17' x 11' dining room open on one end. Forest Accents City Plank engineered flooring. Bostick's Best. Background: rank amateur/first attempt.
PROBLEMS A. Getting a flat floor. Lots of grinding and leveling cement.
B. Getting right trowel. 1/4 x 1/8 x 1/4 square notch. None of the 'Big Boxes' had it. Local flooring suppliers no help. Finally got Ace Hardware to order one. Two weeks for delivery.
C. Bowed planks: Despite being in 72 degree F./45% humidity environment for 3 weeks and careful stacking many pieces bowed (finish side concave). Ended up using a LOT of cinder blocks after using recommended 100 lb roller.
COMMENTS A. Ken's data base and links very helpful. Wouldn't have attempted project without it. B. Made a 1/10 scale model of colored art paper to maximize use of long pieces, juggle joint location and minimize waste. C Initially irritated that 60% of flooring 24 inches (or less) long. After starting gluedown, I realized that the short pieces were less bowed and stayed down easier. D. Engineered wood was advertised as 3.5" wide; actual width was 3.55". That .05" doesn't sound like much but 20 rows is one inch of unexpected width. Tongue and groove fits very good. E. Glue less difficult to work with than expected. Had lots of rags and mineral spirits just in case. Mr Clean's MAGIC ERASER, a white nonabrasive very fine sponge very good for removing dry thin film glue residue. F. I did floor over 3 working periods/days. To minimize loss of glue due to 'caking', I filled container with MIG welding gas (argon-CO2)Seemed to work. Still need 2 sheets of plastic as seal breaker. G. Being able to drylay each section and cut end pieces to length made actual glue down go quickly. H. Blue tape very helpful.
OVERALL: A lot of work and the procedures I used are not feasible for commercial operations (time is money) but my results look pretty good.

FINAL COMMENT; In retrospect, I would have weighted EVERY section of floor after glueing.

Not many will tackle the task!

You did your research before you started your install, not after the installation failure, or raggy install.


How many hollow or spongy areas did you end up having?