When commissioning new buildings, the balcony is most often a concrete slab with. Going out on it in the cold season, a person falls from summer into winter. Therefore, the natural desire of the owner is the loggia, as well as giving more functionality to this place at home. The wooden floor on the balcony is the warm basis of this closed or open area, since wood is the most human-friendly, environmentally friendly warm material, which, after appropriate processing, becomes resistant to moisture, insects, low and high temperatures.
Wooden floors are eco-friendly and beautiful
How to make wood flooring with your own hands on a balcony, loggia, outdoor terrace?
You have to start from the foundation. The basis of most floors is a concrete screed, which is characterized by the formation of cement dust that pollutes the rest of the room. Therefore, it is better to cover it after appropriate processing.
Preparing the base for the floor
You can prepare the concrete base of the floor by the following steps:
- First you need to clean the screed from dirt, debris and dust.
- Cement, seal with mounting foam all the cracks, chips, holes at the level of the future floor.
- Make a flat surface by cleaning the concrete base from the remnants of the solution, mounting foam.
- Then the surface must be treated with an impregnating primer.
Foundation waterproofing
An important step is to prevent the unpleasant consequences of high humidity. These works can be done by hand using different methods. Waterproofing methods:
- Covering the base with thick, foil-coated plastic bubble wrap is easy enough. In this case, special attention should be paid to the tightness of the material at the joints, carefully attaching it with construction tape;
- Roofing material is usually laid on a bitumen base, which must be treated with a burner, heating the bituminous mastic.
- When painting, it is important to use the correct special paints that have a guaranteed waterproof composition. Make painting better with a wide brush, covering the surface of the base and part of the wall from below.
- You can apply waterproofing to the base of the loggia, balcony and open terrace of the house with your own hands using a plaster method. In this case, special attention should be paid to the choice of special solutions for these purposes, protecting from moisture.
- The concrete base can be coated with a special impregnation. Such a liquid must be applied in several layers. This ensures a deep penetration of this composition into the depth of the plate by 20 cm and the creation of a powerful protection against water. After such processing, all structural elements made of wood: logs, chipboard, lathing, boards, plywood will be in favorable conditions.
- Nowadays, the method of "liquid rubber" and "liquid glass" has become very popular, which makes it easy to process a concrete base. At the same time, the rubber coating has a more elastic breathable structure.
The wooden floor on the balcony, depending on the conditions in which it will be used, may differ in its characteristics and installation method. It is important to initially correctly determine the functions of this corner of a comfortable home. For outdoor terraces, it is better to use "garden" parquet tiles.
It is important to make high-quality waterproofing
"Garden" parquet tiles
This coating is most suitable for a house or apartment with an open terrace. This material has excellent characteristics for outdoor use:
- high resistance to temperature extremes of the external environment;
- water-repellent properties and increased moisture resistance, since during the manufacturing process it is subjected to heat treatment;
- the structure of such a wooden coating is pleasant to the touch. Walking barefoot on such a floor is a lot of fun;
- parquet tiles have an attractive appearance and are easy to clean, as they do not accumulate dust and dirt.
The installation of this parquet tile is easy and convenient to do with your own hands, since its design provides for:
- special locks for connection;
- standard dimensions 500×500 mm, 300×300 mm, which facilitate easy installation on waterproofing.
It is important to make accurate measurements of the area of the loggia or balcony, taking into account the uniqueness of their configurations. In addition, it is necessary to prepare a sloped base to collect rainwater into the drainage system. With proper installation, such a floor will serve reliably and for a long time, bringing a lot of pleasure to residents, and also fully justifying the rather high price.
Floor insulation with foam plastic over waterproofing
Wooden coverings on the closed balcony and loggia
In the closed space of the loggia on a wooden frame, logs can be installed on floors made of boards, chipboard, plywood, covering them with linoleum or other materials.
The crate, depending on the functional purpose of the floor, can be filled with various heaters: foam plastic, expanded clay, mineral wool, polyethylene foam with a foil surface.
Depending on the functional purpose of the balcony or loggia for the house, the design of the floor covering may differ.
In the case of the predominant use of this zone in the summer, it is advisable to use a thin insulation covered with foil during installation. At the same time, the wooden floor on the balcony does not rise high above the concrete base. For this, logs with a thickness of no more than 2-3 cm are used. To make such a coating with your own hands, you need:
- After fixing the foamed polyethylene on the walls of the loggia, lay the same insulation on the waterproofing of the base, bringing its edges to the wall to a height of 150-200mm. In this way, the wall insulation is blocked;
- Fix logs along the wall of the house, on which a board, chipboard or plywood, cut along the width of the balcony, is then laid perpendicularly. Floorboards must be nailed through their end surface.
When it is necessary to expand the living space due to the loggia, then the floor level of this zone must be raised to its threshold. In this case, the logs rise to a great height due to their thickness or with the help of racks, brackets. These elements come in different types: racks, U-shaped holders, metal studs.
Styrofoam can also be used as insulation under a wooden floor.
Laying technology and materials for a wooden balcony floor
You can make a new floor on a glazed loggia with your own hands without any special physical and material costs. For this you will need:
- moisture resistant substrate;
- floorboard, plywood, chipboard;
- metal corners, wood screws, dowels;
- stain, varnish, impregnation for wood;
- wooden beam - logs for mounting the frame;
- insulation.
From these materials, you can make a coating of boards, a floor on a balcony of plywood, chipboard. In this case, it is recommended to use moisture-resistant plywood or chipboard with a minimum thickness of 15 mm. It is important to calculate the thickness of the timber and coating materials in such a way that their total height would coincide with the height.
Floor boards are laid on pre-fixed logs
Step by step installation of a wooden floor
- Lay a moisture-resistant substrate on the cleaned surface with waterproofing;
- Lay logs, transverse jumpers from the beam - in this way a crate is formed.
- After fine-tuning the timber, it is necessary to treat the wood with stain, varnish, impregnation for protection.
- Wait until the material is completely dry, and then unfold the frame and connect the bars to each other using corners, wood screws and a level. It is important to pay special attention to the parallelism and flatness of its different parts.
- At the next stage, the crate is attached to the concrete floor with dowels and corners.
- The frame is insulated with the help of existing heaters: mineral wool, expanded clay, polystyrene, foamed polyethylene.
- The floorboard is attached perpendicular to the joists, filling the width of the balcony. The guide board is firmly fixed on one side with the face up. Further, the rest are sequentially attached to it. When installing chipboard and plywood, all edges of the sheet must rest firmly on the logs. In this case, the heads of the screws should not protrude above the level of the floor plane.
Thus, subject to the technology, it is possible to install a floor and an open terrace without special building skills. To do this, it is important to prepare the necessary material in the required quantity and strictly consistently perform certain actions.
Careful work will allow you to get an excellent result that matches the image created by the imagination. The main thing is to clearly represent the functional purpose of the wooden floor of the balcony, loggia or open terrace of the house.
