Finished Floor Level

[Barney12]

We've got a fair number of door thresholds both ground and first floor and I'm soon going to be asked what the intended floor finish is going to be so that we have the correct FFL. My challenge is "the boss" is still a little undecided on floor finish in a couple of rooms. So...........

 

Are there some "standards" for the various finishes? E.g. Tiled, Carpet etc etc.

 

I'm fairly certain the answer is "No" as there are so many variables but thought I'd take the collective view here. 

 

 

[ProDave]

Well the best "rule of thumb" I can think of is chipboard flooring will normally be 22mm and add the thickness of a carpet. most hardwood flooring will be a similar thickness.

 

I am allowing about 10mm for tiles and adhesive, but that is massively dependent on what tiles you choose. Another "challenge" you might not have thought of is when transitioning from a tiled floor to a hardwood floor, I don't want a step, so the under build for the hardwood floor area needs to be thicker than the tiled floor area so they end up level with no step.

[Bitpipe]

1 hour ago, ProDave said:

Well the best "rule of thumb" I can think of is chipboard flooring will normally be 22mm and add the thickness of a carpet. most hardwood flooring will be a similar thickness.

 

I am allowing about 10mm for tiles and adhesive, but that is massively dependent on what tiles you choose. Another "challenge" you might not have thought of is when transitioning from a tiled floor to a hardwood floor, I don't want a step, so the under build for the hardwood floor area needs to be thicker than the tiled floor area so they end up level with no step.

 

We had this issue with the transition from engineered wood in the hall to tiles in the bathroom. Fitter just make a little ramp from screed to gently bring the oak flush with the tile. Stainless steel 'T' trim on the join and it looks great.

 

If you're having any electric UFH under the tile then you'll be looking at about 25mm when 6mm backer board, ufh mat, latex adhesive and tile are all added together.

 

We made sure all the floors were complete before doing the final survey for the stairs - these are the one element you don't want to be out - depends whether they sit on the sub floor and if you finish around them (tiles, carpet, wood) or if they're sitting on the FF as they did in our case (resin). 

[Barney12]

Firstly a huge thanks to @TerryE for some stirling advice regarding my window/door specification. I'm hoping our resident super pro @Nickfromwales will have a view on the point below. 

 

Our entire ground floor floor is a power floated slab and we have provisionally chosen an 11mm thick porcelain tile for the whole ground floor. I phoned my tiler and he said allow a 4mm adhesive bed (Apparently BAL recomend 2-6mm hence middle of the range). However, I guess it is true that this does rather rely on the area being completely flat. 

 

Thus my question: Is my proposed 15mm FFL build up enough or too skimpy? 

[Steptoe]

Im not sure how relevant this may be, but, a general rule of thumb for a FFL with no covering is allow 20mm to finishes, ie, door bottoms, as opposed to a FFL with covering is 10mm to finishes,

thereby, its a 10mm difference from FFL to FFL with coverings,

so, it would indeed seem to make a massive difference to get the decision made now as to the floor coverings.

 

[Steptoe]

EDIT to ADD  :-   way too late now, but if you are tiling above worktops this will also throw out all you electrical accessory heights if you are tiling/flooring under the units,,,,,

 

not having a go directly, but this is one of the things a lot of people forget when they tell the trades FFL, but what they really mean is FFL without coverings.

 

[ProDave]

And it becomes even more tricky when your floor finish changes in different parts of the house and you want to be able to transition from a tiled area to say a hardwood floored area WITHOUT any step at all.

[Barney12]

2 minutes ago, ProDave said:

And it becomes even more tricky when your floor finish changes in different parts of the house and you want to be able to transition from a tiled area to say a hardwood floored area WITHOUT any step at all.

 

Thankfully we've not got that issue as we've got the same tile through the ground floor.

Edited March 29, 2017 by Barney12
Typo

[Barney12]

18 hours ago, Barney12 said:

Firstly a huge thanks to @TerryE for some stirling advice regarding my window/door specification. I'm hoping our resident super pro @Nickfromwales will have a view on the point below. 

 

Our entire ground floor floor is a power floated slab and we have provisionally chosen an 11mm thick porcelain tile for the whole ground floor. I phoned my tiler and he said allow a 4mm adhesive bed (Apparently BAL recomend 2-6mm hence middle of the range). However, I guess it is true that this does rather rely on the area being completely flat. 

 

Thus my question: Is my proposed 15mm FFL build up enough or too skimpy? 

 

Anyone got any thoughts on this? Its keeping me awake at night!!

[Bitpipe]

Remember you need around 10mm door clearance (depending on width) for MVHR if you're having it..

 

[Jeremy Harris]

We used 12mm travertine plus 12mm bonded-down bamboo on the ground floor, and both ended up being very close to 15mm above the (very flat) slab, so 15mm sounds about right to me.  The bamboo is may be 1mm below the travertine, but the only place they met was at one door, and I laid a bamboo flush threshold in there that matched the levels both sides, and you can't see the slight slope on it.

 

One thing worth thinking about now is door mats.  It sounds daft, but the bottom edge of a Part M compliant inward opening exterior door will most probably only be 6mm to 8mm above finished floor level, barely enough to get even the thinnest door mat under.  I wish I'd thought this through, and allowed for a recess in the flooring to take a thicker mat, as it's now proving to be a bit of a nuisance.

Edited March 30, 2017 by JSHarris

[Bitpipe]

Just now, JSHarris said:

We used 12mm travertine plus 12mm bonded-down bamboo on the ground floor, and both ended up being very close to 15mm above the (very flat) slab, so 15mm sounds about right to me.  The bamboo is may be 1mm below the travertine, but the only place they met was at one door, and I laid a bamboo flush threshold in there that matched the levels both sides, and you can't see the slight slope on it.

 

One thing worth thinking about now is door mats.  It sounds daft, but the bottom edge of a Part M compliant inward opening exterior door will most probably only be 6mm to 8mm above finished floor level, barely enough to get even the thinnest door mat under.  I wish I'd thought this through, and allowed for a recess in the flooring to take a thicker mat, as it's now proving to be a bit of a nuisance.

 

Turtlemats are the answer - only a few mm high and trap dirt very effectively, plus you can wash them in the machine. We have a huge one under our RK front door and there is only a few mm between that and the resin floor.

[Jeremy Harris]

I think that may be what we have at the moment, a fairly thin, very absorbent, mat with a non-slip backing.  The top surface looks like the mats they use in supermarket entrances to stop muck getting walked in.

[Barney12]

15 minutes ago, JSHarris said:

One thing worth thinking about now is door mats.  It sounds daft, but the bottom edge of a Part M compliant inward opening exterior door will most probably only be 6mm to 8mm above finished floor level, barely enough to get even the thinnest door mat under.  I wish I'd thought this through, and allowed for a recess in the flooring to take a thicker mat, as it's now proving to be a bit of a nuisance.

 

I've got this one written down in my "project book". The plan is to get them to drop a 18mm ply former into the slab to create a mat well. This detail is for the front door and back door. All the patio/sliding doors (4 of them!) will have to be turtle style mats as mat wells in these locations will look too industrial.

 

 

[Barney12]

19 minutes ago, JSHarris said:

We used 12mm travertine plus 12mm bonded-down bamboo on the ground floor, and both ended up being very close to 15mm above the (very flat) slab, so 15mm sounds about right to me.  The bamboo is may be 1mm below the travertine, but the only place they met was at one door, and I laid a bamboo flush threshold in there that matched the levels both sides, and you can't see the slight slope on it.

 

 

Thanks thats good to know.

[Barney12]

17 minutes ago, Bitpipe said:

 

Turtlemats are the answer - only a few mm high and trap dirt very effectively, plus you can wash them in the machine. We have a huge one under our RK front door and there is only a few mm between that and the resin floor.

 

I love these and its well worth buying the "real" branded ones. Especially with animals that I have failed to train to wipe their paws on entry!

[Jeremy Harris]

I've just had a look, and I'm pretty sure the one we're using by the front door at the moment is a Turtlemat, I'll ask SWMBO later.  Having looked at their website, it looks like the one we have is the smallest, and that may well be why it sometimes gets the edge caught by the door.  I see they do larger ones, and that could be the answer, as we have the space for one twice as big, and that would then mean the door would be opening over the centre of the mat, with no chance of catching the edge.

[Bitpipe]

Just now, JSHarris said:

I've just had a look, and I'm pretty sure the one we're using by the front door at the moment is a Turtlemat, I'll ask SWMBO later.  Having looked at their website, it looks like the one we have is the smallest, and that may well be why it sometimes gets the edge caught by the door.  I see they do larger ones, and that could be the answer, as we have the space for one twice as big, and that would then mean the door would be opening over the centre of the mat, with no chance of catching the edge.

 

Just upgraded to one of those this week, gives a space for people to kick off their shoes without blocking the door.