Is there any alternatives to floor rollers? Since I'm goign room by room and on weekends, it's going to cost me an arm and a leg to rent a floor roller. I've already spent $60 on rental fees.

The hardwood manufacture doesn't specify to roll, but I'd figure I'd do it anyways. Is there any way to "make one"? I can't believe they cost $350 to purchase one! It's just a steel weight! Not rocket science!

what kind of flooring are you installing?

[quote="mga"]what kind of flooring are you installing?[/quote]

Glue down engineered

Have your wife stand on the handles of a bakers rolling pin, while you push and pull her around!!! LOL!!!! It has been done before, so don't laugh too hard.

Total waste of time.

What rolling the flooring, or having your wife ride the roller?

I always roll all my gluedowns.

You can "walk" it in. After installing a section (and taping and wedging it so it does not separate) simply walk carefully up and down the rows of flooring. This performs a similar function to rolling the flooring. The idea is to make contact with the adhesive. I can assure you, that at 190 lbs, I exert more PSI than a 100 lb roller. And that will "seat" the flooring into the adhesive.

I do find myself jumping up and down to seat it in the glue, in spots back into the installation, before I roll it.

The one time I used Bostiks BEST, I was doing a lot of jumping up & down.

Now that I would have liked to have seen! Perry jumping up and down on the floor. To the homeowner, it must have looked very disconcerting.

Rollers are made for textiles. Rolling hardwood flooring is an absolute waste of time.

It makes all the difference, to roll the flooring when using Taylor 2071.

Way back when we used to use chlorinated solvent adhesives like Bruce LP and Franklin 911, rolling was essential because after spreading the adhesive, one needed to let the adhesive become "tack free" ie: no transfer onto your fingers or hands when touching it. This usually took an hour or so. To the touch, the adhesive felt almost dry. Rolling pushed the flooring down into the adhesive, "mushed it" open again and promoted contact and bonded the flooring into the adhesive. It was common practice and necessary with those adhesives. With the newer urethanes and wet lay methods, rolling is not normally needed. In fact, I recall using one adhesive (don't remember which one however) that warned against rolling. So it depends on what adhesive you're using and what the manufacturer recommends. Always follow manufacturer recommendations is what I say.

In the link below is a picture of the instructions off the side of the bucket.

http://i-boards.com/bnp/fci/images/mess ... C-495S.JPG



#5 says:

Roll and cross roll floor with a 100-150 lb. roller at the end of the installation to ensure proper transfer of adhesive.

How about we calculate the footprint of a 100 pound roller?

Would anyone like to offer a guess as to how much force that equals through even the thinnest hardwood floor? I will fill you in if you don't know the math.

Hint: It is very close to zero when compared to normal foot traffic.(not to mention the force applied to a single board during installation)

Ya, for giggles, lets put a 4x4 panel of 1/4" or 3/8" plywood, down, with 1x2's around the perimeter, under the panel. Now, set your 100 pound roller in the middle.

Then tell me about foot prints, after you measure the sag it creates in the panel.