Floating Floors
Floating installation is mostly used for all the variety of the click system floors (bamboo, engineered and laminate floors) a floating hardwood floor isn’t secured to a subfloor, doesn’t require nailing, can be removed easily, and still looks great. This is a great solution for rentals apartments/condo, offices, clinics and stores.
The floor will be laid down on a flat surface, could be concrete, plywood, linoleum or tile, an underlayment of a foam padding will be taped down from wall to wall. Once the base boards are installed they will lock and secure the flouting floors from moving or disconnecting.
There is another option to add on existing base board a quarter-round trim after the floor is down and that will save us from replacing the baseboard.
Glue Down
The glue down technique we will most likely will install engineered hard wood floors products which you glue down on top of concrete-slab or plywood-raised foundation sub floor.
The adhesive has to be a good product with good warranty.
When installing over concrete the floor has to be dry for at least 50 days.
In places were the percentage of moister is above average it is recommended to use a vapor lock glue which is a one part trowel applied, low permeability ,moister-cure, urethane adhesive with a vapor retarding membrane.
When glowing down on ply wood we must verify that the material is dry (part of the process of making ply wood involves watering the plywood out door to increase moister content and elasticity.
Nail Down
Nail-down method will apply only when solid hardwood floors are installed over plywood (if it’s covering concrete or on top of raised foundation).
It is not recommended to nail down engineered hard wood floors, the side tang might break and the inside layers of ply wood in this type of product will chip and most likely cause the floor to have a lot of squeaking sounds when stepping on the wood floor,
When nailing down the wood floor we will use a side nailer to secure most of the wood floor
And will use a face nailer on the first and last few rows where there isn’t enough space for side nailer.
