Hi Everyone,

I'm installing 1/2" thick 6" maple tobacco engineered hardwood on wood subfloor. 800 sqft, living room , kitchen, hallways.

I have installed engineered in the past in flip houses over felt paper and nailed it to subfloor, although when it was time to do my own house I though I was just going to get the nice thick stuff, so I bought Quite Walk underlayment.
Boy was I wrong...

Luckily I only put down 4-5 rows when I realized something was wrong as the floor had creaking and popping noise when I was walking on it.

I now now that this type of underlayment is for floating floors only.

I would like the floor to be very solid. Would I be able to achieve that if I continued to use this type of underlayment and I just floated the rest of the house with gluing the grooves?

I heard that floating floors can be springy or bouncy when walked on which could be little more comfortable but if it moved too much up and down then I'm sure it would be annoying, and would not have the solid quality feel that I would like to have.

Or would it be better if I took back these 3-4 rows and replace the Quitewalk to felt paper or Insulayment and just nailed it down, hoping it would be rock solid with no movement and noise.

Maybe one thing to consider is that I have stair rails on main level to protect for the opening that is going down to the basement that I'm renovating and was going to remove the sill plate and just have the spindles actually go into the engineered hardwood floor. Not sure if that would even be an option with floating method.

Any help, opinion would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks much!

If you are going to lay a new floor over a wood sub-floor you don't need any cushion type of underlayment, a vapor barrier is suggested. You should remove the previous flooring and start over if you want to have a floating floor. A cushion would make the floor more comfortable if you are dancing or considering gymnastics. Once you get used to the little bit of give that the floor has you will think it is "solid". Low spots that are not addressed will give more than should be because of the hollow under the floor. You will need to leave more of an expansion gap at the walls because the whole floor will move with the seasons. Do not use the floating floor to secure the balusters, or what you call the spindles.
You should plan to keep the shoe that the balusters are anchored in and use the space under the shoe for an expansion gap and use a nosing to nail the shoe into.
Install the nosing that is slightly thicker than the flooring and cushion, combined, so the flooring will be free to expand and contract seasonally, before you fasten the shoe down that holds the balusters in place without having nails penetrate into the expansion gap.

Thanks much for your reply!

Would it be okay to put the balusters on top of the floor if it was nailed down?

I was thinking about removing the shoe for a cleaner/modern design. I bought Stainless Steal Balusters and was planning on anchoring them into the wood floor.

Your point make perfect sense though if I was floating the floor, anchoring those in is probably not a good idea.

I removed the few rows that I nailed on top of the Quite Walk, thanks God for the oscillating tool, I was able to get underneath the floor and cut the nails without damaging the floor.

At this point I just need to decide between floating or nailing down.
The baluster issue might steer me towards nailing.

Thanks!

The shoe prevents dust from spilling into the room below. I have seen lots of balusters anchored directly into the hardwood floor and this looks great. Little feet come with the balusters sometimes to add to the look and cover any torn grain from the drilling.You could use the balusters with a floating floor, but it adds a problem to deal with, especially if using pre-finished flooring. There may be a pre-finished nosing available.