Flooring Report Options
Flooring Report Options Abound In Wood Floor Installation When most people think about installing wood floors, they typically envision a hammer, nails and a lot of backbreaking work. The reality, however, is that there are several options available for installing wood floors: nail down, glue down and floating. Nail Down Nailing down wood floors is the most common installation method. The process involves nailing or stapling the wood flooring material directly to a wood subfloor. Typically, the flooring is installed by blind nailing fasteners through the tongue of the floor boards, into the wooden subfloor. In this way, the fasteners are not visible after the flooring is installed. In most cases, as the material fills the room, it will be necessary to face nail the first and last rows. This installation method works for both solid and engineered wood flooring material, but only for wood subfloors. When nailing/stapling down a wood floor, it is important to following nailing/stapling 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. by ED KORCZAK Executive Director National Wood Flooring Association Chesterfield, Mo. Glue Down 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 several types of wood flooring adhesives available on the market today. They include water-based adhesives, solvent-based adhesives, hybrid 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, Please turn to page 42 18 Hardwoods Have Workability
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