Solid Hardwood, Engineered and Laminate Flooring - New laminate over old hardwood

I have a pecan hardwood floor laid on the diagonal which has faded badly due to ultraviolate exposure. I want to replace it with laminate to prevent the fading. Can I leave the old down? Can I lay the new on the same diagonal as the old on top of the old? How do you "float out" a floor to ensure it is level? There is one area where a foor joist is apparantly slightly lower than the rest.

Solid pecan flooring! You have a valuable floor. Sand and refinish and install blinds and draperies and/or sunscreen on windows to reduce ultraviolet light exposure. Engineered wood floors (wood laminate) will fade due to ultraviolet light exposure, too. All woods change color due to light exposure. Some plastic laminate manufacturers have fade warranties.

I weep to think that you wish to cover pecan flooring with manmade!! I lost our whole grove of 100 year old pecan trees to Katrina and now I am in the process of trying to salvage the wood with a portable sawmill. Have your floor professionally refinished. You will enjoy the pecan flooring much longer than you would a Pergo laminate.

i third that! :thumbup:

covering a perfectly good wood floor that's only in need of refinishing (laid on the diagonal no less!! :eek: ) with a fake wood plastic laminate is borderline criminal. shame on you for even considering it!!!!! ;)

First off, a complete refinish is going to be the same cost as an installed laminate floor(including labor)

You are going to decrease the value of your home, tremendously!



If you must...

The substrate must meet the strict 1/8" in 6' rule
Sanding and grinding the high spots(trashing your pecan wood flooring) and filling the low spots(trashing your pecan wood flooring)

Being it is a floating installation and nothing attching to the diagonal installed wood, you can install the floating laminate in the same direction.

Thank you all for your comments. I should have been more specific in the type of flooring. It is pecan wood, but it is a veneer, not solid. The floor is only 5 years old. We used a substantial amount of this pecan throughout the house and have been very disappointed in both its durability and soundness. It is supposedly glued, but it flexes so much, it must be floating. The fading is very bad near windows, but is apparent elsewhere to varying degrees. We recently had a water pipe break and part of the floor was damaged, but it appears to be adequate for a sub-floor. It will also help raise the floor to the level of a tile floor joining it. Again, thanks for your comments and I would appreciate any other suggestions, especially for leveling the floor.

It sounds as though you really want to cover this floor.I have seen people tape a 4' level onto a2"x4" stud to check for level over larger areas, I myself would work with a 4' level and a pencil, find and circle the low spots,add floor leveler (as per directions for mixing) let dry,check again,add more floor leveler where needed,then lay laminate in the desired pattern.....could you not give this floor some sanding and some tlc to bring it back around?I love natural wood so I am biased. :coffee:

Make sure you do not have any mold of any kind before you cover this floor,it will come back to haunt you in a big way.

I am inclined to think that if you already have a floating floor which flexes when you walk on it, and you added another floating floor on top of it (with another layer of foam) then you would have a floor which feels like walking on a water bed. I would also wonder if leveling compound would adhere to a flexing floor without cracking and coming loose eventually. It sounds like in your situation that you would probably do best by removing the existing floor covering before installing another.