The gluedown method of laying hardwood floors is one of the original methods of installing hardwood flooring. When you are installing hardwood flooring using the glue down method, you can rest assured that you are using a technique that has been time-tested.
Tools Needed When Installing Hardwood Flooring:
Square Notched Trowel - This trowel should have one-quarter inch sides for the application of the glue.
Broom and Dust Pan - You'll want to constantly be cleaning up any sawdust that could get stuck under your floor tiles or get stuck in your connecting joints. The last thing you need is a lumpy hardwood floor when you're done installing hardwood flooring.
Carpenter's Crayon - You'll use this to mark up the surface where you'll be laying your tiles. You'll want to keep this handy at all times because it is particularly important with the gluedown method that everything be done very precisely.
Glue - We highly recommend Bostik's Best Adhesive
Lace Nails - You'll use these nails when connecting the tiles to walls and wall strips.
Plywood Substrate Sheets - These are placed on top of the concrete and go underneath your hardwood floor.
Soft Cloths - You'll need these to clean up excess glue throughout the process of installing hardwood flooring. If the glue is allowed to set, it'll take extra measure to remove it. In some cases, it requires special chemicals to remove glue once it has set. You'll also need your soft cloths to clean up after you've installed your hardwood floors.
Rubber Gloves - It's much better to glue the fingers of your gloves together than your own fingers together!
Final Preparation for Installing Hardwood Flooring:
When using the glue down method for installing hardwood flooring, it is absolutely essential that the surface where you will be placing your flooring tiles is properly prepared. You'll be attaching your flooring tiles to this surface, so the floor must be smooth, dry, and as clean as possible to give your hardwood floor a solid support base. Be particularly careful to clean up anything that looks like it may be grease or oil, as your glue may not properly bond.
It's also very important that your subfloor be completely level and flat. If you notice any unevenness, get some patching cement from the hardware store to even the subfloor.
Since you are reading instructions about how to install hardwood floors, we'll assume you're using the Walk On method. The Walk On method of installing hardwood flooring requires precise panel laying. This process of installing hardwood flooring waits until the glue is very tacky and then lays the panel in the glue. This keeps you from getting glue smudges all over your tiles as you go. Experienced hardwood installers typically use the Walk On method because of the better finished results it can provide.
Instructions for Installing Hardwood Flooring:
1. Place your substrate sheets stretched across the foundation. Make sure that the surface is level, clean, and free of debris.
2. Get your glue warm. It should be slightly above room temperature or it will be very difficult to work with. If it's below room temperature, you'll find it impossible to work with your glue.
3. Use your square notched trowel to put glue in the starting corner of the room. Put enough to securely fasten the board, but ration your glue so that it'll be able to complete the entire hardwood flooring process. If you have any doubt about whether you have enough glue, it is a good idea to buy more before you start gluing. You'll typically find that it takes an extra day to do the flooring when you run out of glue before you've finished.
4. Try to place your first wood tile straight down on the glue, secured into the corner. Since you are working with wet glue, place the tile as best you can at first so that you'll not be smearing the glue around as you adjust the tile's placement.
5. You can continue on as in the above steps with adding more tiles until you reach the last tile, which shouldn't completely fit. Use your crayon to mark where to cut the tile and make the cut.
6. Get your first row wedged in really tight so that it will provide a solid basis for your entire floor.
7. Before any of the glue dries, use a soft cloth to clean up any glue that may be sitting on the surface of your first row. The longer you wait to clean up the glue, the more difficult it will get to clean up the glue.
8. Hopefully you didn't mutilate the excess piece of tiles you cut off to end the first row. That's going to be the tile you use to start the next row. This helps make sure your hardwood floor looks nice by having all of the tiles offset.
9. If you're seeing any bubbles, hills, or slopes on the tiles you've been laying, put a heavy, flat object on top of these sections to hold them down until the glue attaches them to the substrate.
10. Clean up again. Get all of that sawdust and glue out of there. A soft cloth with mineral spirits on it can be used to get glue you've missed that may be hardening. Clean the mineral spirits off quickly to avoid having them damage the floor. You should have a nice, new hardwood floor.
Hindsight Tips for Installing Hardwood Flooring:
-For best results, use plywood sheets to form your substrate.
-The thicker your substrate sheets are, the easier it is to compensate for leveling differences at the surface. But you should still try to get the surface as level as possible before laying your substrate sheets.
-If you have enough flat, heavy objects, place them on each new tile as you place the tiles on the floor to help each one get the best possible attachment to the substrate. Don't use anything that can damage the surface of your tiles.