Alcohol based glue and not floating - do you agree?

[1974stephen]

I'm about to purchase 33m of pre finished oak floor from Costco to put down in the lounge & hall. I've already bought one pack to check the quality's OK and read the instructions before committing to the rest of the £1000!

I'm laying the floor over an existing T&G suspended timber floor that is level.

The instructions with the pack say that it is best to secret nail the floor, and second best option is to use an alcohol based glue and to glue the plank direct to the floor and not glue the T&G's.

I would prefer to glue, but after reading lots of other posts on this forum, opinion mainly seems to favour floating the floor and gluing only the T&G's.

Can anyone offer any advice (and not "just do what the manufacturers say"), as to why different people would suggest different ways / products to fix their floors, if I use PVA glue what the difference will be, and if I glue T&G's instead of direct fixing what impac it may have?

Thank you

 

[mattysupra]

Can anyone offer any advice (and not "just do what the manufacturers say"),

To be fair this is your best advice. You should always follow what the manufacturers say !
I personally don't like the floating method and it is also not a recommended fitting method by alot of manufacturers. Hence your fitting instructions don't tell you to float the floor!
Glue or secret nail is the best method of fitting. If you are going to secret nail you must fit the flooring at 90' to the floorboards. Or over plyboard or uplift boards and over plyboard the joists.
If going to glue to subfloor you need to over plywood the floorboards as well. Also you can use which ever glue you want that is recommened for solid wood floors. Try to steer clear of the water based products tho. Urethane adhesive is about the best. Spirt based adhesive is horrible to work with and really stinks.

 

[WoodYouLike]

Lecol5500 is a spirit based, water free adhesive we frequently use ourselves (for installing design parquet. We do favour the floating installation method with floorboards, be it solid or wood-engineered, - our manufacturer doesn't recommend one fixed method, all are possible according to them as long as the fitter knows what's he doing in what kind of circumstances - we do glue boards down when there's underfloor heating involved).

Lecol5500 doesn't smell that bad, matty

 

[1974stephen]

Thanks both. Wood you like - would you normally expect to put a foam or fabric board type underly down, or lay the oak directly over the existing floorboards? It doesn't say anything in the instructions about specifically doing or not doing anything to the existing sub floor prior to installation.

 

[1974stephen]

Sorry - also, the LEcol 5500 seems to be used for gluing direct to the sub floor rather than for T&G's - is this correct? If I were gluing the T&G's only would PVA Evostick type adhesive be OK?

 

[WoodYouLike]

When installing a floor using the 'floating' method you have to install a suitable insulation first (otherwise you'll end up with the real 'stuff' sounding like melamine plastic).

On existing, level, floorboards we use a foam underlayment, NEVER in combination with a DPM.

 

[WoodYouLike]

Sorry - also, the LEcol 5500 seems to be used for gluing direct to the sub floor rather than for T&G's - is this correct? If I were gluing the T&G's only would PVA Evostick type adhesive be OK?

Yes, lecol5500 is for bonding the floor to the underfloor - I thought that was what you had read on the instruction, alcohol based adhesive.
For glueing the T&G's (the whole of the T&G's mind, not just drips and drops) a PVAC wood-glue is fine.

 

[mattysupra]

Lecol5500 doesn't smell that bad, matty

It stinks and makes me want to go to the pub