measure the correct length from the wall by using a measuring tape/ruler (Figure 16). Mark down the sawing outline in the following manner:
Place the last floorboard on top of the previous row, at an approx. 7 mm distance from the seam of the previous floorboard. Mark down the sawing outline by using a piece of floorboard from which the lock system has been sawn off (Figure 17). Insert the sawn floorboard into place (as in Figure 14). Repeat the procedure with the next floorboard.
Install the skirting boards. Skirting boards are attached to the wall but not to the floor. Uneven skirting boards and end strips are used in front of doorways, for example.
DUCTS AND DOORFRAMES:
If required, drill radiator duct holes on the floorboard. The holes must be at least 20 mm larger than the diameter of the ducts. Mark down on the floorboard the area through which the duct passes through, drill the appropriate holes for the ducts, and saw off the excessive part of the floorboard (Figure 18).
When you have inserted the floorboard into place, glue the sawn part back onto the floorboard (Figure 19) and cover the holes with duct cuffs or double duct cuffs.
If doorframe skirtings must be sawed, you can obtain the correct height by using a piece of floorboard as a model. Do not forget to leave an expansion seam.
WiseLoc floorboards can be installed from all directions if required. This facilitates their insertion around doorways, for example.
If you are not successful in sliding a floorboard underneath a doorframe or a low-height radiator, for example, do as follows:
- Remove 2/3 of the floorboard's tongue nodule (Figure 20).
- Use glue (Figure 21). Tap the floorboard into place. ´
DISMANTLING:
Alternative 1:
Dismantling: Detach the entire row of floorboards by using your fist and gently pressing behind the seam, as illustrated in the figure. Lift up only the row's long side (Figure 22).
Separate the floorboards from each other by sliding them transversely, as illustrated in Figure 23. DO NOT lift the floorboards-the lock system will break!
Alternative 2:
Press the special pin made for opening the lock system into the seam until the pin stops (Figure 24).
Open the floorboards by carefully lifting the floorboard up (Figure 25).
NOTE: Only the special pin designed for WiseLoc systems can be used to open the lock system by means of a pin!
AFTER THE INSTALLATION:
The room's relative humidity must be checked after the installation by using an appropriate meter. In rooms where wooden flooring has been installed, the room air's relative humidity must be kept between 40 and 60 % RH at all times, and the room temperature should be +18-24 °C. Air humidity can be adjusted with an air humidifier, for example, which will ensure high-quality indoor air for you as well as for your flooring and furniture.
If the room's relative humidity decreases, small cracks and fissures may develop on the flooring; in dry air, floorboards may even become concave; in excessively humid air, floorboards may become convex. These changes result from the natural properties of the wood.
CLEANING AND MAINTENANCE:
After the installation, we recommend the following procedures for retaining the flooring's good condition:
- The floor should be vacuum-cleaned to dispose of all loose dust and dirt
- Wipe the floor with a moist mop; do not use a wet mop. We recommend using Osmo Color's Wisch Fix cleaning detergent, which contains vegetable and coconut oils. Alternatively, we recommend using mild detergents suitable for wooden floors (pH 5,5-6,0).
- Any water spilled on the floor must be wiped off immediately
- If any difficult stains were produced during the installation, remove them with Osmo Color's conditioning and cleaning wax
- For public spaces, we recommend treating the floor with Osmo Color's conditioning and cleaning wax after the installation is completed. Follow the package's use and measurement instructions.
- After the conditioner has dried, the floor can be mechanically polished by gently using a light-coloured polishing disc.
