Cognac Horizontal Satin – Ming Dynasty Bamboo Install Follow-up

Q: I have a couple of more quick questions.
1) will I need to glue the tongue/groove as well? (with a different type of adhesive obviously)
2) Is the wet-lay method acceptable for this type of bamboo? (some guidelines say NOT to use it, while others say it is ok)
Appreciate the help,
Jeff
A: Your first question has the easy answer – no. Ideally you want to try to prevent adhesive from getting into the tongue and grooves during a glue-down installation so you can make sure the planks have a snug fit, but if small amounts get in here and there, don’t worry.
To answer your second question, it tends to be best to not wet-lay any wood floor and I would generally suggest to avoid doing so with the Ming Dynasty. Now realistically, not doing a wet-lay install will not slow up your process very much, especially with a urethane based adhesive (which most flooring adhesives are). With wet-lay, you will trowel in some adhesive then lay down a plank right away in the same spot, the concern here is that as the adhesive begins to dry some of the evaporated moisture will get into the wood. With the more traditional method of installing with glue for wood floors, you will trowel out enough adhesive to cover an area you can floor within 30 minutes to an hour. Typically you will not need to trowel out this much adhesive to be effective. The adhesive laid at first while you are still troweling more adhesive out will begin to cure, once it reaches a tacky consistency (where you can touch it with your hand and as you pull your hand away strings of glue similar to pulling taffy will come up). This tacky consistency is right where you want to be when laying down the floor as it is still plenty stick to adhere to your flooring. Apply some pressure and make sure the planks are snug then follow up with a rubber mallet and some light tapping to ensure the planks are snugly fit and the plank has had pressure toward the subfloor to ensure it is placed into the adhesive well.
Typically most urethane based adhesives will achieve this tacky consistency or close to it rather quickly, and you should only need to trowel out around 30 or so square feet adhesive to where the first portion of the adhesive will be close to ready for you to install planks over.