subfloor for real hardwood floors?

kkobel

We are having ceramic tile taken out and hand scraped hardwood floors put into our bedrooms, front entry, dining, kitchen and hallways. We have a 1 story home built on a concrete slab. Can the hardwoods be installed right over the concrete? If not, what should the subfloor be?

Thank you!

joecaption

You would be far better off going with engineered flooring not solid wood.
It has a real wood top layer, can be refinished, but can go over a slab floor with a just a vaper barrier.
The joints can be glued so it becomes a floating floor instead of being attached to the subfloor.

sublime2

Definitely the way to go with the amount of area you need to cover and the slab being the sub floor.

RhodesHardwood

As the other stated you do not want to install solid hardwood directly over concrete. The only way that this can be done is by first attaching plywood to the concrete. You are better off going with a floating or glue down engineered floor. For floating you will want to use an underlayment under the floor. For glue down, you want to use a glue such as Bostiks best that also has a liquid vapor barrier. If gluing you will also want to check the moisture levels in the concrete using a calcium chloride test.

kkobel

In two of the bedrooms we have floating engineered wood floors. I hate them. I do not like the "feel" of them. In the master bedroom, we have glued down engineered floors. These feel better to me but were not installed properly and therefore do not look good and have not worn well.

If we choose to put down a plywood subfloor over the concrete, is there another layer we should put down either under the plywood or over the plywood?

We are doing a huge remodel where we are moving walls, plumbing, etc... that is what spurred the decision for the floors.

sublime2

If going with a plywood floor you will definitely need a vapor barrier between the floor and the wood.