The process involves nailing the flooring directly to a wood subfloor.
Glue down vs nail down hardwood flooring.
Approximately 70 of tongue and groove floors are nailed down using the blind nailing nail down method which hides the nail holes.
Basically there are three methods used to install wood floors.
Engineered hardwood products may be fastened stapled or glued on above or below grade.
The nwfa guidelines state if adhesive is used with nailing follow wood and or adhesive manufacturer s instructions for installing plank flooring here is something to keep in mind.
Glue assist or just nail down.
Also some adhesives act as acoustic barrier and some as moisture retardant.
Solid hardwood floors are typically nailed down to a wooden subfloor on or above grade.
The glue down method is commonly used in slab construction because it allows the flooring to be attached directly to a concrete slab.
That type of installation takes longer when putting in glue down flooring because it s a more intensive process overall.
If you choose to fix your hardwood floor into position you then have the choice of either gluing your floor to the subfloor using flexible flooring adhesive to create a full surface bond or you can secretly nail your floor directly to the subfloor.
Engineered hardwood floors can be glued or nailed into position but they also have the option of being floated over an underlay.
Typically the flooring is blind nailed through the tongue so the nails are not visible after.
This mainly occurs due to poor quality flooring materials or faulty installation with no underlayment being added.
This is the most common method of installing hardwood and it s also the cheapest and fastest installation type.
Another floating floor disadvantage is that this method can be more noisy and hollow sounding than a traditional nail down or glue down type methods.
Nail down glue down and floating.
Floating wood floors are easier to install than glue down floors and can be put into place faster.
In recent years everyone is talking about using adhesive to help with fastening wide plank floors.
Nail down nailing down wood floors is the most common installation method.
It s possible to install an entire room of this type of flooring in just a day or two for most people.
Clearly it is much easier to nail down a floor than to glue it down.