Glue the seams of Engineered flooring or not?

[Mike Schuch]

I hope this isn't too off topic here but I am looking for some opinions that I can trust.

I am about to invest in 800 sq feet of engineered hand scraped hickory click together flooring. I have some reservations... mainly in looking at every installed hardwood floor I could find everywhere I go I have seen a LOT of pre-finished flooring installs that look like someone has traced around every piece of flooring with a black sharpie marker.

The solid 3/4" oak floor I took out of my kitchen looked like this. Hence the kitchen now has tile.

Pretty much every engineered floor (and pre-finished solid floor) I have looked at has the edges beveled to some extent. I know the beveling is to compensate for unevenness between pieces but the bevels form a perfect trough for catching and trapping dirt which seems to work it way into the seam itself as a permanent fixture! When I put laminate flooring (with squared edges) down in the kids rooms I glued every seam. The laminate was cheap so I figured I would risk seam swelling problems from the glue. This problem did not materialize and I am much more comfortable about an occasional unattended spill on the laminate.

I am really tempted to likewise glue the engineered hickory seams in the hopes of warding off the traced with a black felt pin effect. I will probably use Titebond glue like I did for the laminate. Does anyone have any experience with gluing the seams of engineered flooring? It is a pretty major investment for me and I want a resilient floor that will last a long time.

It kind of seems like a "catch 22". The baked on silicone impregnated finish on pre-finished floors is so much tougher than applied in place poly finishes on unfinished floors but the applied in place poly finish seems to be the only way to seal the seams.

[Mark Salomon]

I put down a Kahrs engineered floor about 10 years. Clicks in place; no gaps then and no gaps now.

[Mike Schuch]

Thanks for the feedback Mark!

I am not really too worried about gaps developing. I have seen so many prefinished flooring installs with black lines in every joint that I am thinking gluing the joints will reduce the chance of this happening. I have a very strong suspicion that these black lines are due to wet mopping the floors and the water is penetrating the joint taking dirt down with it. I am thinking that gluing the joints (Titebond III) will greatly reduce the chances of this happening. I suspect not wet mopping the floor would be the primary defense against these lines but I always appreciate extra insurance.


I can't see any down side to gluing the joints other than I know from experience that is does add a significant overhead to the the installation time.

I have one run of flooring that reaches from the far side of the master bedroom down the hall and terminates at the far side of the great room (~60'). I am thinking of leaving non glued joints between this long strip and the rest of the great room and the rest of the bedroom to allow for longitudinal shifting and hope the lock is sufficient enough to prevent a gap forming at this non glued joint.

Can anyone think of a negative side effect that I haven't considered?

When I glued the laminate in the kids bedrooms I purchased the glue marketed for this purpose. The special glue looked like really really expensive Elmers white glue with a special label. Hence I am think TightBond III this time.

[Andrew Hughes]

How about buckling upward are you gluing it down?

[Mike Schuch]

I am planning on keeping the floor floating. The 60' span DOES have me worried about buckling upwards for sure! I will leave plenty of expansion room on both ends of the 60' span. I am hoping that by not gluing the seams of 60' span to the rest of the floor it will decouple the bedroom floor from the great room floor (so the bedroom floor wont have to float away from the living room floor)????

[Andrew Hughes]

I am guessing that your material is light colored maybe maple?I too would not like dark lines of dirt in the seams.Good luck with your project.Hope it goes well for ya.

[Mike Schuch]

Thanks Andrew!

Flooring is Hickory to match the maple cabinets we installed a couple months back. I love maple but decided it was too soft and two light. The hickory has more dirt hiding contrasting grain in the wood than maple and is considerably harder. Stranded bamboo was high on the list but didn't match well.

[David Castor]

After putting down an engineered floor with a natural oak finish, I can't even imagine trying to glue the seams. I think you'd have a major mess. I had a lot of problems getting the sections to "click" together without worrying about glue. Also had one piece delaminate slightly, but the thought of trying to get to it to replace it has scared me out of trying it. I tried putting glue in with a syringe, but in the end, I found putting a small throw rug over the spot was the best solution. 8-) My advice is to forget the glue. Actually, if I was doing it again, I'd cut out the particleboard sub-floor, put down plywood and then solid hardwood flooring. The particleboard sub-floor is what pushed us to try the engineering hardwood.

[robert raess]

I only float a floor that has been designed to be floated.Pergo type laminates are a 1/4" thick, and they use to glue them, now they are click.I would never float a 1/4" wood floor.I wouldn't feel comfortable with 3/8" either even tho there are makers that say you can.The ones I float are 9/16" to 5/8".A floor that does well floating is where every pc. is very flat in all planes,in fact almost dead flat.the glue we use is a white glue, which i'm sure is pva based..the acrylic gives it some movement..titebond i think might not move as well as pva.The board can be installed in length with some limitations [120'] but in width only [40'], based on Kahrs.Where do you live? Is moisture[ either sub-floor or ambient] a concern? Hope this helps.. Rob

[Chip Lindley]

I have laid a floating Pergo floor in several rooms and have no problems. Pergo seams are dead-flat and there is no trough between pieces. I can barely tell where the seams are without close scrutiny. Pergo recommends gluing seams ONLY IF heavy moisture is expected. If a spill is wiped up immediately, unglued Pergo suffers no harm. Otherwise, if moisture is allowed to sit atop the Pergo, it will seep into the joints and cause the engineered (pressed board) substrate to swell. Very unsightly when this happens. Under "normal" conditions, there is no need to glue the sections. I think it would be a nightmare anyhow. And, future disassembly would be impossible without destroying the flooring. It would be a total loss. I would not install Pergo in a kitchen, bath or laundry area. It's just a matter of time before...

[george wilson]

We have a click together laminate floor in my wife's jewelry shop. It has been down for 6 years and still looks fine. You are only supposed to damp mop it,never get it wet. I think if you put glue on a click together joint,unless you were VERY fast about clicking it together,any slight water absorption from the glue would keep the joints from clicking,and you'd have a big problem. Those joints are very close tolerance.

[Erik Frederiksen]

Manufacturers instructions are often useful to follow. What do they say about glue?

[Don Sundberg]

The laminate in our kitchen is glued where ever their was a good chance of spills or moisture exposure (between the dishwasher, stove, sink and fridge; also around the entry door). It was put in because it was cheep and the old carpet (UGH) was absolutely shot. It's a stop gap until we get enough together to do the kitchen correctly. One of my main problems in the kitchen was not the glue but the fact that I have an old settled house and my kitchen was originally two rooms. There is a high spot where the old wall was and laminate flooring does not like to click together over a 30' length with a hump in the middle.

Otherwise the durability of the flooring has been good.

Now in our computer room/library I put in some higher dollar armstrong stuff and had to take apart half of it to replace a piece that I dropped my impact driver on and put a nice divot in. My 12 yr old son is getting to be a pretty good helper at laminate flooring.

Good luck with your install.

[Mike Schuch]

Thank you! I REALLY appreciate all the replies. It is very helpful to hear others experiences and opinions. It has given me a lot to consider.

I installed the cheap Costco laminate in the children's bedrooms. I glued the seams and it wasn't that difficult. I just put a thin line on the very top notch, clicked the piece in and wiped off any squeeze out. I was worried about the glue causing the cardboard (ok, hard board) substrait to expand and cause the seams to raise. This didn't happen.

Titebond vs. expensive purpose manufactured white glue. I agree, I will go with the expensive glue. It is only $10 a bottle, has a special angled nozzle designed for the job and worked well for me in the past. Sold.

I was tempted to go with a good quality laminate instead of engineered but I really don't care for the repeating pattern. The repeats were noticeable in the bedrooms before the beds were in. With a ~60' stretch of flooring the repeats would probably drive me crazy.

I was strongly considering solid hardwood. The three previous solid hardwood floors I have had I really haven't liked that much. The unfinished with water based poly required constant waxing to maintain a decent look and the prefinished had V groove grime collectors. If I didn't have a contrary opinion to make happy I would go with all slate to match my entry way (which she hates but everyone else complements me on). She wanted hardwood in the kitchen but I said "not a chance!". We compromised on Tile with underfloor electrical heat (Love it, got the heating cables from Bulgaria off ebay for about 1/3 the price of the HomeDepot matts).

My only solid hardwood install I have assisted with was when I was 14. I ran the drill press in the Kitchen while my father nailed it into the dinning room. Turned out very nice but a LOT of work. Yes, I know about the pneumatic flooring nailers. A few years back we did 1200 feet of my parents current house in engineered Oak without V groves and without glue. It still looks excellent. I know that my kids and I are harder on our floors than my parents could ever be... hence a harder wood and glue.

Oh yeah, I will check out the manufactures recommendations!

Thanks again!