Glue or staple wood floor

[Tom Jones III]

We just bought 720 ft of an engineered wood floor and we are trying to decide how to install it, either glue or staple. The floor is 3/8" tongue and groove and will be installed on the second floor of our house on top of 3/4" plywood. The flooring will be installed across the joists rather than parallel to them. Any opinions on which is a better installation? Do I need to put in a sound barrier?

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

I did a laminate wood floor in my daughter's house. It came with a thin foam sheet you put down first then the boards interlocked. No nails screws staples or glue.

Tongue and groove might require more to hold in place.
Wouldn't glue cause for soft spots between the glue lines?
I'd not use a foam sheet in either event.

[Steve Clardy]

What does the manufacturer of the flooring say?

You need to go with how they want it installed, for warranty purposes

[Jason Roehl]

What Steve said. Other than that, though, usually if you CAN staple/cleat/nail a floor, that is preferred to gluing. Gluing can be quicker, but it can also be quite messy and tricky at times. If you end up going that route, just make sure you wipe up any extraneous glue right away--it's much easier to do it then.

[Jim Dunn]

Tom I agree with Steve. But if you have the option then check the price of glue and you'll probably staple it. The cost of glueing our floor down as oppossed to stapleing it was 2 to 1 more expensive.

[Tom Jones III]

The wood is from lumber liquidators, they say the manufacturer is called Schon. I cannot find any mention of that manufacturer on the web except for at the lumber liquidators site, so it must be a trade name they use. Lumber liquidators says there is no manufacturers instructions and we can nail or glue.

They suggest glue and say that it will be quieter and we won't need any pad underneath it. The price of the pad is equal to the price of the glue. Either way I'm not worried about the cost, a few hundred dollars more or less isn't going to make much difference given the overall cost. There is something about the glue that just seems more intimidating and more difficult. If I nail it down I can always pull it back up if something goes wrong.

[Cecil Arnold]

Tom, I've had composite glued down on concrete and the first attempt was not acceptable. The second try was better, but still not what we wanted. Fortunately the builder paid the second time. The problem was both an uneven floor and uneven glue. The floor "popped" in the uneven places and was exacerbated by a lack of glue where the installer joined sections as he laid the floor. Having said that, I think you could have a similar problem with staples. Did your builder use engineered joists for the second floor or 2X12s? If he used 2X12s you could run into some unevenness. Also, without some rosin paper you could get squeaks between the ply and flooring.

[Andre Rivard]

I laid about 1000 sq ft of engineered flooring over plywood subfloor in January with adhesive. It is a pain to install simply because of the messy nature of the urethane adhesive. However, it seems to be quieter and almost more 'solid' than my nailed 3/4" hardwood floor in another room. Definitely won't be squeeking in my lifetime.

The manufacturer of the flooring recommended just taping the joints after being laid in the adhesive, similar to laminate edge glued flooring. DONT DO THIS! Use a brad angled into the tongue every so often. You don't need many, as the glue will eventually hold it down. In areas where I didn't use brads, you can actually see a 'tenting' effect between boards. You can only see it when the light is angled properly, but I notice it (wife doesn't).

Hope this helps!