Hello all, I am planning to re-install my 1.5 year old floating engineered wood floor by gluing it down to the concrete sub-floor, and throwing away the underlay that the floor currently sits on. The floor is making an unreasonable amount of noise and I think I have exhausted less radical solutions such as identifying tension created by heavy furniture, door frames etc. By the way, the property is a new build still under warranty but I am too impatient to wait for the construction company to fix the problem. I have talked to a contractor about carrying out the re-installation and they have said that the concrete sub-floor needs to be smoothed down and that this can only be achieved by ‘grinding’ the concrete. I am concerned about the dust that this will create. So I would like to ask if there is any other technique available that is less messy. For example, pouring some kind of concrete-like solution that naturally levels itself. Or at least just needs to be smoothed off while still wet rather like you would with plastering work on a wall. And a quick supplementary question. Does anyone have an opinion about whether it is really a good idea to glue down something that was designed to float? Or would it be safer to replace the wood also with a product that is actually designed to be glued down? The total area is about 70 square metres so would be quite a lot of money. Many thanks for your help!
Who installed the flooring in the first place was it Flooring contractor or Builder. Creaking can be caused by all sorts of things it’s a floating installation so can be expected. Could be expansion but if your floor needs levelling it’s possibly the rigid wood being put under too much stress. In terms of levelling you need to find out what the sub floor is made of, it could possibly be anhydride which will need more intensive preparation. In terms of gluing it down you need to make sure the surface is strong enough to take the adhesive and not cause any reaction and failure
Thanks for very much for your very helpful reply. I bought the apartment from the construction company with the floor already installed so I do not know if their own people did it or whether they used a specialist subcontractor. I suspect that they did it themselves because with other problems they always send out the original subcontractor they used, whereas with the floor problem I only see the company that supplied the wood. It had never occurred to me that there are different types of sub-floor material, so I will try to find out what they have used. Actually, the construction company deny that the sub-floor is uneven although I am not convinced, and it was another specialist contractor I talked to who said the sub-floor would have to be smoothed even it was otherwise level. Maybe because the sub-floor is left un-smoothed because they know they are going to put the 2.5 mm underlay on first to compensate for the roughness? I completely accept your point about a little creaking being expected with this type of floor but having lived with this floor for 18 months I cannot accept the level of noise coming from my floor can be considered normal.
Grinding will get the sub floor smooth and flat. Make sure they use a decent extractor with it. You will need to have the subfloor identified to select the correct prep which will include a moisture test. Most engineered is perfectly fine to stick down but you may want to check with the manufacturer as some cheaper board are constructed poorly and not intended for stick down. You don’t want it all delaminating off the base of the plank. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Thank you very much, Merit. When you suggest that I should make sure they use a good ‘extractor’, do you mean something that draws away the dust created by the grinding process so that it does no spread everywhere; exactly what I am worried about? And at one point the construction company suggested that they would have to install plastic sheeting everywhere because of the dust. Would the plastic sheeting still be needed if a good ‘extractor’ is used? Would you mind briefly explaining what the purpose of the moisture test is?
Yes dust extractor, the better the extractor then less dust there will be. It’s good practise to sheet up doorways etc... You will need a moisture test of the subfloor as it’s likely/possible the wood floor was installed before the subfloor had fully dried. If the moisture is trapped it will need to evaporate. Once you get a reading below 75%rh your good to install the floor. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
65% for wood direct bonding mate, for wood you always need a surface dpm. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
