Adjustable floor on the lags: installation features

Modern methods of alignment of the floor make it possible to sharply reduce time and labor costs. If earlier, only a concrete screed was used for this and waited for its drying for several weeks, today, to the finish decoration of the room, you can proceed immediately after leveling. Adjustable supports for the floor lag make it possible to raise the surface level to any height, hide under the flooring of communication and at any time change the specified parameters. A dry floor screed on adjustable lags passes quickly and accurately, in contrast to working with a classic cement mortar. If you want to align the floor in a couple of hours, we will tell you how to do it.

The device of the adjustable floor

Installation of the floor on adjustable lags consists of installing the lags themselves and attaching on top of them the black coating - the base of the floor. The lag device in this case is very interesting and opens up a lot of opportunities for home masters. However, we first talk about the features of use and the device of adjustable sexes.

The flooring can be made from any materials that have sufficient strength, hydrophobic and durability. In this regard, moisture -resistant plywood and drywall have established itself very well in this regard. However, the final choice still depends on the type of flooring and requirements for its installation. Plywood, for example, is suitable for laying laminate, parquet and linoleum. If you want to clad the floor with tiles, then the flooring is best made from moisture -resistant drywall, CSP or similar materials. For wooden floors, choose a drooped or strict board.

The adjustable floor on the lags is perfect for both residential and office premises. It can withstand strong loads up to 2.5 t/m², so the technology is often used in the construction of shopping centers and gyms. A long service life - about 50 years - allows him to compete with the main competitors (floor on ordinary logs, concrete screed, dry screed).

There are several varieties of adjustable floors determined by the support element:

1. Lags are a great alternative to a concrete screed. The technology allows you to raise the floor level by 5 cm or higher. The remaining space below can be used to lay engineering communications, additional thermal insulation (if you live on the ground floor) or sound insulation (if noisy neighbors live in the apartment below). Installation takes away the minimum of time and effort in the presence of all the necessary materials and the simplest tools (drill, hammer, wrench).
2. Plates - instead of the lag, the slabs are attached to the lifting elements. At the same time, the maximum level of raising the floor is 3 cm. This method is suitable in cases where you need to quickly level the floor or insulate it. It will not work to hide down the communications - there is too little space. Only thin wires and cables will fit there - from the phone, the Internet, etc.
   

Advantages and disadvantages of adjustable lags

Every year there are more and more innovations that have a lot of advantages, but, unfortunately, only rare exceptions are devoid of shortcomings. Consider the pros and cons of using adjustable wooden floors.

Advantages of adjustable floors:

1. The design makes the floor surface perfectly even and allows you to exclude any horizontal drops.
2. Lags can be mounted even on a crooked base.
3. After installation under the floor, there remains a free space of 5-25 cm, which can be used with benefit.
4. For assembly and installation, you will need only a screwdriver and a circular saw - no adhesive mixtures and solutions.
5. You can make an even floor in just a few hours.
6. Adjustable supports give a rigid fastening of a new flooring with the base.
7. The cost of the adjustable floor is almost the same as that of a concrete screed, that is, low.
8. After installing the floor, you can immediately start laying the flooring.

The determining factors in the choice of adjustable floors for many are the low cost and elementary installation.

The disadvantages of the adjustable floor on the lags:

1. Over time, such floors begin to creak. This can be prevented even at the installation stage, carefully drain the surface of the ceiling after making holes. Another point - the dowels should be driven to the limit so that the racks subsequently do not shake. But this will only allow delaying the appearance of a creak. It will not be possible to avoid it due to the physical features of the wood from which the lags are made - it “breathes”, narrows and expands from temperature changes, refers and swells from humidity.
2. The second minus is that if you need to raise the floor level, say, 15-20 cm, then the sound of steps on it will be very loud. A thick sound -absorbing lining and heat -insulating mats will help to fix this. This will increase the cost of work, but make the floor warmer and quieter.

Features of installation

Adjustable lags can be made independently or buy a ready -made set of floors. The main thing in the design is the regulation mechanism that allows you to align the surface with absolute accuracy. Ready -made systems are quite expensive, and it is not always possible to find them, so we offer to consider the option of creating an adjustable floor on the lags with your own hands. To do this, you will need the most ordinary materials that can be found in any construction store.

There are two options for arranging adjustable floors, each of which has its own nuances, but the complexity of installation in both cases is approximately at the same level. Both methods give equally high -quality result if all the requirements of the technology were observed, so the choice depends purely on personal preferences and opportunities.

Studs lags

The most common way to arrange adjustable flooring lag. As supporting elements, ordinary steel hairpins are used. Consider briefly the design of such floors:

1. For the lag, a dry pine beam with a square section of 50 mm is required.
2. For an adjustable support, use M6 hairpin with two nuts, washers and anchor sleeve.
3. Drill the hole in the concrete base of the floor and forget the anchor sleeve into it. Cut to the very end so that it is flush with the surface.
4. Scroll the lower nut with a puck on a hairpin - they will be located under the lag.
5. Drill a hole in the lag with a diameter of a little more than the diameter of the hairpin.
6. Put the lag on the hairpin.
7. Adjust the height of the location of the lag, twisting the nut under it. When she takes the required position, fix it, fastening the upper nut.

Before starting work, make an accurate calculation of all the necessary materials in accordance with the floor area. You also need to prepare the room - take out all the furniture, accommodate and maximize the surface of the concrete screed.

How to make adjustable floors for lags:

1. Lay out the bars parallel to each other in a step about 30 cm to provide sufficient stiffness of the floor. If you place the bars further, the flooring may not withstand the load and bend. When placing the lag, withstand the indentation from the wall of 5-7 cm. First, it is more convenient to put two extreme lags, and then intermediate.
2. Drill the holes under the studs in the lags, having previously made markings with a simple pencil. Choose a drill with a diameter of a little larger than the diameter of the hairpin so that it freely enters and can rotate inside the bar. Since most often for the arrangement of adjustable floors in residential buildings, the M6 \u200b\u200bhairpin is used, the diameter of the hole for it should be 8 mm. The studs must be removed from each other no further than 50 cm.
3. Make a chick on the lags with a feather drill, the diameter of which is several millimeters higher than the diameter of the washer. Tsikovka will allow you to drown a puck with a nut in the lag and mount the flooring as smooth as possible. It is logical that the depth of Tsikovka should be the same or slightly more than the total thickness of the nut and washer.
4. Using a drill or perforator, make a hole in the concrete screed through the beam. This will eliminate the inconsistency of studs and lag.
5. Feed the anchor spacers into the holes in the screed and plunge the studs there.
6. Win nuts on them, and then put on the washers.
7. After installing all the studs, proceed to the installation of the lag. Put the lags in turn and adjust their height, adjusting the position with the help of the construction level. It is most convenient to use a laser level for this, but you can cope with the usual hydraulic level. As a result, all lags must be brought into a single plane.
   
8. Fasten the bars, putting on the studs the second washers with nuts and cut the ends sticking out with a grinder or a hacksaw for metal.
9. Lay the thermal insulation layer and lay the communications. As a heater, you can use inexpensive mineral wool, expanded clay or polystyrene.
10. It remains only to attach the flooring to the lags with the help of self -tapping screws.

The most difficult and requirement of attention is the moment of installation is the correct installation of anchors. Since the floor slabs are usually hollow, the anchors must be driven very carefully and as tightly as possible. Constantly make sure that they do not fall into the stove. The process is complicated by the fact that the overlap is reinforced concrete, that is, it has a reinforcing cage. According to the “Law of meanness”, very often when drilling holes under the anchor fall into reinforcement.

Lags on the corners

The installation of the lag on the corners does not fundamentally differ from the above technology, except that the supporting elements are not studs, but steel corners. This option is suitable if the anchor cannot be driven in any way.

The course of work:

1. Check the surface level of the future sex.
2. Lay out the bars on the floor with a distance of 25-35 cm.
3. Mark the lines of the location of the bars.
4. At the marked lines, attach steel corners at a distance of 40-50 cm to the concrete screed. Choose the size of the corner depending on what level you want to raise the floor. In this case, the corner should be slightly less than the required lift height, because the thickness of the flooring and the finish coating will also be taken into account. Otherwise, you will have to saw off the extra parts of the corners.
5. Attach the bars to the corners, adjusting the position using the building level.
6. To increase the stiffness of the structure, it is recommended to install additional corners from the reverse sides of the lag.
7. Lay thermal insulation and communication.
8. After that, you can mount the finishing floor.

The most difficult thing in this work is the installation of extreme lags, which are located closest to the walls. The small distance between the wall and the lag does not allow to “turn around” and fully work with tools. Having fantasized a little, you can solve this problem quite simply - to fix the corner not to the screed, but to the wall. You can also skip the beam around the entire perimeter of the room, which will make the floor adjustment much easier, make the floor stronger and reduce the complexity of the work.

We described how to work with wooden structures, but these technologies are not applicable for adjustable floors on metal logs. They are used where the loads are too large for wooden elements, for example, in industries, factories, parking lots, etc. We hope our article helped you understand how simple and quickly make an even and warm floor at home.