Hardwood flooring over concrete?
 

I just bought my first home this past February which needed a bit of updating. The house was built in 1964 and is mostly all original. Besides the basics, I've redone the kitchen myself (new tile floor, new cabinet doors/drawers and sprayed cabinets)....My house is built on a concrete slab and I'm right near the water on the south shore of Long Island with many canals/etc. in the area.

The second floor of my house is the original hardwood from 1964 which I'm guessing is Oak with a clear/natural finish? It is a 2 1/4" wide plank...The first floor entryway currently has slab tiles leading into ugly blue carpet. I'd like to rip up both floors and put down hardwood in the entire area.

After some research, it seems like engineered hardwood would be my best bet. I'd like to go right over the slab to keep the height down. Any and all help & recommendations to a newbie would be appreciated...

Are there any brands that I should try to stick with?
What do you think about some of the lines that Lowes carries such as Bruce, Natural Floors by USFloors, etc?
What about Lumber Liquidators Schon, Mayflower, Virginia Mill Works?
What type of underlayment should I go with over the concrete slab?
A lock type floor seems like my best bet and user friendly over the slab, correct?

Hey, I have few suggestions for you. Since you close to water you need to get your concrete slab first tested for moister in concrete. After the testing if the concrete don't have any moister you definatly need to use some moister barrier before you lay the wood. Engineer wood is best if you close to water or if you in climate with a lot of humidity. On concrete you wanna either glue it or floated. I would suggest glue down. There is a glue out there that has moister barrier, sound proofing and it's a glue. Shorline does carry it. Lumber liq. has good prices but you do have to watch out for quality.

If I can help with anything else ask!

With LL, you tend to get a lot of short pieces.

As a flooring installer since 1973, do you have any other info. or insight that you can share for my install?

My specialty isn't wood. Let's let the guys who do it daily chime in.

perform moisture check on concrete. if acceptable I usually use extensive process. I apply concrete sealer first. install polyethylene plastic sheeting over concrete. overlap all seams by 6-8 inches and tape and lap up walls by 2 inches. i then use a premium 2-in-1 underlayment for engineered/hardwood flooring. install my engineered flooring.

What type of concrete sealer would you recommend?
Also, what do you mean by a 2-in-1 underlayment?

mapei and bostiks make premium concrete sealers. You may opt for a box store one that is cheaper since the flooring does not come into direct contact with the concrete. the choice is yours. the 2-n-1 underlayment is a padding with polyethylene attached to it. Quietwalk is a very high quality brand.