Installing your Zambezi Floor.

We strongly recommend that you only utilise professional installers. Zambezi Floor do not install floors or decks, but we can put you in touch with those who do so professionally. We would like to emphasise that we are not responsible for the quality of workmanship of the installers we recommend. They are people we have recommended in the past and clients have been happy with their work. We will definitely not recommend installers about whom we have had complaints.

Please note that we sell our flooring and decking by the square meter. For those more comfortable with the imperial system, 1 square meter is 10.764 square feet.

All solid wood moves with variations in ambient humidity. It is recommended that you allow one to two weeks from the date of delivery of your flooring material to equalise to the prevailing humidity conditions.

Internal Tongue and Groove flooring.

There are principally 4 ways of laying an internal floor. The traditional method was to lay timber joists every 400 millimetres and 'secret nail' the flooring to the joists. However, as our timber is very much harder than other hardwoods used, we strongly recommend that pilot holes are drilled in the Zambezi Teak and it is 'secret screwed' to the joists. The installer must allow a slight gap between the boards to allow for the natural movement of solid wood. This method is particularly suited to new buildings where an allowance for the depth of the joists and the flooring can be designed into the final concrete screed levels. For ground level installations the screed must first be sealed with a plastic moisture barrier. Some installers will then place a second moisture barrier between the joists and the flooring. Moisture barriers are not necessary on raised concrete floors.

An alternative to joists commonly used in North America is to nail the hardwood flooring to a plywood base resting on concrete, with damp proof courses to prevent moisture coming up through the concrete.

The third method is to glue the timbers to the concrete screed with waterproof glue. However, this method has been largely superseded by laying the flooring on a rubber underlay resulting in a floating floor that allows movement. This method is now very popular. Please always get your installer to test the moisture content of your concrete slab. A moisture barrier must be installed and on new buildings you can insist that this a moisture barrier is also placed between the slab and the under fill.

All Zambezi Flooring is supplied unfinished and must be sanded and sealed after installation.

The standard flooring comes in 1.6 x 0.21 meter bundles, 5 planks thick. The bundles are fastened to pallets of 25.2 square meters or 50.4 square meters. The individual lengths of the pieces making up the bundles are from 400mm to 1.2 meters.

External Decking.

Decking must be laid and screwed on joists install by your building contractor or decking installer. The joists and sub structure may be of treated timber or steel. A gap of 8 mm is recommended between each plank to allow rain runoff.

An alternative that works very well is to order pre fabricated 'duckboards', or panels, from the factory that are normally 1.2 meters by up to 2.4 meters. These are pre finished and simply have to be laid on a steel sub structure designed by your architect or installer to accommodate the design of the panels. This method is quick and neat provided the construction of the sub structure and building is accurate. It also has the big advantage that the securing screws are inserted through the batons from below and are thus invisible and do not act as a trap for moisture that can eventually lead to wood rot and deterioration of the securing screws. Please contact us if you would like to pursue this alternative.