Solid Wood flooring

[spudcounter]

We're going to have solid wood flooring over concrete and over existing floorboards. Does the manner of fixing them to these differ? One fitter has said they'd screed the concrete and then lay it on top of this, while anothe has said he'd fix laths and nail it to these over the concrete base.
Any ideas which is better?

The bottom line is if your base is rubbish then the finish will be rubbish.

What does the manufacturer recommend?

What sounds warmer?? Concrete gets awfully cold, I would ask for an insulatin layer.

hang on, nail it?

Most modern solid wood floors are slotting into place much like laminate, and no nails are required.

Quintessential is right - it does just slot together. And what about levels?

It does slot together but it still gets nailed so that it doesn't move too much.

Be very careful over your floorboards. Make sure you've checked the moisture levels. We had a solid walnut floor fitted over ground foor floorboard. It cost over £1000 for one room and warped after 4 weeks due to the moisture levels in the room. Once its cupped its basically irrepairable unless its very thick and can be sanded to the lowest point of the cupping.

We had a nightmare with ours. And if you're East Midlands based don't touch the main local supplier with a bargepole. I had him in my house shouting at me when I was 8.5 months pregnant demanding that I signed paperwork saying that the replacement floor was perfect - before they had even fitted it.

I'm really confused..at one stage one of them was talking about sausages (!) which I think are tube long pieces of flexible glue. There's something called 'secret nailing' which goes on I think...I still haven't got how it's supposed to expand while nailed down?? Sausages can allow expansion because they are silicone and stretch.
How on earth do I know if my fitter is competent?

First time ours was nailed and cupped although not necessarily due to the method. When the company had to replace it they used stuff which was like double sided sticky tape.

We haven't had any problems the second time. The double sided method is more expensive which would mae me think its better.

I am going to be watching this, we are getting a solid oak floor in our new self build.....70 square meter of solid oak for the living room, lovely!

I think solid boards needed to be laid on either joists or plywood for the best finish.

Some boards can be laid as a "floating" floor on top of boards but would need to have a sort of underlay underneath.

It is very important to make sure the sub floor is properly prepared. Our engineered wood floor was laid on uneven baords that the cowboy who was doing the job swore he had done properly. WHen laid the floor was bumpy and not flat (made me feel sea sick to walk on it!). He tried to blame the boards saying they were warped but the suppilier looked at it and told us the fitter had mucked up big time and he had to take it up and relay it.