Two things:

1. So now I’m being told that a floor glued down to a floated (perfectly level/flat) concrete slab is more stable than a floated floor on the same perfectly prepared sub floor.

Why? Or how is that?

2. Also, went to two separate wood floor retailers that had many floor displays either glued or floated on their shop concrete slabs.

The floated wood floors were very noise and mushy to walk on. Is this normal with floated wood floors?

Just didn’t seem right to me. It was a very disappointing experience being able to determine the difference between floating and glued within a single foot step.

Steve,

I am not sure of what you mean by a floated concrete slab.

My order of preference in doing an install is this:

Blind nail to subfloor sandwiched between a moisture barrier and felt that has been fastened to the concrete slab. This gives a tradition feel and provides the most stable instillation. Produces minimal noise but nothing on the magnitude of a floated floor. The drawback to this form of installation is that it raises the overall height profile of the floor. If you have steel entry doors it can present a problem that you have to be creative to address.

Glue down (only engineered or bamboo) using urethane adhesive and a moisture barrier product like Bostik MVP. This produces a very solid feeling floor that has little to no give in it. It creates a different sound but is for the most part the quietest installations. The drawback is most installers charge a premium to do this work as it is time consuming a messy. As well the biggest drawback of all is that you cannot glue solids to an on-grade slab.

Floating floors are glued in their in the tongue and groove and are laid over a moisture barrier and sound barrier. They are the noisiest of the three insulations. Further they are difficult to sand and refinish and are the most prone to board separation. They are the cheapest labor wise. When I meet a new client I ask them are you looking for the right price or the right floor. If they are looking for the right price, I usually show them an inexpensive engineered wood that is competitive with laminates and explain to them that this wood will be floated. I show them a floated floor and let them walk on it so that they know exactly what to expect as far as noise from this installation. Some are unaffected by it and some decide that it is too much sound for their tastes. Each person is different. If you do not like the sound of floated floors in the beginning do not get them. As the months go by the sound will resonate in your head ever time someone walks on the floor. If the sound bothers you look to either nail or glue down floors. If it does not bother you then it is a good way to save money on flooring as it is less involved to install a floating floor.

As for your question on whether it was normal to here a floating floor the answer is yes to an extent. It really depends on the underlayment they used as to how loud it is going to be. If they did not use an underlayment then it will be excessively noisy.

Pretty much normal.


Gluedown is what I always suggest.

Could also be the installation. I've seen showrooms put together in a hurry with no attention to a flat subfloor which does cause the mushy feeling. Could also be the thickness. Thicker floating floors such as Kahrs will have a more solid feel in my opinion.