Gluing down an oak floor is one of the most popular methods
of installation because it provides a very strong bond between flooring and
subfloor… that’s as long as the subfloor is strong enough in the first place.
So many floor failures that have used the glue down method are blamed on poor adhesive or poor installation practice, whereas the actual reason for failure is a poor quality subfloor that isn’t strong enough or the surface isn’t finished well enough for the adhesive to bond to.
In reality, this does actually have something to do with poor installation procedures because the installer should prove the subfloor as being suitable before any installation begins.
One of the advantages of gluing a wood floor to the subfloor is that the flooring will ‘take on’ the strength of the subfloor, so always feel like an oak floor should feel when walked upon. This allows thinner engineered boards to be used for this type of installation whilst creating a similar ‘feel’ as much thicker ones.
There are mainly two different types of adhesive available for gluing down oak flooring;
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Flexible adhesive
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Rigid adhesive.
The flexible adhesive we recommend is Sika T54 flexible adhesive; agreed it’s not the cheapest available on the market but we feel it’s the best quality.
The Sika T54 adhesive is simply poured onto the subfloor in manageable areas and spread using a Sika Notched Spreader Trowel and although the trowel detail may seem an insignificant subject to focus on, many floor failures have been contributed as being down to using the wrong size, some applying too much adhesive and some too little.
All reputable adhesive suppliers perform tests to determine what size notched trowel is best for their own adhesives, so please don’t think that ‘one size fits all’ when it comes to trowels. The size and profile of the notches control how much adhesive is applied, thus creating a ‘spread rate’ for the adhesive. Obviously if a different trowel size is used, the overall spread rate will be different too, which can affect adhesion between flooring and subfloor.
So much detail becomes important with this trowel detail;
the width of each notch, the depth, the shape and the spacing between them, all
contribute towards how the adhesive is applied and so ultimately towards the
success of the installation.
Although gluing down oak flooring is very popular and can
work very well in most situations where the subfloor is suitable, it’s not
always the best method to use because you have no way of creating an immediate
‘fix’ for the flooring planks, so oak flooring that is not true and straight
can be virtually impossible to install using this method.
Another very important aspect of gluing down an oak floor is to prevent any of the adhesive from reaching the face of the board, especially on prefinished products. If this does happen, it’s vital that it gets cleaned off before it starts to set because it can create a stain on the finished board.
At Oak Floors Online we also recommend that when the glue
down method is used, every board is glued together using a good quality Joint Adhesive. This will prevent annoying creaks and squeaks from developing over
time as the floor gets used, by preventing the joints between the boards from
‘rubbing’ against each other during varying seasons of the year.
More information on the different installation methods is available by clicking on these links;
