I bought a couple thousand feet of 3-4″, 3/4″ maple and ash flooring from a small local mill. The tongue and groove fit seems a little sloppy ( almost a 1/16″ play), the undersides are relieved with three coves, and the flats are scored or scarified. One installer I spoke with said it might be advisable to glue the floor down and recommended a Bostik urethane adhesive. My question is, should the floor also be nailed, in addition to the adhesive? Is the glue neccesary? Also, Bostik seems to have many redundant urethane adhesive products. Any recommendations? Thanks for any and all help
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No to glue.
if you want to hear crack crack crack as people walk over the floor once the glue dries then you should to me it's annoying. face nail, screw and plug or go from underneath with sheetrock type screws (if you have access like in a basement)
Vermonterken,
I agree with Frenchy, no glue. 1/16 is a little sloppy, have you checked the moisture content? Might tighten up a little this summer. Just go ahead and nail it. 3" or 4" boards are easily within the bounds of tongue nailing only.
A word about glue: I heard about a floor where the installer thought running a bead of adhesive in the groove would keep the floor tight. It worked...too well. He created one huge table top. When the boards decided to expand in the spring they couldn't move at the edges so they moved along the grain and split right down the middle of the boards. Guy said he could put a dime in the cracks.
Ditto Frenchy's advice .......screw and plug or face nail- no glue! If SWMBO doesn't mind ......... stack your flooring in or near the room it will be installed and let it sit fora few weeks before installing. Frenchy, how's the house coming along?
Success!
Well sorta. I was really sweating extending the building permit. But It was no problem. so progress continues.
I put up the black walnut on the outside of the west wing and gave it a coat of oil.. WOW! does it look great! Still looking for a mason to do the brick infills (one of the few tasks I intend to sub out.)....
The windows went in (two left to do tomorrow) then the majority of work is done on the west wing. Next I'll start on the kitchen area, followed by the great room. with any luck and decent weather I should Have the building weather tight by fall. I am now at the point where I expected to be last fall. So much for schedules. Ah well I'm having a ball! My wieght which was over 250 is now below 230, my blood pressure is down. I've lost well over 4 inches of belt size, (in fact I've put two notches in lately!).
I sleep real well at night (except when I worry about details about the house) and get up stiff and sore every morning, it's wonderfull!
I can't express the pride and joy I feel as my dreams start to shape up and become reality. It's fun solving the problems as they develop and sometimes the results are a pleasant surprize. So far there aren't any unsolvable problems although To solve the shortage of one Black walunt beam I had to buy at todays prices..
AARRggghhhhhhh. (rememeber I paid only 17 cents for most of my black walnut) Well I had to pay $2.10 for almost 700 bd.ft. of black walnut.. In the future I'm gonna buy five times what I think I need rather than just enough. I want some more tamarck but we can't find any. In addition the eastern white pine that I'm buying now is more than three times as much ( and at that price I have to accept some blue stained wood that is darker than the all white stuff I had originally)
It is a standard for many installers to use Bostik's Best in conjunction with standard nailing on wide plank, good or bad milling. In your case, it won't be a problem as long as the boards stay tight. I would not finish the floors for two weeks after installation to allow the floor to achieve maximum over wood. If the floor shrinks due to the drier, colder seasons, you will have a noiser floor than normal; popping, cracking noises. Full spread adhesive would be good insurance; there's no good fix later. GW
Thanks for the response, Greg. This is the info I am looking for. However, I was confused slightly with the response. You stated " It won't be a problem as long as the boards stay tight". What won't be, just nailing,or using adhesive? Also, what is " achieve maximum over wood". Does the "noisier floor" apply to using or not using adhesive? Thanks for the help.
If the floor is just nailed, then as long as the floor stays tight it won't have the ability to interact with the board next to it unless some space develops due to shrinkage, which causes the noises. All solid floors develop overwood prior to finishing. Overwood is the difference between the height of each board one to the next; finger nail catchers. The more space in the tongue and groove attachment, the more overwood one will get. These types of floors need more time to allow the overwood to develop. Gluing the floor as well as nailing will control the movement. Maybe the wood savings does not justify the cost that you will aquire with the cost of the glue and the added labor costs. GW
this makes sense to me. I was not familiar with the term "overwood" but that was the issue I was concerned with; the vertical movement between board edges. Unfortunately, the material is already purchased, but I did get an exceptional deal on it, and I probably will use the Bostik because I am a belt-and-suspenders type guy who only wants to do a job once. I'm also pretty impressed with the moisture-cured elastomeric urethanes,but I have yet to price the material out.