Hi, I have a product that was meant for cabinetry but was somehow made incorrectly. It was very very cheap. It is pre-finished 8" wide by 8' long; made up of solid Birch strips 2 1/4" wide. Not T&G, just flat edges; 5/8" thickness. The strips have finger joints lengthwise, but I think only glued on the edges. I have been thinking of a few different options.

1. Face nail or screw and fill the holes. glue or not.

2. Biscuit join and float or glue

Problems...

This floor to edge up to existing 3/4" maple floor at doorway threshold to drop down to sunken portion of room so a biscuit joined floating floor won't work for the upper portion(on plywood), but might be the best on the lower portion (on concrete). I am concerned however about floating causing the product to break, so I am leaning to glue both. I am in Canada so I think the winter shrinkage vs summer swelling will be greater here than in warmer climates.

Thoughts and questions welcome.

I think your wasting your time and money. Cabinetry grade engineered is not meant for flooring.

True story. I worked on a new home along the beach about 12 years ago in Florida. The guy had oodles of dough and built one of those all concrete formed houses, probably $3-4 mil. He owned a cabinetry manufacturing company in Wisconsin and wanted to test market all the waste material to be used for flooring. He had 2,000 SF (prefinished) milled T&G and shipped to the site. The floor itself was 1,000 SF.

I wish I had a digital camera then. I went through all 2,000 SF to find good boards. All were eight feet long by 5" wide. One third of it had already begun to delaminate. Some of it was curled with more than 2-3 layers delaminating. Yea, I should have walked away, but I needed the money. This was very near the end of my drinking days and I was a mess; broke and desperate.

Enough of that sad story. I installed it, looked pretty good when done and I talked with the guy. He wanted an honest opinion about the product. I didn't hold back saying it was junk and he should forget the idea of trying to market it. A few months later a floor finisher friend was called in to look at a few minor issues. The floor was beginning to fall apart. My name somehow came up in their conversation and it wasn't pretty. So much for that honest opinion eh? What a nightmare that floor must have been removing as it was glued with Bostiks Best.

Ken, was his initials BR......never mind.

I am near the end of my drinking days too. Thanks for the insight Ken.
The concrete floor has a basement under so moisture problems will be less.