I have a client who’s house is on a slab, rare here in the Chicago burbs, and they want to put in wood floors. Obviously, installing 3/4″ thick is a problem as I have to add a substrate and this results in large transitions to other floors and effectively lowers the ceiling. I have seen the engineered, floating, lock together flooring and am wondering if anyone has any experience with this type of product. I have seen the Schon product at LumberLiquidators. Are there any other product s out there that are recommended?
Thanks,
Eric
Replies
Greetings kingfisher,
This post, in response to your question, will bump the thread through the 'recent discussion' listing again which will increase it's viewing.
Perhaps it will catch someone's attention that can help you with advice.
Cheers
Eric,
let's run this thru one more time.
bump
You can do floating with little to no skill but it'll sound cheap regardless of what's used for pad/vapor barrier (contrary to what they advertise). I'd go with the glue downs if possible. The glue down still won't sound/feel like a 3/4" T&G floor but the feel is much better than the floaters. The floaters have a better look in smaller rooms where the long views will be interupted by furniture, walls, etc. Try to avoid the long oblique views that will let the light show how cheap the surface really looks.
Don't know much about that particular brand. I do know about flooring over concrete though. The biggest issue I'd be concerned with is putting any floor "on" the concrete wood or engineered wood. Aside from moisture issues it's important to consider cold floors especially in a northern climate. Once I put engineered wood over concrete and I built an insulated subfloor which added an additional 1.25" over the concrete. Which was okay but I still felt the floor was pretty cold in the winter.
I recenly did an install using a product called Delta FL. It's a dimpled plastic membrane that goes down over concrete. In the case of engineered wood you can lay the floor right over it.
The Delta product sounds intriguing. One question, did the floor you did have that hollow sound that you get with floating laminates and, from what john7q says, the floating engineered products. This sound issue is my biggest concerns as I think this really makes the finished product seem cheap.Eric
Gene has mentioned a product that consists of a cushion underlayment sheet like that used with floating floors.But it has slot where you put daps of ahesive so that it has it is not as hard as one directly glued to the slab, but does not have the hollow sound of a floating floor..
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A-holes. Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.
I've found he "hollow sound" to be hard to resolve even if you install a subfloor. Engineered flooring "floats" and that is where the noise issue arises. I once did an engineered floor that I nailed down to try to mitigate that floating hollow sound. Big mistake. I had gaps open up as the plywood underneath expanded and contracted with the seasons
I am considering a similar setup, did you still have to put down a VB or cushion on top of the DL or just straight on top. According to the Man. that is what they suggest, floating directly on top that is.
Frank
We were the winners, cause we didnt know we could fail....
Waylon...
"I was born in the darkest ignorance, and my spiritual master opened my eyes with the torch of knowledge. I offer my respectful obeisances unto him."
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The last floor I did over Delta FL I still laid a 3/4" subfloor down, then the finish floo. Which was more a matter of personal preference. The directions for Delta Fl say you can lay the floor directly on top of their product. I can't remember though if they reccomend you put down the foam membrane though. Check out their website they have a full set of directions there.
I recently had an "engineered" (why do so many people seem to have such a hangup over using the more accurate word: "fake"?) floating, lock-together "wood" floor installed in an office, waiting area, and adjacent hallway, and although my experience time has been short, I haven't noticed any kind of "hollow" sound alluded to--or any sound at all, for that matter.
The product, "Alloc" came from the big-box store that offers "Lowe prices" and was installed through them. Alloc is different from the others I looked at in that the pieces are locked together by means of a double-edged aluminum spline with "teeth" that really seem to grab the adjacent sections and hold them together tightly. There is an integral 1/16" dense-foam backer on each piece (I suspect to compensate for minute variations from a "perfectly flat" concrete floor) and the whole thing is laid over a vapor barrier.
The installed price and quality of the workmanship and materials was such that I'm going to go ahead & have a similar treatment done in the dining area, where I'll add reclaimed teak wainscoting.
Hope this helps!
"I recently had an "engineered" (why do so many people seem to have such a hangup over using the more accurate word: "fake"?) floating, lock-together "wood" floor installed in an office, waiting area, and adjacent hallway, and although my experience time has been short, I haven't noticed any kind of "hollow" sound alluded to--or any sound at all, for that matter."Because if it is a Engineered flooring it the wear surface is wood. The other layers are wood or sometimes mdf.Alloc makes both engineer and laminate flooring..
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A-holes. Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.
I'm thinking that a number of folks in Rushford MN recently had experience with floating engineered floors.