How to Install Engineered Hardwood Flooring: Glue-Down
- Site Preparation -
This section, is designed to answer the following:
- How to prepare your room for flooring installation?
- What is required as a subfloor?
- Can it be installed over radiant heat?
- Does it matter what width of flooring I buy?
- Are there special issues associated with a new house?
For nail-down, follow the instructions
for installing a classic 3/4" solid wood floor. These
instructions are not meant to replace a professional installer,
but rather to help our customers understand the process and
guide, those that wish to install the flooring themselves.
Please read carefully all the information included with your
flooring purchase, and follow the manufacturers recommendations!
Step 1. Preparation.
What subfloor is considered adequate?
Plywood: As with standard 3/4"
nail down flooring, The National Hardwood Flooring Association
recommends a minimum of 5/8" tongue and groove plywood as
a base. Aspenite or any other particle board product is not
considered to be suitable substitute.
If you are very fanatical you may choose to add a layer of
1/4" plywood on top to cross laminate over the seems.
In installations where the edges of the original subfloor
are seen to bridge at the seams, the extra layer of 1/4"
ply helps to even out the hills and valleys that can show
through the relatively malleable 3/8" flooring.
Concrete: Many of these products
can and are designed to be glued down to a concrete base.
Check with the individual manufacture for guidance, and follow
specific instructions for moisture barriers etc.
Mirage, will warranty an engineered wood floor, glued to
a concrete slab, as long as there are NOT any related moisture
problems in the concrete.
Should I do anything to the subfloor before
I install my MIRAGE flooring?
- subfloors must be tested to see how level they are. Your
floor must be flat to within 3/16" in 10 feet. Sand high
spots with a floor sander, and fill low spots with an appropriate
floor leveler (make sure it is given time to properly dry).
- All old flooring must be removed, if it does not provide
a solid gluing surface (or a new subfloor installed over
top)
- the prepared surface must be clean for good glue adhesion.
Wood Subfloors: It is essential
that a wood subfloor be screwed down every 6" to the underlying
floor joists. Once that has been completed, although it may
seem kind of stupid, it is a good idea to jump around on every
corner of the floor, to locate any remaining squeaks.
Add additional screws and reblock the floor from underneath
in those areas that persist in squeaking. Don't let anyone
convince you that squeaking can be solved by nailing or gluing
a new floor on top. At that point, it is usually too late
to solve the problem!
Concrete Floors: A concrete
floor must be free of grease, oil or dust. If it has been
coated or painted, and you wish to glue your flooring directly
onto the concrete, you may have to wash it with an acid to
etch the concrete, prior to installation. This will improve
the quality of adhesion, between the concrete, glue and floor.
Ask your installer for advice!
All cement floors must be properly dried (typically 60 to
90 days old for new concrete) before considering any floor
installation.
Test for moisture! Tape a 15"
square of clear polyethylene plastic to the concrete slap
with moisture resistance tape, sealing the plastic around
all four sides. Leave it for 24-48 hours. If no condensation
collects under the film, then the slab is probably dry enough
to install your floor. Test a number of different locations
around the room and test it in the damp part of the year.
Use heat and fans to speed drying if necessary, on a new
slab. If this is an older home and moisture problems are present,
DO NOT install wood flooring. The glue will not hold in most
cases and the moisture will get into the wood and cause all
kinds of problems
Below Grade vs At Grade Concrete Slabs
When a cement slab is located at ground level (at grade),
you don't usually run into problems with moisture, once the
slab has cured properly, and can easily glue this type of
wood flooring directly onto the concrete. BUT, with the traditional
basement floor, that is lower than the surrounding land (below
grade), drainage around the house becomes a key issue in determining
whether you will have moisture issues.
A "wet basement" can exist one time of the year and not another,
or "one year" and not the next..... so be sure that you are
comfortable in saying you DON'T have moisture problems year
round before you invest any dollars in any kind of wood floor.
Plywood laid over concrete on below
grade applications: If you wish to install a subfloor,
over a concrete base, for insulation or to address minor moisture
issues, please see these web sites from Industry Associations:
Can I install an Mirage engineered flooring
over radiant heat?
Yes, its construction with a plywood base and a layer of
solid wood, laminated on the surface makes the product more
dimensionally stable (relative to a solid wood floor). It
can withstand minor fluctuations in temperature, caused by
an infloor heating system. It is a great choice!
Recommendation:
- Narrower plank flooring will always be more stable then
its wider cousin, thus avoid wider planks when possible.
- Make sure your radiant heat system has been operating
for a number of days prior to installing your floor, so
any residual moisture is removed.
- check the moisture as suggested above.
The fact that it can be glued down, gives one a degree of
comfort in not worrying about putting a nail through one of
your pipes during installation..... but yet still ending up
with a floor that looks exactly like a traditional 3/4" solid
wood floor.
There are many different methods of installing radiant heat
systems, both for new homes and to retrofit an older home.
This is beyond the scope of this article, but let me say this:
- Most important is to have a system that works on water
volume and low temperature (most new systems).
- Low operating temperatures, go a long ways not to shock
your floor and cause any buckling or cupping.
- Systems with external thermometers help to maintain a
steady even water temperature with limited radical movement,even
though the external temperature may fluctuate. Look for
this feature.
For more information try:
I'm installing this flooring in a new house,
are there any special issues here?
Follow the advice for a traditional wood floor, get your
house to a reasonable humidity (ie under 55%). Although Mirage
engineered floor is more dimensionally stable, it is still
made from natural wood fibres and will react to excessively
high or low moisture levels.
New homes, at the initial construction phase tend to have
high moisture content from drying concrete foundations and
new paint. Buy a hygrometer and for a few bucks monitor the
moisture and protect your flooring investment.
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