Solid wood flooring

[Frank Pratt]

I hate to be a downer, but I have read many threads on milling your own flooring in various forums over the years and everyone that's done it swears they'd never do it again.

[Robert London]

Hi Albert,

As a few others have mentioned, it’s very risky to glue down solid wood flooring on concrete. Most flooring professionals would never do it as the risk of cracking, warping and splitting can be high. You need to glue down multi ply engineered wood to concrete. Solid wood flooring is meant to be nailed or stapled to a plywood subfloor.

[Mark Bolton]

I hate to be a downer, but I have read many threads on milling your own flooring in various forums over the years and everyone that's done it swears they'd never do it again.

No downer there. Its a nightmare amount of work no matter how you slice it.

[Mark Bolton]

Hi Albert,

As a few others have mentioned, it’s very risky to glue down solid wood flooring on concrete. Most flooring professionals would never do it as the risk of cracking, warping and splitting can be high. You need to glue down multi ply engineered wood to concrete. Solid wood flooring is meant to be nailed or stapled to a plywood subfloor.

I think the reason most flooring pro's dislike glue down over concrete, or any glue down/glued to itself floating, whatever, is that its slow, its messy, and they have to bill it at a rate that is extremely high and even then they dont feel like they make as much money. Typically when you do these you have to setup straight start points, glue down a section, let it dry, so you have a rigid start point the following day or nail down starter strips that then have to be removed and filled in. You have to use strap clamps to pull sections together, weight the floor, tape, constantly keep rags/solvent handy for cleanup, scraping or very cleanly planning for overnight stop points so you dont wind up having to scrape up yesterdays glue today, and so on.

Its a slow/pita process for flooring installers who are accustomed to coming in and slam bamming nail-down floors even at the higher rate.

Combination products from Bostik now are adhesive, 15lb vapor barrier, leveler, right out of the pail. Expensive adhesive, expensive labor, but its perfectly fine and people are gluing down full 3/4" prefinished material regularly even though its likely not recommended by hardwood manufacturers.

[Jim Becker]

Actually, you bring up a good point here, Mark. Floating the floor is a real option and removes the glue to concrete challenge/risk, although it exchanges that for other "fun". I actually like floating floors, myself.

[Frank Pratt]

I simply cannot imagine a worse, slower, more labor intensive way to put down a floor than gluing hardwood to concrete. Please reconsider.

[Dave VanDewerker]

My entire house is a concrete slab and wood floors, none are glued down. If you are using a vapor barrier you would need to glue both down to have have the floor glued down. All of my floors float on a vapor barrier/pad and IMHO it make the floors feel a bit softer, ie not like you are walking on concrete.

[Mark Bolton]

Actually, you bring up a good point here, Mark. Floating the floor is a real option and removes the glue to concrete challenge/risk, although it exchanges that for other "fun". I actually like floating floors, myself.

We did several glue-to-itself floaters (glue each tongue/groove, tape, ratchet strap clamps) 3/4" thick, and its a royal pain especially weighting them and even then you can still have hollow areas where there is either a slight hump/dip in the floor or a bit of over-clamping creates a hump.

Ive never been a fan of the feel under foot of a floating floor especially the snap together types over a pad but everyone says they get use to it and they like how cheap they are. They just dont feel good to me but Im old school.

Given the concrete slab doesnt have a major moisture issue I dont see an issue at all with gluing down over concrete. Everyones issues with wood movement and hardwoods is overblown in my opinion especially in modern homes but it is what it is. There are enough tiny gaps in even a tight floor to allow for a lot of fudge. Modern adhesives that help with moisture, stay rubbery, allow movement. The OP is not in the US so I can only imagine, like numerous other places around the planet (outside the US) they are doing things smarter than we are here lol.

[Mark Bolton]

I simply cannot imagine a worse, slower, more labor intensive way to put down a floor than gluing hardwood to concrete. Please reconsider.

What would you reconsider? The cost and effort of installing an inch and a half of sleepers and subfloor, plastic, concrete nails, cant glue the sleepers to the concrete because of the vapor barrier so fasteners will allow creeks/crunchy grit under foot, expense of installation, raising up every door opening by 2 1/4"? Dealing with and installing some steep transitions/thresholds?

Its about as broad as it is long. If I had to rework every opening in the space, baseboard, thresholds, cost of sleepers and subfloor,.. uh...

[Alan Lightstone]

I had to have a number of engineered boards taken up and replaced due to a window leak. They were glued down. I could only find one installer who would even consider doing the work, and it was a nightmare. This was on the second floor, but over a concrete slab.

If I had it to do over again, I'd never glue down the floor. My $0.02

[Mark Bolton]

I had to have a number of engineered boards taken up and replaced due to a window leak. They were glued down. I could only find one installer who would even consider doing the work, and it was a nightmare. This was on the second floor, but over a concrete slab.

If I had it to do over again, I'd never glue down the floor. My $0.02

Sounds like youd be better off blaming whaever caused the water leak as opposed to remidiation difficulties. Building anything with anticipation of replacement due to some other failure is a backwards way to build anything.

[Albert Lee]

thank you all for your input... I have been doing a bit of homework myself, it seems hardwood on concrete is quite normal here, our general practice is that vapour barrier x 2, moisture test and then adhesive, its an expensive exercise, got quoted for the recommended vapour barrier product itself is $150 USD per 200ft2, thats 1 coat. the adhesive is the same price. so effectively thats $450 per 200ft2 just to purchase the adhesive and vapour barrier.

would love to install over plywood or float but I dont have the height in my floor, the height difference between the concrete and existing tiled area (kitchen) is only 13-14mm. I will need transition strip.

Not too fussed about the laborious work involved with the moulder (I invested in a relatively expensive shaper recently, should take off the pressure a bit).

The area is not that big, its only 355ft2.

[Greg Quenneville]

As you have by now discovered, concrete floor waterproofing primer isn’t cheap. I think 10 litres of Mapei primer is around $170 US here in Australia. We are using both Mapei and Soudal brand adhesives for our flooring. Good luck with your project Albert. I don’t envy you the work involved. I have to make about 150’ of oak stair nosing and 50’ of handrail and find even that puny project tiring to contemplate.

[Frank Pratt]

Sounds like youd be better off blaming whaever caused the water leak as opposed to remidiation difficulties. Building anything with anticipation of replacement due to some other failure is a backwards way to build anything.

That's just silly thinking. Anticipating repairs should always be considered when building. Stuff happens. I've never had a house that didn't need unforeseen repairs.

[Rich Engelhardt]

Sounds like youd be better off blaming whaever caused the water leak as opposed to remidiation difficulties. Building anything with anticipation of replacement due to some other failure is a backwards way to build anything.

Why is that backwards?

I'm always glad when I find a "trap door" that allows access to the plumbing so I don't have to tear apart a ceramic tile wall just to get at the mixing valve.

I just wish the idiot that built our house had done that.