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Installation Basically, there are three methods commonly used to install wood floors: Nail down, glue down and floating. The process involves nailing, or stapling, the wood flooring material directly to a wood subfloor. Typically, the flooring is installed by blind nailing the material through the tongue of the floor boards, into the wooden subfloor. In this way, the nails are not visible after the flooring is installed. Inmost cases, as the material fills the room, it will be necessary to face nail the last few boards as the nail gun or staple gun cannot accommodate the last few rows of material. This installation method works for both solid and engineered wood flooring material, but only for wood subfloors.
When nailing down a wood floor, it is important to follow nailing schedules to ensure a quality installation. The National Wood Flooring Association Hardwood Flooring Installation: Guidelines recommends fasteners be spaced eight to ten inches apart for solid strip and plank flooring, and four to .eight inches apart for engineered strip and plank flooring. Using fewer fasteners than recommended could result in cracks or squeaks in the floor, while using more fasteners than recommended could result in splitting the tongue. The glue down installation method involves using adhesive to adhere the flooring material directly to the subfloor, or to a moisture barrier installed directly on the subfloor. The adhesives work by creating a bond between the subfloor and the wood flooring through a chemical reaction process. While all adhesives work on the same principle of changing chemically from a viscose liquid to a solid, they differ in the carrying agents or catalysts that activate them based on the chemical properties of the adhesive.
There are three types of wood flooring adhesives available on the market today. They include water-based adhesives, solvent based adhesives, and moisture-curing urethane adhesives. Because each of these types has different application and performance characteristics, you will need to do your research to find the product that will best fit your installation needs. Some considerations that will have an impact upon which adhesive you ultimately choose for your installation are ease of product use, product performance span, and VOC regulations in the area where the installation will take place. Before beginning a glue down floor installation, it is important to make sure that the subfloor material is dry and level. The final wood flooring installation method is floating, a process that was created by a wood flooring manufacturer in Sweden more than 60 years ago. Using this installation method, the flooring material is neither nailed nor glued to the subfloor, but floated above it. The flooring material, usually engineered, is either glued or clipped to itself, both tongue to groove, and at end joints. This gives the floor stability, without actually fastening it to the suhfloor material beneath it. This type of installation is ideal over existing flooring marial, such as vinyl, ceramic or laminates which can be difficult to remove.
Before beginning a floating floor installation, it is important to make sure that the subfloor material is dry and level. If you find any high spots or low spots, you will need to make them level before installation begins to ensure the long-term performance of the floor. In addition, the use of a moisture barrier underlayment will decrease any hollow sounding areas that could occur with this installation method. Make sure that the underlayment used wraps Copyright © Reliant Arms Ltd.
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