Projects / 6/13/2024

Wood floors: comfort and luxury

One single system to install wood flooring in various patterns in different environments of an Australian residence

Queensland attracted V8 Supercar champion Russell Ingall, who chose to build a private residence with wood flooring installed in many areas. The project was completed with a Mapei system ensuring durability and safety. The high-quality installation won second prize from the Australian Timber Flooring Association.

Queensland, Australia's second largest and third most densely populated state, boasts a vibrant local economy where tourism and construction play important roles.

The state’s sandy beaches, ideal for surfing, its subtropical climate and the lush vegetation in the vicinity attract a lot of Australians who opt to visit or relocate to the coast, not to mention Queensland's fabulous nightlife which only adds to its charm.

One such person is Russel Ingall, a famous Australian V8 Supercar champion who decided to build a private residence here, opting for wood flooring installed in different patterns on almost all the floors, including the ground floor, the stairs, and the upper floor.

Josh Marques and Danny Barnes from Marques Flooring took care of the installation of wood floors. In the middle, Russell Ingall, the property owner

A complete system: from primer to adhesive

The work was carried out between the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023 using a complete system to install the wood flooring supplied by Mapei Australia, the Australian subsidiary of Mapei Group. In the lounge, kitchen, corridors, and bathrooms on the ground floor, the stained oak flooring was installed in a “herringbone” pattern, undoubtedly providing the house with its final feel of comfort and luxury.

Matching straight planks of the same stained engineered oak were also used to make the stair treads and risers for the larger steps at the bottom of the staircase and the wood floors of the second floor.

A single installation system proved to be suitable for all the various environments, and apart from the adhesive for wood flooring, specific solutions were also used to treat the substrates.

Work started by applying ECO PRIM T PLUS, a universal acrylic primer suitable for both absorbent and non-absorbent substrates, which acts as a dust sealer and an adhesion promoter before applying levelling products or adhesives for wood flooring.

The next step was to level off the substrates with ULTRAPLAN ECO, a self-levelling, ultra quick-hardening smoothing compound that helps eliminate differences in the thickness of 1 to 10 mm and makes the installation of any covering material simpler, including in environments where excellent resistance to impact loads is required.

To prevent dampness in the substrates causing problems to the wood flooring, a vapour barrier was created by applying MAPEPROOF 1K TURBO solvent-free, moisture curing and rapid-drying polyurethane membrane, produced and distributed on the Australian market by Mapei Australia.

Wood floors were installed in a herringbone pattern in several environments of an Australian private residenca with ULTRABOND ECO S955 1K adhesive after preparing the substrates with ECO PRIM T PLUS and ULTRAPLAN ECO. (c) Jules Ingall

So many floors and one single adhesive

Just one single product was used to install the wood flooring in all the environments: ULTRABOND ECO S955 1K, a one-component silylated polymer-based adhesive ideal for installing any format of solid wood flooring (pre-finished wooden floors, lamparquet, slats, floorboards, etc.). Apart from enabling the wood covering to be installed on any substrate typically used in the building sector, it is easy to apply and spread, has excellent rib stability and low viscosity. It also has a 20-30% higher yield than traditional two-component adhesives.

Other advantages of this product not to be overlooked are its health benefits (it is entirely solvent-free) and its sustainability: in fact, ULTRABOND ECO S955 1K has very low emission of volatile organic compounds (VOC) and is certified EMICODE EC1^Plus by GEV (Gemeinschaft Emissionskontrollierte Verlegewerkstoffe, Klebstoffe und Bauprodukte e.V.), the Association for installation materials with controlled emissions.

Sustainability is a benefit that ULTRABOND ECO S955 1K has in common with the other products in the system used to install the wood flooring in this residence: all solutions with extremely low VOC emissions and, as a result, certified EMICODE EC1^Plus da GEV. This is undoubtedly a highly appreciated characteristic in the residential sector, where the sustainability of construction products and their low level of VOC emissions help improve indoor air quality and the healthiness and level of comfort in rooms.

The project for this Australian residence was carried out to perfection, and the results were so good that it was awarded second prize by the Australian Timber Flooring Association for being “Australasian prefinished stairs of the year” and played a part in promoting the use of the same Mapei system in other new residential projects in Queensland.