Hello Everyone,

I am hoping you can help me out. I am currently dealing with a contractor who will be installing a 3/4" hardwood Mohawk floor in my downstairs living room. Our water heater busted flooding our entire downstairs ruining the origianal wood floor. The installer claims that he has done hundreds of installations in the New Orleans area of bamboo wood floors and has never had a problem. My issue is that he wants to glue the hard wood directly onto the concrete with no plywood nor moisture barrier. He claims that he will be using a bostich (sp?) glue that will take care of moisture issue and that he has used many times before with no problem. I have already consulted with the manufacturer, original home builder and was referred to the original wood floor installer by the building and all are telling me that the floor needs to be nailed down with a moisture barrier and plywood subfloor. Specificially they all noted the followign steps that should take place with this installation:

1.Spread cold tar onto concrete
2. Lay 6 Millimeter Visquene
3/ 3/4 or 5/8 plywood drilled and pinned and plywood needs to oppose direction of the floor
4. Felt on top of plywood
5. Wood floor nailed or stapled onto plywood

I live 36 miles west of New Orleans in La Place and have put the installation on hold as I want to be sure of correct decision.

Please advise. Is there such a glue that will allow a solid hardwood floor to be glued directly onto concrete with no future problems? Does the type of wood matter such as bamboo vs. cherry? Installer claims that wood manufacturers all want more money for products so they insist on nail down installation of hardwood on concrete but that he has never had a problem with glue down directly on concrete. Please help. Thank you. Vicky

Bostik's glue alone, without their additional moisture blocker, is suicide.

Solid over concrete is always a very big risk.

The original guys have an Idea what is suppose to happen according to old tried and tested methods. Really 2 layers of asphalt felt in asphalt mastic, with an additional sealed sheet of 6-mil plastic over that, is how I do it, when requested.


There is Stauf 960 adhesive. They "say" it is a moisture barrier and adhesive in one application. It is the only one on the market, and a little pricey, compared to Bostik's

I would never glue a solid 3/4 hardwood down to concrete. Especially in a really humid area like N.O. You're asking for trouble and you have a really high chance of the wood cupping over time.

Bamboo is a little different than 3/4 solid harwood, and you might be able to get away with gluing bamboo down in some instances.

Thank you for you reply. We have set up a meeting with the contractor to discuss in detail because we just don't want to have to come back to this 6 months or a year down the line bacause of moisture problems. Another issue we are having is that the manufacturer warranty will be voided if the contractor installs the wood by glueing down directly on concrete, so we would really be taking a huge risk. As it is I am going to require him to take out a bond insuring his work before making final payment.

I appreciate your response. Thank you.

Vicky

This statement does not make any sense. How would the manufacturers profit from a nail down installation instead of a glued down installation? If the manufacturers ONLY motive was profit, wouldn't they be promoting using THEIR own adhesive to glue a floor down? Instead, they are recommending nailing the flooring down. How would they profit from that?

Also, NOFMA states all solid wood floors are to be nailed down, although just recently, the NWFA has taken the position that in some circumstances, a solid floor can be glued down. Some adhesive manufacturers (not flooring manufacturers) claim one can safely glue down solid flooring to concrete. And in a sense, they are correct. However, what they are not fully disclosing is that the concrete slab MUST meet a certain criteria. ALL concrete slabs will emit a certain amount of moisture in the form of vapor. There are vapor barriers that will reduce that down to acceptable limits but with solid wood floors, those limits must be very low and remain that way. Also, most adhesive manufacturers do NOT warranty against cupping and buckling but only against bond failure. IMO, you are best off using the tried and true methods of attaching a solid wood floor to concrete.

Save yourself some frustration and just buy a high quality 1/2" + 8-10 ply engineered product. Get one with a thick 3-4 MM top layer, and you won't be able to tell the difference between that and solid 3/4".

Contractor noted that he would do a moisture meter test on the concrete to be sure the floor can be glued down, but as I said before I don't have any way of verifying the meter test and checking what he does. In the last 24 hours I have found out more about solid wood installation than I have ever known and am now in the middle of this job regretting having picked this contractor. HE is very nice and keeps saying that he 100% guarantees his job but quite frankly once everything is said and done and he is paid what guarantee do I have if I need to contact him to fix problems 6 months or 1 year down the line?

Contractor's reason for doing a glue down directly on concrete is to keep floor even with tile floor. The wood floor area is the downstairs living room which runs directly into the breakfast area in an open room setting so if installing solid wood using the nail down system the wood floor will be slightly raised and the contractor wants to keep it level for aesthetic purposes. But the original installation was slightly elevated and we had absolutely no problem with that at all. As a mater of fact the house is 6 years old and we had never had a problem with the wood floor. It was very solid and we never had any issues with it whatsoever until the water heater leak and that has nothing to do with the original installation.

IF you want the look of a solid wood floor that has been sanded and finished in place BUT you need to have it glued down to concrete, THIS is the product to use. If your installer has never heard of it, he is seriously out of the loop.

http://www.hardwoodinstaller.com/hardwo ... -plank.htm

Good information. Thank you. Only thing floor has already been purchased.

I have requested product and distributor infomration though because we plan in installing wood upstairs in the very near future - not with this contractor - and this will definitley work.

Thank you again!!!

Dang??? I didn't know Ken had Owens Plank.


I'm starting 1700 sq.ft. of the stuff Monday morning, gluedown, over concrete. They got it direct from the distributor, somehow.