As far as I know, it's a lot of work. You need to build up the slab with wood slats to give yourself a place to nail the hardwood down. Given the thickness of hardwood + the pseudo 'built-up' subfloor, your installed height can present problems (at door casings and at junctions where wood meets other flooring).

This is where engineered flooring has some advantages. You can float the slab out with compound and then install via one of 2 methods: glue down or floating.

Guys,
You can lay real hardwood on a slab, you just have to be very careful and make sure the product is designed to do it. Bruce, DBM, and a few others make solid hardwoods that can be glued directly to a concrete slab in thicknesses up to 3/4". Would I ever glue a wood floor down? Nope, the glue goes everywhere you don't want it to, it isn't fun at all. I would also do a moisture test on the slab before doing this--you don't want the floor to come un-glued in 6 months--I have seen this. Moisture test is easy, tape a 6"x6" sheet of plastic to the floor (bare concrete) for 24 to 36 hours and see if you get a dark spot in the concrete. I would suggest finding a flooring expert (it can be hard at HD and Lowe's) and talking to them about your different options--every store should have one person that knows all of this. I was lucky and had 3 local legends to teach me all this stuff--between them they had 120+ years experience--sadly they were replaced by inexperienced idiots who make $9 hour versus their $30+, one reason for me leaving.

My family was in the construction business for many years. Our home was built in 1900 with real oak floors (2" by 8" by 16' hardwood sub floor, with 1" old growth oak flooring over it), we built several homes for relatives and another for us using the best oak or maple or other fancy hardwood, eg kingswood) There are NO better hardwood floors than these were. They could be refinished any number of times, repaired easily. ALL of these homes ended up with wall to wall carpet. Why? because hardwood is hard. Cold, scratches. You can't live on it, eg you must take off your shoes, be careful not to slide the furniture, never drop something hard, always wipe up any spill, immediately, even if you are not at home!!!. That’s the facts for at least 15 families and a hundred years of service.

All enginered woods are non repairable, ie you must rip up and replace the injured portion. They do not wear well. We currently have predistressed engineered pecan wood floors in out kitchen. $14 per square foot. My shoes have left scratch marks where I sit. Can't be fixed. Not covered by warrenty. Typical.

Here are the floors I'll be putting down in a couple months:

7/8" maple planks... 10" wide, 8- 14' long. Came from a 200 yr old church.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1147183284.jpg

$2.50 / sq ft !!!

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1147183387.jpg

It's all perspective. I'll never, ever, go back to carpet. Carpets trap pounds of stuff each year - just pull up some old (5+ year) carpeting to get an idea. I think tile/concrete floors are cold & hard but not hardwood. You also have to understand that wood will wear - some more than others. We have two young kids and would never have considered a fine finished (smooth & glossy) floor. We went with a hand scraped pecan floor that begins life with some character. Otherwise learn to enjoy walking around barefoot or with socks and throw some felt pads under the furniture.

True story - a few months after I was done with the install my wife came downstairs to find my daughters friend (6 years old) actively engaged in digging/kicking a hole in the wood with the heal or her cinderella slipper. :mad: After a near heart attack she broke out the color matching stain pen and honestly...we only see the gouges if we look for them. The floor is aging and taking on character everyday.

If you're not into that sort of thing then the next best is a good porcelin tile or travertine (sealed). However if I went that route I'd definitely install heated underlayments for the main walkways, kitchen, bathrooms, etc...

Anything but carpet ;)

+1

First order of business in our vacation home was to pull every inch of the nasty carpet (we even had it dry cleaned) and put down wood flooring.

Our home in Florida? We were in horror when we pulled the PO's floor up ans saw all the urine stains from her stupid lap dogs on the cement. We have wood floor in all the bedrooms and Tile in all the living area.

If you want an ice skating rink style wood floor good luck. We did the same the threw down rustic 1 off flooring with some character. We love the look and welcome wear.

Our home in Florida had all carpet when we had it built, with the sand,grit and humidity of Florida it didn't take long for it to look like crap. I installed ceramic floor tile in half the house, this covers front entrance,family room,kitchen,living room and the main hallways.In one guestroom I installed Bruce parquet wood floor, this is the type that has a waterproof liner,foam and glue pre installed it sticks to the concrete. It installed easily and 2 years later looks as good as the day installed. In another bedroom we tried laminate flooring, it is a light oak with a matte finish and this floor also looks great,cleans easily and doesn't sound bad. In my opinion both floors have merit and are a upgrade from carpet but I am not in a cold climate, these floors would be cold on the feet in a nothern climate.

I just finished floating real hardwood (6" width) over a slab in my basement. I've done the same in my rental units and will continue doing so. Love the look the feel and it wears better than carpet. In my lower end units I use laminate for its durability.

I buy all my flooring at auction at greatly reduced prices off retail. There is no gtee however, I've noticed that many brands have come and gone over the past 15 years and a gtee is probably worthless anyway. Even if I was to contemplate flooring in a unit that I was going to sell in less than 2 years I would still do at least laminate. It enhances the space and will get you more $ than carpet when it comes time to sell.

I have carpet in some older units and have been replacing it with laminate or hardwood as the opportunity presents itself. I usually get laminate @25-50 cents PSF and hardwood/engineered at 1.50-3.00 PSF. At these prices, why would I buy carpet? My installed cost is only slightly higher than carpet but I get at least 5 times the life and my suites look alot better than my competition.

Details, jorian. Is the auction local? What is gtee?

Do you use floating installation for all floors? Do you need to prep your slabs?

I just paid a carpet cleaner $90 to clean 3 bedrooms. The carpet was only 15 months old and the moron tenants really put it to the test. If I could get laminate at 50 cents/SF, I'd be all over that. Carpet and tenants just do not mix.
jurgen

Jurgen,

Gtee = guarantee. Sorry, as my post count grows I seem to be getting lazier. My mom is a retired english teacher and would surely be peeved if she read these.

I get my flooring from www.ableauctions.ca. They are local to me and seem to have a flooring auction almost every week. Not sure of your location, I'm in Vancouver, BC. So I pay CDN $ as well! Sometimes things go for retail or more but, if your patient you can score. I just put 6" x 72" x 1/2" Russian maple in my own basement for $1.75 PSF. This includes a vapor barrier and foam underlay. I did it myself over about 3 days. At the same auction I got the maple, a builder that I see often picked up about 10K SF of bamboo for .50 PSF. There were several other good deals that day and if I have the storage I usually buy for the future. About 5 years ago I bought No.1 quality 'faux cork' laminate for .60 PSF including underlay. I put it in 7-8 low end suites and it still looks brand new. The stuff wears like iron.

Vancouver does not get too cold or too hot so the flooring is comfortable underfoot and has not come apart at the seams.

I always use the floating installation except radiant heated floors. I prepare the slab by repairing any holes, removing high spots and using thinset mortar to level out variances. In lightly travelled areas I sometimes just double up the foam if there is a low spot.

I'm sure if you google flooring auction you'll find something local. Most of the stuff I buy has Canadian markings but I found out it is almost always from China.