BR-111 5/16″ Solid Brazilian Hickory – Installation Question

Q: We’re interested in the BR111 Brazilian Hickory, 5/16 solid for a kitchen floor. Currently have above grade, solid sheet no-wax Mannington floor in good staple condition with smooth underlayment over plywood sub-floor. Can I staple/glue the hickory over this? Thks
I followed up to get a bit more information on the Mannington floor currently in place:
This Mannington seems to be glued and not floated with only seams glued. I believe it is over luan which is over at least a 1/2″ plywood subfloor. The product we are considering is your solid 5/16″ Brazilian Hickory. As I have asked several installers, including your distributor they seem to indicate I’m OK going over it. The exiting floor has been down 14 yrs and is in very good condition with seams intact. thks Bob
A: More than likely what you have is a glue together engineered floor. You should be ok to install over it, but you will want to install perpendicular to the current lay out of the floor. The reason behind this is that if the Mannington floor moves too much below and your Hickory is running along the same layout it is likely to telegraph up through the Hickory and cause problems. If you install in the opposite direction (perpendicular) then this movement will not telegraph directly to a single plank, and these types of problems are avoided. Since the stress of the floor below is spread across multiple rows of planks, it will not cause an issue. If the stress is only on one row of plank, you practically guarantee disaster.