Should You Glue Hardwood Floors

The new plywood subfloor and then the new hardwood floor.

Should you glue hardwood floors. If you want some metal fastening at least use wood screws they won t be pulled out. If installing glue down hardwood flooring in a new house completely close the building in with all outside doors and windows in place. When is glue down installation of hardwood floors the best choice.

Solid hardwood flooring are for nail down installations only with the exceptions of a few manufacturers that state you can direct glue down 5 16 inch thick solid hardwood flooring such as the bruce natural choice. All wet work such as concrete masonry framing members drywall paint etc should be thoroughly dry. This can reduce the installation costs for this type of flooring a bit though they are comparable to one another when you account for the cost of glue and increased labor costs.

Clearly it is much easier to nail down a floor than to glue it down. Gluing my hardwood floor down to be able to glue your hardwood floor down the subfloor must be a solid and sound structure for example concrete or wooden floor boards. The glue down method of engineered wood flooring installation is typically the most common and creates a highly stable floor.

Glue down hardwood flooring also doesn t require a vapor barrier because the glue itself acts as the barrier. Boards adhere well to the rough surface of the concrete subfloor and therefore lead to less gaps or planks lifting and buckling. When working on a clean concrete subfloor the glue down method is often the go to choice.

Nailing hardwood floors is almost always useless because if the glue is intact it will hold the planks but if it fails then nails won t help stepping onto different parts of a plank that it not perfectly glued will make the plank bend slightly and pull the nails out and it gets loose over a course of month. Always start with the longest wall in the room ensuring you leave the correct expansion gap. Gluing a floor down with either the glue assist method or full trowel glue method will not stop a floor from cupping or crowning only well maintained moisture control above and below will do that.

Also some adhesives act as acoustic barrier and some as moisture retardant. The wall coverings and painting should be completed before the installation of the hardwood flooring. On a plywood subfloor you may float glue or nail down your new wood floor.