Hard wood floors - Engineered vs. Solid & Click together vs. Glue Down

[look 171]

Allow solid lumber to acclimate in the home for a week before install. Make sure there is air space between bundles.

[VaSteve]

Originally Posted by rouxroux

VaSteve: Yeah, we did ours 1/2 and 1/2 to have some place to put furniture. Let it dry overnight so it does not shift. Another tip: use blue painters tape to tape each board down to the next so there is no shifting during install & drying. Saves BIG headaches if you do it this way. 4-5 strips across to the previously laid board does the trick. Oh, redbeard, the wood is actually a bit darker than in these pics (loads of sun and house lighting makes it appear light in spots.

EDIT: Bella has a special adhesive for this application...Don't skrimp!

Good tip, thanks!

[VaSteve]

James, did you ever do this project?

We gave some thought to walling off part of the basement (the idea was to keep the pets out) and re-carpeting it, but due to the cost decided again to go with the laminate flooring. The project won't be done for a few weeks, we need to clean up some of the room first. This is what I'm looking at...a 700sqft room.

I'm a little intimidated by the scope of this project. Cutting and laying floor is no big deal, it's the moving of all this stuff. Behind me, is a couple of workout machines. We're going to drag them into the unfinished area. Most of the junk in there is my wife's or stuff of the kid's she won't part with. She's going to clean it up, so it's a win-win. I'm not enamored with the thought of removing all the cat pee carpet myself, but I will be glad when it's gone.

[Hugh R]

A little late, but one thing to consider is the difference in thickness of whatever wood you put in, including underlayment, and the clearances of dishwasher, trash compactors, refrigerators and the door clearances. You don't want to put in some hardwood and find those items won't fit any more.

[VaSteve]

Holy moley. I just finished the bulk of the work. It was like 61 boxes of the stuff. Putting it down is no big deal but this room has some odd nooks and crannys and a 45 degree wall with a door in it. You can't see it in the photos. I just have made a thousand trips up and down the stairs to the garage to make a cut, redo it, over and over. Gotta wait till next week for the quarter rounds and final trim. Looks nice. Room is very cool.

[red-beard]

Sorry, I must have missed when the thread was revived. Yes, we put down engineered hardwood. We went with the Bellawood because it had actual plywood in the middle vs. MDF.

Came out great.

[911pcars]

I used a prefinished engineered wood from S&S Flooring in So. Cal. I'm sure there's an equivalent source closer to you. Real wood is classier than plastic laminate. YMMV, but it depends on the room and its purpose. Laminate is cheaper to install and will probably stand up better under kid activities and claw marks from your giant pet.

Should be available in various thicknesses and widths. Suggest thicker the better. Some brands can be resanded and refinished X times. Mine was 2" wide x 7/16" thick T&G, glued down over concrete. Packaged in random lengths. As others have suggested, make sure the concrete is flat and ambient moisture content is below the recommended threshold, otherwise longevity with flat floors will be iffy. Fitting regular furniture with wavy floors is tough. Add in the cost to install or DIY. Use the recommended materials and brands.

Some dealers will try to include damaged and/or borderline appearance pieces. The initial cost/sq. foot might be cheaper, but those pieces are unusable - scrap or firewood, and increase the project cost. Make sure the company stands behind their product. Referrals and recommendations are suggested. I too have heard of some complaints about LL, it's a franchise operation.

https://www.google.com/search?q=engineered+wood&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-USfficial&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=3dXXUa7DNaTviQKVvoGoDA&biw=1566&bih=1149&sei=49XXUanCO4aZiQKn_IGwAw#imgdii=_

Hope this helps,
Sherwood

[DanielDudley]

Originally Posted by red-beard

Sorry, I must have missed when the thread was revived. Yes, we put down engineered hardwood. We went with the Bellawood because it had actual plywood in the middle vs. MDF.

Came out great.

Yes, and you made a good choice. People forget that even with a vapor barrier concrete can be colder than the air temperature, and draw moisture out of the air to the cold surface. Plywood is always stable.

[Bugsinrugs]

I did some sub-contracting through LL during the depression. Their wood is mostly seconds. The Bella line was o.k. The extra labor to remove bad pieces and sort through the bundles is just not worth it.

[VaSteve]

Originally Posted by 911pcars

Some dealers will try to include damaged and/or borderline appearance pieces. The initial cost/sq. foot might be cheaper, but those pieces are unusable - scrap or firewood, and increase the project cost. Make sure the company stands behind their product. Referrals and recommendations are suggested. I too have heard of some complaints about LL, it's a franchise operation.

I can't speak to the real hardwood, but I had a lot of damaged pieces of laminate. I didn't realize this stuff is made in China until after we paid for it and it was in the house. The old "can't see it from my house/continent..." rule applies.

Originally Posted by Bugsinrugs

I did some sub-contracting through LL during the depression. Their wood is mostly seconds. The Bella line was o.k. The extra labor to remove bad pieces and sort through the bundles is just not worth it.

I had never worked with LL before, I always thought that's what they did. I didn't realize they had news stuff until my wife started shopping for this project. I have yet to nail down the quarter rounds...that's today's project. As well as next weekend since some of it's not in stock.

[wdfifteen]

Glad someone resurrected this thread. My post (quoted above) turned out to be wrong. The installer came out and said trying to float the floor in my kitchen would be a disaster. There is an island and too many nooks and crannies. He said floating would have been fine it the floor was an open rectangle, but it is so cut up that it would expand and contract differently in different places and buckle. So it's stitched down, 5 ply engineered hardwood. Looks great, reasonably quiet. Time will tell about how stable it is.

[Bugsinrugs]

In my townhouse I glued engineered wood to the concrete. It was cherry and did not wear well. The worst job ever is trying to get an engineered product off the concrete. Three laborers and myself with one very large and expensive powered scraper. The new wood floor is floated and serviceable. I will never again glue down a wood floor, at least for myself.

[red-beard]

Since I was going over concrete, I went ahead and bought a moisture meter. I'm glad I did. We found lots of moisture in the bedroom. The flower bed outside the window was not correct. I dug everything out, put in proper drainage and converted it to just broken marble. Most of the plants went into pots instead. If I hadn't fixed the moisture problem, I'm sure it would have been bad down the road.

[911pcars]

Originally Posted by Bugsinrugs

In my townhouse I glued engineered wood to the concrete. It was cherry and did not wear well. The worst job ever is trying to get an engineered product off the concrete. Three laborers and myself with one very large and expensive powered scraper. The new wood floor is floated and serviceable. I will never again glue down a wood floor, at least for myself.

Yes. Agree. Some woods/wood products are more durable than others. BTW, funny that many companies stress bamboo as tough and long-wearing. Reviews say it isn't.

Some say a floated floor doesn't feel like a solid floor. This bothers some owners, others not. YMMV.

Sherwood

[Bugsinrugs]

The sound of a floating floor is definitely different. If someone would rather have their wood glued down they should remember that they might have to take it up one day.

[VaSteve]

I'm not quite done...all the molding aren't in, but I can confirm the "feel" is a little different than the hardwoods upstairs. This is 12mm material with padding glued to the back. In some spots, I can feel the slightest of movement. I wanted to see what my guitar sounded like in the room. Cranked the little amp up while it was sitting on the floor and I could feel it in my feet.