How to make the correct floor in the bath with your own hands: instructions

Recommendation points

• Choice of floor design for steam room and sink
• Materials and tools
• Tool
• Leaky floor made of individual bevelled boards
• Leaking floor from removable shields
• Sequence of works for non-leaking floor

The floor in the bath is distinguished by its structure only in the steam room and the washing room. The rest of the bath rooms are operated in the usual humidity mode. In the article, we will take a closer look at the device of the floors in the steam room and tell you how to lay them with your own hands..

Choice of floor design for steam room and sink

Wooden floors are the usual solution. Their main advantage is the healthy properties of wood, environmental friendliness and practicality. Despite the relatively low service life of wooden floors in a steam room, they are not so difficult to change, and the total costs will still be lower than the arrangement of a concrete floor.

In the steam room and the washing room, a fair amount of water is constantly on the floor, which should be discharged into a pit, a drainage system, or simply into the ground under the bath. Structurally, to solve this problem, wooden floors are divided into leaking and non-leaking..

The leaking floor provides for a gap between the boards. Water seeps freely into the underground space. Further, it is absorbed into the soil, if its filtering ability allows it, or it is diverted into a pit, for which a clay castle or a concrete base is formed with a slope to one side.

The second option is a non-leaking floor in wet rooms of the bath. Such a floor is made with a non-removable covering and is replaced only at the end of its service life. A slope for collecting and draining water is provided here along the surface of the floor covering towards the tray or funnel.

The floor with a removable covering can and even should be dried regularly, after disassembling, while the bath is not in use. Fixed floors, due to their susceptibility to rotting at high humidity, are completely changed approximately every 7-8 years.

The concrete base under the leaking wooden floor in the bath significantly increases the durability of the structure, and also affects the comfort – even after many years there will be no musty smell from under the floor. However, the arrangement of a concrete base significantly increases the cost of arranging a bath, so if the parent soil under the building has a high drainage capacity, then it is easier to get by with the preparation of the filter layer.

Materials and tools

To cover the floor in the steam room and washing room, wooden elements from deciduous (linden, aspen) and coniferous (pine, larch, cedar) wood are used. All wooden floor structures must be treated with antiseptics.

For the floor device you will need:

• wooden beam for logs 50 (100) x100 mm;
• floorboard 35 mm thick;
• cement M300, M400;
• medium fraction sand;
• expanded clay for the thermal insulation layer;
• ordinary clay brick for posts for logs;
• waterproofing (roofing material).

It is important to choose the right wood protection impregnation. It should be suitable specifically for baths because of the high temperature and humidity. The easiest way to treat wood is to impregnate it with sunflower oil in two steps.

Tool

The floors in the steam room are arranged using a tool for laying a concrete base on the ground and a wooden floor covering.

Tools for working with concrete. 1. Rake-trowel. 2. Grater for cement. 3. Trowel. 4. Ironer. 5. The flat iron is angular. 6. Rule. 7. Bubble level. 8. Pendulum profile

Woodworking tools. 1. Building corner. 2. Brace. 3. Hammer. 4. Electric plane. 5. Clamps. 6. Hacksaw for wood. 7. Bubble level. 8. Screwdriver. 9. Drill. 10. Circular saw machine

Leaky floor made of individual bevelled boards

To prepare the subgrade for the floor structure, it is imperative to remove the fertile layer, no matter how thick it is.

Leaking floor on top of a concrete base. 1. Ground. 2. Expanded clay concrete. 3. Cement screed. 4. Chute. 5. Brick column. 6. Waterproofing. 7. Lags. 8. Floor board

Leaking floor on the ground with filtering capacity. 1. Ground. 2. Sand pillow. 3. Gravel. 4. The foundation of the support pillar. 5. Brick post. 6. Waterproofing. 7. Lags. 8. Floor board

It is important at this stage to decide how and where the water will be drained outside the building. For this, a tray (200x150h mm) is provided in the concrete base, into which water flows. The bottom of the tray is made with a slope towards the drain pit (30x30x25h). It is better to locate the sump closer to the place of the external water collection. From the sump, water flows through the drain pipe into the sump.

The slope of the surface for the drainage of water is 2–3 cm per meter towards the tray. It is created either by leveling the ground under the floor, or by filling (sand and gravel) under the concrete base. The overall floor level in the steam room and the washing room is reduced by 30 mm than in adjacent rooms with normal humidity.

A sand and gravel pad 10-15 cm thick is laid on the tamped soil. It is necessary to fill and tamp the sand in layers of no more than 5 cm, wetting it with water. Next, a heat-insulating layer of expanded clay concrete is laid. Approximate consumption of raw materials per 1 m³ concrete is:

1. without sand:
   • cement M300, 400 – 250 kg;
   • expanded clay – 720 kg;
   • water – 100-150 l.
2. with sand:
   • cement M300, 400 – 230 kg;
   • expanded clay – 440 kg;
   • sand – 195 kg;
   • water – 100-130 l.

It is best to prepare a concrete solution in a concrete mixer or order

It is permissible to use other light filler (shungizite, perlite, expanded vermiculite, crushed stone of porous rocks, etc.). The thickness of the expanded clay concrete layer can be taken as 150 mm. Concrete is laid in strips no more than 2.5 m wide on a base moistened with water. To limit the bands, slats are installed, they also serve as beacons to determine the thickness of the layer. The thicker the insulation layer, the warmer the floor.

The slope towards the gutter or funnel to collect and drain water must be respected

A cement-sand screed 40 mm thick is laid on a layer of expanded clay concrete. The composition of the mortar (M100) cement / sand: one to three. Before the mortar sets, it is necessary to iron the surface with cement milk. The cement is mixed with water to form a liquid sour cream. The surface is covered with an even thin layer of the mixture. This is done to increase the waterproofing of the concrete base..

Under the logs, brick posts made of solid clay ordinary bricks (250×250 mm) on a cement-sand mortar are installed. The distance between the posts is 0.8–1.0 m in the center. 2 layers of roofing material are laid on their surface. Next, logs are laid. The floorboards of the leaking floor are chamfered at the edges for water drainage. The gap between the boards is 5-6 mm.

Important! Do not use silicate bricks, hollow stones, silicate blocks in damp and wet rooms.

This floor is made removable in order to be able to dry the floorboard to increase its lifespan. Boards can move when walking on them, they are often grabbed with nails, landing nests up to 5 mm deep are prepared for them in logs or spacer strips are stuffed on the boards along the edges.

Leaking floor from removable shields

Steam and soap room flooring can be made from removable wooden panels. Shield boards are laid with a gap on transverse bars of 50×50 mm. The size of the boards is taken for ease of removal and drying..

The structure of the floor is the same: compacted soil, compacted sand and gravel mixture, insulation – expanded clay concrete 150 mm thick. Ceramic floor tiles are laid on a cement-sand mortar 10-15 mm thick. The floor has a slope that is directed towards the drain pan. Removable shields are installed on the tiles so that the lower bars are located along the water drain.

Sequence of works for non-leaking floor

A non-leaking wooden floor assumes a continuous flooring of grooved boards along the joists. First, the location of the support posts is determined. They are located at a distance of 0.8–1.0 m from each other, measuring the distances along the centers. A concrete pad 100 mm thick and 70 mm wider than the column size is prepared for each post.

Solid, leak-proof floor on top of the ground. 1. Ground. 2. Sand pillow. 3. Expanded clay or other bulk insulation material. 4. The foundation of the support pillar. 5. Brick column. 6. Waterproofing. 7. Lags. 8. Floor board

A solid, leak-proof floor must be installed with a slope. The gutter can be placed in one of the logs located close to the wall. 1. Ground. 2. Sand pillow. 3. Expanded clay or other bulk insulation material. 4. Brick post on a concrete base. 5. Chute. 6. Floor board

Supports for logs are made of concrete or ordinary clay brick on a cement-sand mortar. The size of the posts is 250×250 mm. The height of the supports must correspond to the upper edge of the embedded beam (columnar foundation), or to the top of the strip foundation.

The direction of laying the logs should be perpendicular to the direction of the water flow. Wooden elements are necessarily insulated from concrete or brick with two layers of waterproofing (roofing material). Expanded clay bedding with a thickness of 15 cm is made on the tamped soil.

A variant of an uninsulated floor is shown in the figure. In this case, the boards rest on one side of the wall log, on the other – on the log-groove. The tray is covered from above with a wooden ladder.

The insulated floor assumes logs with cranial bars to which the subfloor is attached. Next, a vapor barrier is laid (membrane, polyethylene, polypropylene film), a layer of heat insulator (mineral wool plate, foam plastic) is laid on it. Roll waterproofing (roofing material) is laid along the thermal insulation layer.

Insulated non-leaking floor. 1. Ground, sand cushion and bulk insulation. 2. Brick post. 3. Logs and rough wood floor. 4. Insulation. 5. Logs and finishing floor, laid with a slope towards the gutter. 6. Chute. 7. A vapor-permeable membrane is laid on top of the subfloor, waterproofing is lined on top of the thermal insulation layer

There should be at least 3 cm clearance between the clean floor and the waterproofing. The size of the lag in this case is 100×170 mm. Skull block – 40×40 mm. For lag, only a solid bar should be used.

Grooved boards are laid on the logs. Boards are sewn with nails or self-tapping screws to the logs through the tongue. This method of joining boards together is called “parquet”. Its advantage is the absence of hats on the surface of the board..

Each board is attached to all logs. They should fit snugly against one another. The gap between the boards should not exceed 1 mm. Staples or clamps are used to rally the boards. Fastening nails are used 2–2.5 times longer than the thickness of the boards. The end of the plank floor does not reach the wall by 10–20 mm. In the future, the gap is covered with a plinth.

Water draining from the floor surface occurs due to the floor slope in two directions. A hole is made at the drain and a siphon is installed. The slope of the floor can be made by adjusting the height of the log.