Glue Or Nail Down Wood Floor

Read more about the types of hardwood flooring.

Glue or nail down wood floor.

Boards adhere well to the rough surface of the concrete subfloor and therefore lead to less gaps or planks lifting and buckling. In this application method the glue takes the place of your subfloor nail and glue of the previous method. Also some adhesives act as acoustic barrier and some as moisture retardant. Nail down installation should be seriously considered by home owners and discussed with your potential installation contractors since it has been an approved method in wood floor trade for centuries.

To learn more about floating installation or glue down installation see our other post part 1 part 3. With a nail down engineered hardwood floor follow the same subfloor preparation steps as above including underlayment and laying spacers around the room s perimeter to maintain the manufacturer s recommended expansion gap. In recent years everyone is talking about using adhesive to help with fastening wide plank floors. While some exceptions may exist we recommend gluing only engineered hardwood products.

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. Clearly it is much easier to nail down a floor than to glue it down. Glue down as an installation method for engineered and solid wood floors involves using a bonding agent adhesive or glue that you put directly on to your subfloor before laying your floor. The glue down method of engineered wood flooring installation is typically the most common and creates a highly stable floor.

The adhesive approach is generally used when installing over concrete. When using the glue down method the hardwood is adhered to the subfloor or to a moisture barrier installed directly on the subfloor using a strong adhesive. Adhesives work by creating a bond between the subfloor and the wood flooring through a chemical reaction process. Glue down engineered flooring all grades wood or cement subfloor.

This installation method is identical to staple down only the fastener and fastening tool differ. A full glue down installation is quite different from blind nail and glue. Glue assist or just nail down. The glue down method involves using adhesives to adhere the hardwood flooring to the subfloor.

The simplest way to visualize this process is to picture a paint being applied to a wall as the glue is applied to the subfloor before the boards are set in place.