Hi all. I'm new to the forums and am an experienced flooring installer. I've run into some new issues I was hoping some of you may have a trick or encountered a solution to my dilema.

I have a new construction to start in a week with 5" Columbia Ash pre-finished solid 3/4". This builder keeps convincing his customers that they don't want any trim around their cabinets and he installs the 1/8" veneer on the cabinet toe-kicks. The cabinets are already installed and left 13/16" off the floor. Now depending on how thick the last row is I thought about using a suction clamp once I got the board in place with PL under it and possibly gluing the tongues as well, since much of the glue will disperse just trying to get it into place. Sliding it back tight is my concern with no way to shim and weight it till the adhesive sets. I considered tongue gluing the last 2 rows together till they set for more surface area to suction to? I could start a row off one set of cabinets, spline it where it doglegs back to the wall, but then I'll still run into cabinets on the other side of the kitchen, as well as this wonderfully huge center island.

I also talked with the Columbia rep directly regarding their install instructions to serpentine glue the boards down...no felt and nail them as well. They recommend not using staples on their products over 3" as well. I've always used staples with no issues (knock on wood), but I forgot to ask the rep why this is. They don't say not too, just that they don't recommend it. I've only done the staple and glue once before on a 5' engineered floor that the store had cupping issues with previously. This was the salesmans idea to help prevent that. Now if we're required to do this with these floors, what would you charge extra for the time involved gluing and nailing it all down? The time saved using 5" planks is nill at this point. The store will provide the adhesive.

Any ideas or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

strap clamps!

That's kinda my thinking with the suction cup clamp...
http://www.carpettool.net/566.jpg

The problem I run into is trying to get behind the board that's under the cabinet with only a 1/16" space to manipulate the board. Can't just pry it into place or drive a screwdriver into the subfloor like I usually do to pull it back tight. Won't be able to shim it either, sorry wish I had a picture to show you. I'm trying to explain it the best I can, if all my end joints ran into the cabinets, no problem, slide the end under, pull it back tight and staple up to the cabinets face. With it running parallel it poses a whole nother conundrum.

Thanks for the reply!

Just have the builder throw on some 1/2 in MDF before the veneer goes on, problem solved.

I just tell the contractor he has to build out the toe kick even with 1/4 inch plywood. That gives you something to work with.

Good idea on firring out the toe kick veneer. I'll see the job upon delivering the product for acclimation Monday. Hopefully I can work something like that out with the builder even though they already attached the veneer supposedly (going off what designer has conveyed to me).

This same custom builder did this to me on the last home, but with the appliances. He put 3/4 plywood under the appliances and set them in place, yet he couldn't understand why to properly secure my "parallel" finish rows I had to pull the appliances....um because they finish Under them. That was with one of those Chinese Acacia 3" solid I've seen talked about here. What a nightmare just because it was supposed to be random length, yet in 950 sq. ft. of flooring there were 3 exact size lengths making it very difficult to randomize the joints and not waste too much product. That and I had to constantly check that I wasn't scratching the delicate finish as I installed it. Then I'd have to sort the bad milling to avoid high and low boards across the floor. I feel for the guys dealing with inferior material from LL etc...how do you make money when it takes twice as long to install a floor sorting through all the product? I spend enough time just looking for straight, unblemished boards without end splits, let alone sorting for milling tolerances.

Sorry to go off the beaten path a bit, guess I've had enough coffee...

Thank you for the suggestions!

I feel your pain, just finished 900 sf of a LL laminate, 3 sized planks. I hate that when they say random and it ain't. I'm feeling the need to rant about their no less than 3 inch end joint install requirement. Who the hell goes down to 3 inches? Dumb!!

The toe-kick veneer is pretty cheap. Tell the dummy if he can't get it off buy some more.