Ok. I got this client who wants a sawn face engineered in her mothers house over concrete. Home was flooded for least a week with two inches on water while on vacation of course...isin't that how it always happens?

So, just wondering how much time is needed for the water to vacate the premises?

I put down my CME on it and of course it pegged the meter. The AC was set at like 85 F. Like it is going to dry out at that temp. I'm thinking my meter was just not picking up moisture in the slab but could be. Complications are cutback adhesive of course. I found a spot under the HVAC unit that did not have cutback and it still pegged the meter.

Looks like mold is set in on the firring strip below the plastered walls. I told her to crank up the AC ...crank it down to 75F.

She wants it glued down...I'm telling her ...maybe in a month or two or else float it. But finding a sawn face engineered you can float is like crazy hard to find.

What exactly would you do if you were going to glue it, or float it?

Vintage has a solid sawn material that I would recommend to anyone. Not sure if it is in your area though.

http://www.vintageflooring.com/

That Vintage solid sawn is amazing. This old fart laid three hundred feet of it in a kitchen with cabinets in place yesterday. Job went flawlessly given my age and near blindness, lol maybe thats why it looks flawless.
The Vintage comes in 5 inch and 7 inch widths, are mostly 7 feet long; and in a constantly growing species selection.

However, more to the point; I wouldn't be putting any type of floor into a space thats still wet from a prior flood.

I think a glue-down would be a huge risk. You're best off going the floating route with the 6 mil poly moisture barrier, a real good pad like The Floor Muffler and a product like that Vintage Flooring. That looks pretty nice. Kahrs also has some nice looking stuff you can float, as does Award.

Is that Vintage a balanced construction I wonder? Anyone?

Dennis, thats a lot of wood for a kitchen area. I have a hard time doing that much click in one day man. I tell my customers if they complain about a defective plank I cain't see nuthing cus I am half blind....OR "charachter graining Ma'am. The tree is speaking to you about it's growin up."

Actually I nailed the floor, using a Primatech 240 and 2 inch cleats.
The kitchen is part of an old country home I purchased three weeks ago as a hedge against this economy. Got it for a song but had to dance for the 4 acres it sits on. There are 7 walnut trees surrounding the house, planted in 1917 and absolutely straight boles for the first 20 feet up, 3 feet in diameter.
Has a two storey workshop out back, and a four horse barn.

Got good tenants so am upgrading the house as needed. Man, you should see the woodwork. All trims and doors are white oak, cut from original trees on property and every component of the raised 4 panel doors are grain matched. I have only very rarely seen such craftmanship.

But as to your question about balanced construction of the Vintage product: it it three ply, top 1/4 inch is solid, bottom is 1/4 inch solid, centre is one inch wide fillets with 1/16th inch spaces between oriented across the width of the panel.

Product is as inert a wood product as I have ever seen and is warranted for humidity fluctuations from 30 percent to 65 percent.

Well now she is looking at the 5-G system. This lady is driving me bananas. Although it is nice working with a client who listens and has done her home work.

That 30-65% is for hand scraped solid sawn but the regular solid sawn is warrantied for between 30 and 80%

That's an amaizing range.

That is amazing since a thick surface layer moves more.

This lady has schooled every regular retailer in town. Every retailer she called including Prosource, and a host of others did not know what a sawn face engineered even was. I even was supprised the guys at LL didn't know what a sawn face was. lol

The manager of LL said they were eliminating all the thicker faced engineered because they were all delaminating. He said he was working with the guy who specs the milling for LL to make a engineered for out here is the dry zones. I started to explain what the problem was to him and about to the HVPA association, what a balanced construction was but then I thought....why would I help my competition.

Here's a crazy notion, she found a Mirage 5-G type with a sawn face but it has a HDF core. Least I think it is 5-G I have to go check.

Update, the Mirage Lock is only a 2-G sytem looks like. Plus it is glued to a HDF core. Rh reqiurements are 40-60%. Thats nuts.

Plus they want a 1/2 inch expansion space with a 3/8 overlap. Thats 7/8 of an inch. We ain;t got base that thick out here so the cionsumer would need base plus shoe. lol

What are these manufactures thinking? I like other Mirage products but this one basically sucks for out here.

GM Tucson, that 3/8th overlap you mention; are you referring to the locking mechanism milled along the edge? If so, you could send your starter row through the table saw to remove it, and then be able to move the edge closer to the wall to avoid the use of shoe mould.
About the Mirage float floor, we are currently doing a large project in Toronto (270 units) where that product is the upgrade floor from the standard Torly's laminate products spec'd by the builder. Over half the purchasers have gone to the upgrade, and our installers are loving it.

Mornin,



No thats just what they say they want to cover the edge of the plank. I'm sure thats a great product if you can attain that range. But it starts higher than anyone elses, even the Vintage. She's going to call them again tomorrow and ask them whats up. Just think it's weird that they claim it is so stable and they need such a tight range for rh and temp. Check it out, even the temp is down at 72F to start and after the install like for two weeks.

Hmmm, you are right, that does seem excessive. For our market here, its not so hard to attain since using shoe or 1/4 round is the norm so everybody is used to it.
When we do an install that requires only baseboards to be used, we will generally cut the bottom of the drywall if possible to increase our expansion tolerance.

Cutting the drywall is a good option cept in this case it's plastered walls.