Ideally when considering a wood floor for your home, fitting can be completed professionally or by an experienced DIY enthusiast. As an experienced wood floor fitter I have installed oak flooring for the last 17 years. If you are tackling a project and have any questions please feel free to email me, my priority is to help and guide you to ensure you get the right floor for your needs. It can be really useful to send photos too.

The aim of this guide is to outline the various methods of installation over different subfloors. 

Engineered wood flooring can installed:

• Glued down 
• Floated on an underlay  
• Nailed to a timber subfloor (20mm boards).

• Glue down concrete floors

In my experience the best way to install wood flooring to a concrete base is to glue down using a MS polymer adhesive. The concrete needs to be as flat as possible and recommend a rapid damp proof primer prior to installation.The primer gives protection from moisture and ensures a good bond to the glue. 

Ms Polymer comes with 2 methods of installation:

1. Fully bonded involves trowelling out the glue with a 6mm trowel onto the concrete subfloor an placing the board into the glue.
2. The other option is to use an applicator gun a glue the back of the board and then place onto the floor.This method is very effective when the subfloor isn't 100% flat.
   

As a rule of thumb your will need an applicator gun and 1 tube of glue per square metre.

• Floating installation on concrete or timber subfloors.

Floating an engineered wood floor is effective when the subfloor is flat. An Underlay with a damp proof membrane is placed on top of the flat subfloor. Waterproof PVA glue is placed into the groove of the flooring and the boards are tapped together.

• Nailed installation to an existing timber floors

20mm Engineered wood floors can be nailed to an existing timber subfloor. A bitumen craft paper is laid on the existing floor and a nail is installed using a porta nailer which places a nail through the tongue at a 45 degree.This is sometimes referred to as a secret nail. It is good practice to install the floor at 90 degrees to the direction of the subfloor.

If in doubt please give us me a call on 07873757905 or email and we can talk through your options.