TIMBER FLOOR-

•Quite light in weight

•Have poor fire resistance & and sound insulation properties.
•Quite costly, except where the timber is cheaply available.
•Highly vulnerable to termite attack.
• Hardwood flooring is physically and psychological warmer. There
remains an aura of warmth and friendliness,
•As the name suggests, it is a floor that entirely made of wood,
preferably hardwood. Timber has always been used as a favorite flooring
material of most homeowners because of its beauty, durability, and
beauty.

WHERE TIMBER FLOORING IS USED -

•Used for carpentary halls, dancing halls, auditoriums etc.

•Used in hilly areas, where timber is cheaply and readily available and where
temperature drops very low.
•One the major problems in timber flooring is the damp prevention which is
overcome by providing D.P.C. layer below the flooring.
•TIMBER FLOORS FOR GROUND FLOORS IS OF 2 TYPES :

1)Solid type (i.e. fully supported on the ground)

2)Suspended type (i.e. supported above the ground)

1)Solid type flooring is provided where the problems of dampness is not

acute timber floors may be supported on the ground.
•Base concrete of 15 to 20 cm thickness is first laid, over it a layer of mastic
asphalt is applied.
•Wooden blocks of sizes 20 x 8 cm to 30 x 8 cm and thickness 2 to 4 cm are
laid in suitable design.

2)SUSPENDED TYPE BASEMENT OR GROUND FLOOR TIMBER FLOORING :

•In suspended type the hollow space between the flooring and over site
concrete is kept dry and well-ventilated by providing air bricks in the outer
walls and void in the sleeper wall.
•The flooring consists of boarding supported on bridging or floor joists of
timber which are nailed to the wall plates at their ends.
 CONSTRUCTION :

•Timber floors essentially consist of boarding supported on timber joists

called bridging joists or floor joists which are nailed to wall plates at their
ends and supported by intermediate walls called sleeper walls along their
length .
•The sleeper walls reduce the span for the floor joists, are spaced at center
to center distance of 1.2m to 1.8 m and are honey combed to enable free
circulation of air in the space below below the floor .
•Longitudinal timber members called sleeper plates are fixed on the top of
sleeper walls
•Floor joist are secured to the sleeper walls by being nailed to the sleeper
wall plates .
•A damp-proof course layer is laid on the sleeper walls on immediately
below the wall plates to prevent the rising of dampness and are also
provided in the exterior walls.
•The hollow space between the bottom of concrete and floor level is filled
up with the selected earth or kept dry and fully ventilated
• TIMBER FLOORS FOR UPPER FLOORS ARE OF
3 TYPES :

1) Single joist timber floors

2) Double joist timber floors
3) Framed or triple joist timber floors
1) SINGLE JOIST TIMBER FLOOR-
They are the cheapest form of wooden floors easy to construct and
frequently used in domestic building , where spans are short say upto 4m
The floor consist of wooden joists called Bridging joist of width 5cm to
8cm spaced at about 30cm to 40cm apart and supported on end walls,
spanning the room in the shorter dimension , as span increases the joist
become more deep and proves uneconomical
The joist are designed both for strength and rigidity , it should safely carry
the floor load without deflection .
Joist should not be allowed to come in contact with green mortar or
masonary as this would cause the wood work to rot and deccay thus a gap
is left between the end of the joists and the wall so that there may be
free circulation of air around the joist ends.
The joist are supported on the wall plates 10x10cm to 12x10cm in size, it
distributes the load from the joist to the wall below.
The wall plates are generally laid flush with the inner face of the wall.
Joist rest on the wall plate with their ends nailed ,notched or by single or
double cooged joint.
The size of joist is roughly calculated by the rule
Depth in cm = (span in metes x4) + 5cm
• Planking is done on bridging joist , it consist of wooden boards of 4cm
thk and 10 to 15 cm wide which are fixed to bridging joist.
• But when the span of the room is more than 2.4m. the bridging joist
have a tendency to buckle . To prevent this the joists are strutted apart
in the midspan all along the length of floor.
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