Roughly how much coverage do you get out of that 4 gallons? And yes, again I'm not crazy about the nearly permanent part of it.

Well, I'm starting to think about floating it now. I'm gonna check on prices for the underlayment at lunch. I'm really not sure what to do now... but I need to decided before next week...

Vader, can you tell me what underlayment you used. From what little I looked into floating floors, it appears underlayment is the same for concrete vs wood subfloors...

 

I guess that "dead" weight can help keep the floor down.

 

I'll check to see if I can find the label. I picked up the clear plastic kind from Home Depot but a local flooring company suggested against it and suggested the stuff I used. Sure they got my business but the stuff did look better. Just went with what the "pros" suggested.

By the way you can call Bruce and ask them questions. They were helpful. 1-800-233-3823

Ask about the hollow sound concern and see what they say. I know they sell their own underlayment but I didn't have time to wait for it to arrive.

 

So I'm confused on the gluing and it being permanent. When you glue a floor, are you actually gluing it to the cement slab, or are you gluing the seams? I always imagined that any tongue-in-groove type flooring would be the same. If you have to get a piece out, you have to use a circular saw and cut the plank and then glue the new piece in. I have never done it so I'm only guessing. Am I way off?

 

You aren't suppose to glue to a cement slab. You only glue each piece to each other.

However you can glue to a wood subfloor.

At least that is my understanding.

 

I am not sure who told you that but they are wrong. You do need to check for moisture and make sure you do not have any coming up through your slab. The big DON"T is that you cannot install SOLID wood flooring over a slab without a sub-floor between the slab and the wood.

http://www.hardwoodflooringguide.com/faq.asp

What wood floor can I install over a concrete slab?

With the improvements in hardwood floors most engineered and longstrip engineered plank floors can be used over a concrete slab. Manufacturers do not recommend using solid wood floors over a slab. Engineered planks and strip wood floors can be glued directly to a clean, dry, well-cured concrete slab. Some engineered wood floors can be glued at the tongue and grooves and then allowed to be floated over a special padding that is laid over the concrete slab. Longstrip engineered planks can be floated over the slab with a padding underneath. There are some new "hybrid" engineered floors that can be floated over a concrete slab and come with a click (glueless) tongue and groove locking system.


I installed over 700 square feet if Engineered Hardwood flooring at my house and I glued it down to the concrete slab. My options were to float it or glue it. I hate floating floors because they always have a little bit of a hollow sound no matter what underlayment you use.

The glue was not bad to use. It was expensive, though. I bought some that was non-toxic and I ended up spending about $450 in glue.

Here it is before I finished the quarter-round. It is Brazilian Walnut 3.5" plank. It is tongue and groove and also has a micro-beveled edge, because we wanted to be able to see individual boards and not have it look flat all the way across like laminate.

The flooring has been down for almost 2 years and it is still solid as a rock. No hollow sounds, no movement.

 

Hey close...remember that number I gave you for Armstrong...dont call them..

They recommended against directly gluing to a concrete slab.

 

I just looked on their site and they have instructions for glue-down for Bruce and Armstrong:

http://www.armstrong.com/resflram/na...icle18144.html

http://www.armstrong.com/content2/resam/files/17899.pdf

They say to use Armstrong ProConnect Professional Hardwood Flooring Adhesive.

See page 2 of the above pdf:
Concrete (Glue-Down and Floating Installations Only)
The flooring can be glued directly to concrete with a minimum compressive strength of 3000 PSI. Do not install over a concretesealer or painted concrete. If present, remove by grinding or sanding. Do not install over slick, heavily troweled or burnishedconcrete. Roughen the surface as necessary by sanding or grinding. Use an appropriate NIOSH-designated dust mask. Floating floorscan be installed over any structurally sound concrete.

 

Yea I called them and explained my flooring situation and they said not to glue it down. Perhaps it was due to the leveling compound and the asbestos tiles that were down before I ripped them up. Who knows. My turned out good so I'm happy with the floating application.

I am by no means a pro, just recently did the job.

 

Well, I don't have any concrete, and I'm not too concerned about sound deadening. We have cellulose insulation between the floors, and it does a very good job of sound deadening just from the OSB. I'm sure it will be different with the flooring down, but if floating I don't think it will be that much of an issue.

I just stopped by Home Depot, and the guy there recommended 15 mil tar roofing paper. He says that's what their installers use, plus its cheaper than any of the thinner (12 mil and under) underlayments they have for flooring...

thoughts?

I have decided to float the floor. I am doing the entire house (with the exception of kitchen and bathrooms), and it will just really simplify things...

So, unless someone can tell me a good reason not to... I will float my floors over tar paper...

 

i dont know if anybody has said this but you might wanna glue around the walls and door openings and are you putting down a vapor barrier/padding

 

The tar paper would be the vapor barrier, so yes, but isn't the idea of a floating floor to allow it all to expand/contract as moisture levels change? Gluing the edges wouldn't allow that...

 

I wonder how effective the tar paper would be as a moisture barrier. The stuff I put down was for moisture, sound, mold, etc.

Bet tar paper is a lot less expensive though and might be just as good.

 

you dont have radiant heat do you...b/c if you do for some reason then the tar paper is definatley not a good idea as your house will smell like crap b/c of it. however it is always best to do as the instructions say from that specific manufacturer. if they tell you to use a padded vapor barrier then i would get that. i have never installed tar paper under mine always an underlayment meant specifically for floating floors. they sell a few diffrent kinds at different thicknesses. since yours isn't a simple "pergo type" floating floor, you will have to glue each seam as stated by the manufacturer. however it does state to leave a 1/2" gap for expansion just make sure you are using 3/4" baseboard and not clamshell which measures right in at about 1/2". if you do decide to use clamshell then just make the gap 3/8"-1/4". also you want to make sure to push down firmly when setting your baseboard and trim before nailing it as this is what will keep your floor in "place" if you have any more questions feel free to ask. but like i said its best to do as the instructions say b/c doing otherwise most likely voids the manufactureres warranty.

 

i should have said that you need to use all those trim pieces to hold the floor down or you have to glue it because when i laid our floor we couldnt use the trim around the bathroom so it developed a gap which we had to glue down. also make sure you use padding because if there is a low spot in your floor the floating floor will make a gap that when stepped on smacks the slab underneath and it gets annoying after a while