Our house is in Northern California.

We just had an engineered 7" wide plank floor put into a room that's about 21 ft by 22 ft. On one side, are two sets of six ft french doors, and also, a 65" fireplace.

The wood was glued to the concrete floor, and the wood butts right up to both the doors, and also to the cement board that the fireplace hearth rests on. All the other walls have an expansion gap of mostly 1/4" up to 1/2" gap. The short end of the boards is the one that is butting the doors and fireplace.

My flooring contractor is of the opinion that glued floors don't move, and that this will be O.K. I'd been under the impression that expansion gaps were needed all the way around, and, the wider the plank, the more necessary to have an expansion gap.

I'm having niggling worries about how much the floor might move, and possibly, push against the fireplace and the doors.

Any opinions here plse?

I have only encountered one engineered floor in my 13 years that did not require an expansion gap at all edges. this was a 5/16" engineered floor. They even said that this was not the idea installation method. The reality is that there should be one no doubt required to maintain your warranty.

And yes glued floors will still move.

Hi Barquios,

Thanks for the reply.

I'm not sure what to do now that the floor is finished. Do I just wait to see whether the floor moves and pushes something out of place?

The installation instructions that came with the wood were minimal, to say the least. Is this the 'norm' with wood floor manufacturers?

(I don't know if I can say, on the forum, who the manufacturer is.)

Mannington has in there specs, that you can butt to fixed objects.

Engineered is not solid.

You will be fine. Not to worry. Engineered doesn't shrink & swell like solid and since it is full glue, it really ain't move'n anywhere.

Thanks, AustinFloorGuy

Like Austin floorguy said....NO WORRIES you should be fine

I had to pull up a few pieces of engineered wood that I scratched.

My god was it almost impossible to pull out. I had to get a router and rout it all out and it created a big mess.

Most engineered that is glued down is never going anywhere. I have expansion places 1/4-1/2" all around the edges of my install. There are a few places like yours where it butts up to a solid piece around door moldings and a fireplace as well.

Guys,

Thank you so much for letting me know that I don't have to worry. I feel much easier in my mind about it now.

- Michelle