Solid Hardwood, Engineered and Laminate Flooring - hardwood flooring....glue or floating?

hi,

we just moved into a slab ranch, and we would like to put down hardwood floors.

we will be hiring people to put it down.

the problem.....

we have an old tile floor under the carpet....our fear is that its real old tile and may contain asbetos. (excuse on the spelling). we are not looking to pull up the tile floor.

anyway, the question i have:

we have been looking at a million samples, and everyone tells us that we have too have a floating floor, however, there hasnt been one that really grabbed me, untill.....

we went into one store, and found the hardwood floor we really liked, but the salesperson said that it didnt come as a floating floor, but they can glue it to the tile.

does that sound right? can you glue a hardwood floor to tile? or does it have to be floating?

i hate to spend alot of money, and then find out down the road, that we should never of glued the hardwood floor to the tile...

has anyone heard of this?

any help would be great, i know nothing about hardwood floors and im at the mercy of a salesperson....

thanks
andrew222

Yes,some hardwoods and engineered woods can be glued down in the right circumstances..The tile needs to be stuck really ,really good to glue directly to the tile and even then it is a scary thing cause you are relying on the tile to stay put over the life of the new floor and that is very unlikely.So the best thing would be to remove it and start over.So if that is not an option then make sure you get a good warranty from them and that they are reputable and will back this installation :cool:

thanks floorman,

one more thing, would it be best to just put the floating floor down, and not take any chances?

the floor we found was wide pine, hand craved, apalacian...something like that....its very expensive, but i love it....but if its going to cause a problem, maybe down the road, i rather not take the chance...

what do you think? what would you do?

i know nothing about wood flooring, as you can tell

andrew222

Dear Andrew:

Just came across your post. If you feel your old floor might contain asbestos DO NOT attempt to remove it yourself!

I once owned an old house built in the 50's, it had an asbestos tile floor. It was down solid. I layed a wood floor (glue down) over it. 10 years later its still holding like iron. Sold the house and moved across the street. The new owner has never had a problem. So if that floor is down, leave it.

Any asbestos products these days by law, have to be removed by professionals in special protective suits because the stuff is so deadly once disturbed.

Aimee