Wood Flooring options

grod777

I'm looking to replace my current Parquet floor with either Solid Wood or and Engineered Wood.
The existing floor has a foam underlayment on each tile. It was easy to install, just peel the cover off the bottom and place the 12x12 tile in place. It also has grooves in it to lock each tile in place.
I pretty handy and would try any project, but I'm looking for something that won't be extremely difficult.
I have read online that solid wood flooring is not an easy task.
Can Solid wood be floated or can it only be nailed? Can I put some kind of foam underlayment under it?
With enghineered hardwood I've noticed there are MDF like types and types that have plywood layers under the finished layer. I have yet to see the latter in Home Depot, only the MDF/HDF type which I'm not to fond of.
Is the Engineeed with the plywood pretty solid? Will it make the same sound when walking on it as with Laminate?

woodman58

There is no solid wood that I know of that can be floated except for a special installation kit.If your interested in this type of installation I will send you a link. A floor with MDF core is not real wood as far as I have seen. This is a Laminate floor. An engineered floor has plywood core. There are manufacturers that make a floating engineered floor. The quality depends on the price you are willing to pay. There are some that can be sanded, but most cannot. as for an underlayment I would recommend cork.

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Awoodfloorguy

Solid hardwood is always better.The only time I ever recommend engineered is if you have a concrete subfloor and have to use it. I think they are both about equal in terms of difficulty of installation. Their are several people on here that can help with any questions if you choose to tackle the job yourself.

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grod777

Sure send me the link. I know that laminate is MDF but I've seen the engineered floor labeled as such but in looking at it it is MDF. I have yet to see an engineered floor with a plywood core.
The underlayment you recommend , is this for solid hardwood?

grod777

Without a doubt solid hardwood is better but I know that I would need a floor nailer/stapler. I would have to rent that. As apposed to engineered that I can float and the most I would need is glue for the grooves.
I was hoping maybe somehow I could float solid hardwood.

joecaption

Not sure where people keep seeing this engineered flooring with MDF core.
Only stuff I've installed is all plywood core.

grod777

Maybe it's mislabeled at Home D. I'll take a look again next time I'm there.

woodman58

grod777 Sorry, but I could not find the link in the archives. I will try to do a search.

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md2lgyk

How much floor are you talking about? Installing solid hardwood isn't really difficult, but is a bit labor intensive and the cartons it comes in are kind've heavy. All the 1800 square feet of floor in our log home (except bathrooms) is hardwood, and my wife and I installed it by ourselves (actually, we built the entire house by ourselves). Because there was no way we could've installed all the floor in less than 3 or 4 days, I bought a manual nailer rather than renting a pneumatic one and compressor. After putting down the same flooring in my wife's detched art studio, I sold the nailer.

grod777

It's (2) rooms about 200sq ft per room plus a hallway about 45 sq ft. I also have the parquet flooring on the stairs and landings so I would have to do that also. On the stairs I'm not sure if I should put the flooring or just replace the steps ans stain to match the flooring.

grod777

Another quick question. I've read that flooring must be installed perpendicular to the floor joists unless they are reinforced. The joists in my house are the metal ones (not wood). Would they still have to be reinforced to install in parallel?
The rooms I am doing are separated by a 12x3 hallway and the joists are running from the front to back of house. If I have to do perpendicular then I would have to do the hallway the same and I think it would look funny. Reinforcing the joists is not an option as I would have to open up the ceiling on the lower level or remove the subfloor.

Awoodfloorguy

The rental of a nailer is a very small cost that can mean the difference of a floor that lasts 10 years vs a floor that can last a lifetime. It's well worth the $50-$60 to rent a nailer for a couple of days.

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woodman58

HD sells Pneumatic Hardwood Flooring Nailer for $160.


http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1...&storeId=10051

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Awoodfloorguy

Even better option. Then you could probably sell it if you wanted to. We have bought several of our nailers from people who did not want to rush their job so they bought a nailer. Then they were able to take as long as needed, and get a good amount of that money back. We were then able to get a very gently used nailer at a discount. Win/win for everyone.

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