Popular Types of Wooden Floor Fitting Methods

After choosing the type of floor you want, be it solid or engineered and the type of finish most suitable for your needs and budget, comes the next stage. Now you will need to decide which fitting method most suitable for the new floor. You will find this information useful if you are installing the floor yourself or talking to a professional hardwood flooring fitter.

There Are 4 Recommended Fitting Methods:

1. Glue-down - Glue-down installation requires the use of a bonding agent or adhesives applied directly onto the subfloor and can be laid onto both concrete and wooden subfloors. If you are laying over a concrete subfloor you will first need to put down a two part epoxy damp proof membrane to ensure no damp rises up into your new floor. We recommend using Kerakoll EP21. Glue-down installation can be very stable when done properly, although it does take some time before you can actually walk on your floors. The adhesives will need to bond to the floor, and can be quite messy especially when done by a less skilled installer. Another important consideration in using glue-down installation is your choice of adhesives as some are only suitable for floors upto a small width. To avoid warranty issues we supply Kerakoll Silovil Flex, which allows you to install sold flooring with widths of up to 220mm.

2. Nail-down - Nail-down installation is the most straightforward of all solid wood floor installation methods, and is only advised if you have a wood subfloor. When installing over plywood the direction you choose to lay the planks does not matter; however, if you are going to nail down a new floor over an existing floorboards you must face the planks of the new floor in the opposite direction of the floorboards, essentially making a criss-cross pattern. This is done to ensure stability and not risk warping or buckling. Solid wood floors are thicker; hence, they need to be nailed down in order to stay in place.

3. Staple-down - Staple-down installation is very similar to nail-down only staples are used instead of nails to attach the floor to the subfloor. This method is simpler than the nail down method.

4. Floating - Floating Installation is the most do-it-yourself friendly installation method because it is the easiest and the fastest to do, and it does not require any special skills or prior experience in installing floors. An underlayment is required with a floating installation to prevent contact between the floor and the subfloor and more importantly to serve as a moisture barrier and insulation.

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