Concrete Floors

If you have concrete floors as your subfloor then you have a more limited set of options for your flooring…or do you?

Yes at the end of the day the options are fewer because you need to be sure that the installation method available on a particular flooring choice is compatible with concrete. The two viable options for concrete subfloors are gluing the floor down or floating the floor. (Nailing into concrete is tough.)

Yes, I am aware of firring up the floor or putting in some plywood over the concrete etc… to allow for a nail down installation, but I am focusing here on the most commonly choices.

The reason I bring this up is that recent advances in sealer and adhesive technology have given way to allow certain NOFMA certified wood floors that are SOLID 3/4″ thick to be glued down in certain situations.

THAT IS A HUGE ADVANCE. Now given the history of wood flooring this makes a guy like me nervous, but I can see that it has potential.

There are some floors that are so well made, dried, milled and so on that with the right sealer and glue I can imagine those being glued down to a relatively stable concrete.

I am not saying that engineered or floating is not a better choice, that can depend on your situation.

Generally I prefer a floating application over concrete with a cork subfloor, but that goes far beyond technical details and into insulation, comfort and sound benefits.

Alas that is a whole different topic. Suffice it to say I think I will have more news in the near future about the viability of gluing down solid wood over concrete floors!