I want to glue down some 3/8" engineered wood plank flooring inside a ceramic tile border. The wood area will be about 5'x10'. I'm thinking a simple way to do this is:
1)Set the border tile as a perimeter frame for the wood, allowing an adequate amount of room for expansion on all sides.
2) Glue up the appropriately trimmed pieces of wood into a single monolithic plank.
3) Plunk it down as one piece in a combed out bed of Parabond plank adhesive.
4) Fill the expansion area with sanded caulk.

You guys see any problem with doing this? It seems as though this would be a lot easier than gluing it down, piece by piece.

Thanks,
Don

Wow! This is what I love about this board. It's all about each persons perspective. For me, I would rather inset the wood, piece by piece. I guess that is becaue I can't wrap my mind around how you are going to cut that monolithic 5x10 piece of wood, to fit with a uniform gap around the perimeter of that tile inlay, AND THEN drop it into place,(unless you are going to make a " pattern" ,and cut your insert to fit, and have at least a few extra hands to get it into place). Hats off, to you Don.

Aww man, SK, that won't be any big trick. As I assemble the slab o' wood it will be cut to size with all the unnecessary tongues removed in advance. The most it can weigh is 40 pounds and if it looks like it will be too floppity, I can do it in two pieces.

If you wanted to see a trick you should have watched me install a set of 93" tall bifold panel doors with the frame made outta 1½" antique heart pine and panels of t&g juniper boards that I built to plug the hole in the cedar closet I made for my wife. That puppy was heavy and awkward. I had to use a 100 pound bifold kit to hang it

Don

If I recall, there is a company that makes very fancy parquet entries and such exactly the way you are descibing. The floor is completely assembled and sanded onto a backer board. Then the whole thing is glued into place. A novel approach.