How to Lay Sleepers for an Oak Floor

Clean the surface of the concrete or cement floor over which you want to lay the sleepers. Pick up dust with a tack cloth and remove and sticky spots on the floor with a wet mop.

Cut strips of plastic sheeting to reach across the room. Lay the strips out on the floor so they overlap by 2 inches on the edges and secure the pieces together with plastic tape. Tape the sheeting around the floor’s perimeter with plastic tape, as well.

Measure the length of each edge of the floor. Cut 1-by-3-inch wood boards down to the length of each edge of the floor with a circular saw.

Place the boards around the room so that they sit upright directly against the walls of the room. Drill 4-inch concrete screws through the wood pieces and down into the concrete floor every three inches along the boards to create a wood perimeter around the floor.

Measure down one of the wood boards along one wall of the room. Make a mark every 12 inches down the board. Measure and mark the board directly across from the first board that you marked, as well.

Measure across the surface of the floor between these two boards, and cut one 1-by-3 board down to this length for each mark that you made. Slide the boards between the two marked perimeter boards so that they line up with the marks and screw the boards to the floor just as you did with the perimeter boards.

Place enough pieces of 3/4-inch plywood over the boards that you installed across the floor to cover the entire surface of the floor. Attach the plywood with a 2-inch wood screw every three inches along each board. Lay the oak flooring over the elevated sleeper system.