| Learning how to install hardwood flooring is important for a long-lasting floor that won’t cause you problems. Your big question right now probably is who is handling installing hardwood flooring in your home or office. Are you installing wood flooring on top of concrete or vinyl flooring, adjacent to carpet, or directly to a plywood or OSB sub-floor? Will you get fancy by installing herringbone hardwood flooring, or stay simple and go in conventional straight lines? |
Installing hardwood flooring can be a cinch, or it can be a nightmare, depending on the sub-floor you are working with and the pattern you want to create. Do you do it yourself or hire it done?
There are three general methods installing hardwood flooring in your home.
- Floating
- Gluing
- Nailing
When it comes to choosing the best installation method, your sub-flooring should be taken into consideration to narrow down your installation options. If you have plywood sub-floors you can choose any installation method, but if your sub-floors are concrete, floating or gluing are advised. One trick of having a professional looking job is to start at a focal point, like a fireplace hearth and work from there. Once you establish your starting point, snap a chalk line so you have a straight reference point.
You can install wood flooring on concrete with proper care. Installing hardwood on top of vinyl or linoleum flooring may not take any preparation, other than starting with a clean surface. Installing hardwood flooring to carpet will often require a reducer strip to account for the different thicknesses.
Patterns for wood floor installations can be lots of fun. You could consider installing herringbone hardwood flooring pattern. Or think about a diamond shape. Maybe using different colors of wood can create a pattern like a throw rug with one color of wood acting as the border around the simulated rug. There are so many ways you can create interest with your hardwood floor installation.
Let’s look in detail at the different installation methods.
Floating:
The floating method of installing hardwood flooring has become very popular in recent years. Floating is a very stable installation method since it’s not attached to the sub-floor. It floats above it, allowing for the natural expansion and contraction of a natural product. Unlike other installation methods where each plank or strip is installed individually directly to the sub-floor, a floating installation involves gluing or clicking the boards together.
This method is very common with engineered and laminate hardwood flooring. Before beginning your floating hardwood floor installation decide if you want an underlayment (made of foam, plastic, or cork) to help insulate noise transmission. If you want that muffling, then the underlayment must be put down first. The wood flooring is then laid on top of the underlayment. The glue used along the edges can be water-based or petroleum-based, and it is applied to the groove of the plank and the boards are then tapped together using what is known as a tapping block. Excess glue is wiped off with a damp cloth. Repeat the process until the room is complete. That’s it!
The clicking method (or CLIC) literally involved clicking the tongue and groove edges together for each board you lay. it’s faster and cleaner because you don’t have to take the step of applying glue, and then wiping excess off the surface.
The floating installation is an excellent do-it-yourself method and someone with little or no experience can get great results.
Glue Down:
You opt for a glue down installation primarily when installing an engineered strip or plank floor over a concrete sub-floor. Glue down installations can be very stable once properly installed. The glue down method can be used with plywood sub-floors, making the wood floor quieter than with either floating or staple down floors because there is less creaking.
Before installing using the glue down method for your wood floor, you need to ensure that your sub-floor is level. If your sub-floor isn’t level, you can have serious problems such as popping because of improper bonding due to insufficient contact between the sub-floor and wood plank. If your sub-floor is uneven you will need to use a leveling compound before installation. Once the sub-floor is level, you can proceed with gluing your flooring using the manufacturer’s recommended adhesive. As the adhesive dries it shrinks, pulling your wood floor tighter to the sub-floor and giving a stronger attachment.
Installing glue down hardwood flooring on concrete takes care. Make sure the concrete is dry and not wicking moisture from the ground to your wood, causing it to warp. Check the levelness of the concrete and fix areas that aren’t level and smooth. Consider an underlayment to help insulate against cold temperatures.
Glue down installations are recommended for those who have experience working with the preparations methods that are described above. Be careful of fumes when working in an enclosed area too.
Nail Down:
Nail down installations are used when installing solid and engineered wood flooring. Solid wood flooring expands and contracts more than engineered and laminate flooring, so take care to acclimate the wood to your home’s interior before starting the installation.
Longer pieces should always be placed at entries and doorways if you are working with random lengths and the shorter pieces should be integrated throughout the floor. Nail down installations require that you place spacers around the perimeter of the room to allow the floor to expand and contract. When positioning your boards the groove side should be against the wall. Nails should go through the face of the boards and nails should be long enough to penetrate the sub floor by at least 1 inch.
Nail down installations will require some basic carpentry skills and specialized tools such as a floor nailer, miter and jamb saws. This method of hardwood flooring installation is not recommended as a do-it-yourself project.
Stapling, a variation of Nailing:
Staple installations have become very popular and is mainly used with engineered wood flooring. The staple down method is used over plywood or wood sub-floors. Certain woods may require specific staple sizes to ensure a secure installation; your manufacturer can give you this information.
Staple down installations are recommended for those with a moderate amount of skill using power tools. When stapling hardwood flooring, a special stapler is required. This can be rented from most equipment rental stores
Now that you know the installation methods available, you will be able to choose which is best for your hardwood flooring installation. Will you tackle the project, or hire it done?
Hi FloorLady
We opted for the bamboo in the kitchen but now I was wondering if its ok or do we even need to install the bamboo under the stove?
Hi Selena,
Yes, you need to install the bamboo under your appliances.
You need to really take care in shopping bamboo flooring – I’ve heard from lots of consumers who have had problems with splitting, cracking, etc. I’m not entirely convinced that it’s the fault of the owners or installers and really think that you must watch out for bad batches. Make sure you get a very good warranty on the flooring product and that you follow the warranty in regards to who/how it is installed.
What should we look for as far as a bad batch of bamboo flooring? The bamboo is 5/8 thick 3 3/4 wide it has a lifetime structural integrity and 25 yr finish warrenty.
In general, you can’t really tell if it’s a bad batch until after you’ve installed it. Keep in mind that you should read over the warranty and install the flooring in such a manner so that the warranty isn’t violated – just in case a problem with the flooring should crop up down the road.
I have a floating engineered flooring that I am installing over concrete. I will be putting a vapor barrier down but my question is, with living here in Florida, is it alright to make this a floating floor and still glue the boards together at the click grove side? I have heard 2 different opinions on this. One said it will make it more stable/solid and the other said that it can create buckling since it is. Any help will help alot.
Hi Dennis,
So long as you acclimate your flooring first you should be fine with gluing. Living in Florida, I would assume it’s always pretty humid, right? Acclimating your flooring product first is very important – just lay out the boxes of flooring on the floor for at least a week – this ensures that it is adapted to the temperature and humidity of the room before you ever install it. It is also important to follow manufacturer’s installation directions and leave a gap where the floor meets the wall (which can be covered with trim). This gives the flooring the extra room needed for when it expands due to fluctuations in humidity & temperature when it happens. Making sure that it has room to expand will also help to prevent buckling. Good luck!
I live in San Antonio TX. Weather to the extreme, however, we have enclosed our garage and the laundry room/office area is in need of new flooring. Previous was commercial grade carpet w/padding. I would like to use tile or bamboo click-type flooring from Costco. If the garage floor does not have a vapor barrier, is it safe to use either of those floor coverings? The room is climate controlled.
Thanks!
INELDA
Hello Inelda,
I would presume that you’ve had no moisture issues since it sounds like you’ve had the carpeting for quite sometime and haven’t written anything to the contrary. It sounds like you don’t have any moisture issues (based upon the fact you haven’t mentioned that you have!), so I would presume that either choice should be ok.
Hi Flooring Lady. You have a great site.
We are having dark maple flooring installed in a 1st floor home office room with the usual plywood subfloor. We have not had any experience with this before and want to know what to expect and have a few questions.
1) I’ve heard people say to make sure they put down a felt underlayment. What is this for and is it a necessity?
2) how would an installer compensate for any uneven surface before installing? The sub floor appears level but not all the plywood panels does meet up perfectly flat everywhere and I’m afraid it would result in raised boards once installed.
3) I do not believe the installers being used by this store are union nor FIC certified. Should I be concerned?! Should all installers be certified or is this not typical?
The store owner says he’s been using the same crew for years with no complaints.
4) This install is replacing carpeting. We’ve removed the old carpet but do the installers typically do that and remove the old tak strip, base boards and any other prep or do we need to do more prep before they arrive?
Thanks.
Nick Basso
Augusta, Mo.
Hi Nick, I’ll try to answer your questions in order. 1.) The felt underlayment helps to muffle footsteps that could be heard downstairs. It’s also good for helping any minor variances in subfloor height. 2.)see number 1 – extra pieces of felt can be used if needed. 3.) If the store owner has a good reputation while using this crew for years, then chances are you’re ok. If you’re not satisfied, it falls back on the store owner. 4.) It just depends. The best thing to do is ask the store owner if the price included removal of the old carpeting.
Is it possible to instal 5/8″ oak hard wood and use the glue down method over existing linoleum? I worry about a couple of rips in the linoleum and if I would get “pops” from the uneven existing linoleum?
Thanks!
Yes you can, though you’re going to get a better end result if you take up the lino first. I’m not sure how large the ‘rips’ are and because of that I can’t tell you if you’d ‘pops’, but you may be able to fill them in with a grout material first to eliminate that worry. You could even cut out those areas if necessary and then apply grout.
We have a large great room that we are installing engineered wood flooring on. We had always planned on floating the floor but an installer who came out today to give us a quote said that the area is too big to float and that buckling is more apt to occur. I have never heard that floating a floor has size limits. OUr room is about 25 x 30. Can we float it? Or do they want to make more money by glueing it?
Hi Debbie,
I don’t know why buckling would be a problem so long as there were enough expansion space left around the edges. Have you already picked out the flooring? I’d suggest giving the manufacturers a call.
Hi Debbie
I read your excellent article but I am still unclear about the floating floor. I have solid tongue and groove walnut flooring. I was going to nail this down to my plywood sub-floor. However, I have glue left over from my floating bamboo floor downstairs. Can I glue (float) this walnut floor or must it be nailed? Thanks.
Hi Jody,
It depends on what installation methods the manufacturer suggests. Most can be glued at the tongue & groove and even glued down. Have you given any thought to refinishing your original walnut floor?
Hi
I like the “flooring lady” heading….
We are installing solid oak upstairs. in a 2 storey house. We jsut took carpet out off the room that is over the garage. THe plywood is complete covered with pastic sheeting. My guess as a vapour barrier (it’s cold in canada). Should I leave the plastic and isntall ontop? Also do I need the underlay paper on top of the plastic if I am to keep it?
Thanks so much
Hi Sabine,
It wouldn’t hurt to keep the plastic – I’m sure it was put there as a vapor barrier since the room is over the garage. Another good idea would be laying cork tiles before your flooring. Usually this is done on a second story to muffle the sound of footsteps and such, but in this case it would add a little insulation.
Can I install Cumaru 4″ Wide x 3/4″ Solid Hardwood floors over old 5.6″ wide plank sub-floor? The house was built in th 50’s hence they did not use plywood as a subfloor. Please advise. Thanks!
Hi Gene,
So long as the subfloor is still in good shape, there shouldn’t be a problem.