The Flooring Expert

Q: I am building a screened-in "porch" over a pre-existing patio. The patio has a cement floor and I want to install a wood floor over it. Sleepers will raise the new floor about 5 inches above the cement slab, but will not be ventilated. The room will have a roof, but the screens will allow for some weather. I had considered using Mahogany decking, but planned to install without any spacing. I am now afraid this will buckle with changes in humidity and have changed my thinking to a tongue and groove porch decking material. I am not sure of what would be best in this situation. Do you have any recommendations?

A: When exposing wood to uncontrolled climate, such as the great outdoors, it is key to keep in mind you must use product suited for this application. Although this patio will have a ceiling, it is best to treat it as you would a deck. Using a tongue and groove decking material for your patio should work, but keep in mind you will want to leave room for expansion similar to installing any hardwood floor. This should help alleviate worry of buckling issues you might run into. You will also want to acclimate your product so that the wood's moisture content is within 2-3% of the subfloor of your patio. Keep in mind, this can take awhile as the environment you are installing in is not controlled like the interior of your home and if this area has some open air below the decking without having ventilation your could run into issues with moisture accumulation beneath the floor.

Beyond patience in allowing for acclimation and account for some expansion room to ensure the floor does not buckle, treat this similar to a deck by ensuring proper weather sealing is on the floor decking. Do not use residential flooring for a project like this, as it is not suited for the uncontrolled outdoor environments. I hope this helps you out for your project.

Follow-up: After some review by a co-worker of mine, I realized that I forgot to mention a good product to take a look at for this would be slat decking such as the ones iFLOOR.com carries by Vifah. Vifah's snap together plank decking is very easy to install, is well suited for a deck or outdoor porch, and its a great looking product. Now if your specifically after a single plank look rather than the slated look of Vifah's deck planking, you will want to ensure the planks you purchase are made for outdoor use, such as decking and make sure its properly water sealed.

Q: What type of flooring goes over cement subfloors?

A: There are several floors you can put over a cement subfloor. Floors that can be installed as a floating floor are your best bet for installing over concrete floors. You can also install most floors which are suitable for a glue-down installation over concrete, such as 5/16” solid hardwood products from Bruce and Westhollow. You can also look at glue-down Bamboo and Cork flooring.

I will caution you that glue-down floors are very difficult to install and I do NOT recommend this as a DIY project. If there is a floor you really want to install that can't be floated and is suitable for a glue-down install, contact a professional to have this installed. When installing over concrete, especially in basements, I would suggest a floating floor, such as laminate, engineered bamboo and hardwoods, or cork flooring. Also, make sure you use a vapor barrier along with your underlayment when floating a floor over concrete.

Always ensure the floor you choose is approved to be installed over concrete by the manufacturer and ensure the installation is done up to the manufacturer's standards to ensure you keep your warranty.

Q: We are planning on a new solid hardwood floor. In order to eliminate a height difference between rooms the new hardwood will be installed over a new sub floor (13/16") on top of the existing plywood. We "live on the water", in southwestern Ontario. There is a heated/AC crawl space under this floor. During the winter the house is empty, with the heat set at approx:55 degrees.

Jack

A: First of all I suggest using an engineered product. Engineered products are naturally far more stable, and the more plies the better. Stability is key when trying to combat movement in your floor. Wood being a natural product will expand and contract due to temperature and moisture which can cause nasty things like buckling, gapping or warping when proper expansion room and installation procedure is not observed. Bellefloor is an excellent example of a great engineered product that would be great for your project and will still look and feel great. Also, engineered floors are more common in wide plank appearance.

Movement will occur because of the air flow with your crawl space, but more importantly because of the temperature you leave your home at during the winter. This is an issues referred to as “Empty House Syndrome” (don't get this confused with Empty Nest Syndrome, Empty House Syndrome is a flooring term), but basically when people leave a home for a specific season, and leave the home at lower temperature to save on bills, this temperature change causes the floor to contract and buckle. Your best protective measure will be to keep you home around 62 to 64 degrees Fahrenheit. In regards to the crawl space the Wood Flooring Manufacturer's Association states:

NOFMA recommends that a crawlspace be kept dry. Water, mud or excessively damp earth should not be present. A good ground cover (6-mil poly or equivalent) over 100% of the crawlspace earth should be installed as an effective moisture barrier, and good cross ventilation should be present.

Now if using a solid product is your only choice, I would suggest that you use a hand scrapped to hide the movement that will occur. Mullican makes some great solid hand scrapped products which could fit this project. You can also consider Somerset's Hand Scrapped Collection. My best suggestion to help avoid cupping or warping would be to follow a few precautions.

Initially, give the wood plenty of time to acclimate. Normally acclimation is done for 3 days to a week, but in this case, make sure the wood is in the room and is allowed to acclimate for upwards of a month. Sounds like a long time I know, but it will help to ensure the wood is accustomed to the area it will be installed. Keep your indoor temperature controlled for the same temperature all year long (low to mid 60s Fahrenheit being your best bet). Ensure your crawlspace has proper moisture protection and ventilation. Going ahead with the installation use 15 lb roofing felt instead of resin paper. Specs call out for gluing and nailing 5" and wider boards, Large tubes of construction mastic, just a lazy "S" down the board or on the subfloor then set and nail, I would use 2" cleats when nailing down the solid.

Q: We have installed carpet in our basement and had flood so we remove the carpet and needs to install the new flooring, but not carpet and ceramic tile. what is the best flooring for the basement with flooding problem? Please advise.

Thank You,
Raksha

A: If you're encountering flooding issues do NOT install any new flooring of any kind. What ever is causing your flooding should be addressed before installing any new flooring. Until then I would honestly leave the concrete bare to help identify issues in the subfloor.

I had similar issues in my own home and have taken many measures to prevent flooding in my basement. Unfortunately money doesn't grow on trees, (but what interesting flooring that would make!) so my basement is still bare concrete while we have tested to see which issues have been resolved and what issues we may have missed.

Until you finish ensuring flooding will not occur, which I would suggest going through the season where you experience flooding with the concrete bare. Identify what is causing the flooding and work to resolve these issues. Once they are resolved, leave the concrete bare for at least a full year and see if any flooding or excessive moisture occurs. If so, which is what happened in my case ruining some nice new rooms I had built because I had not waited long enough (assumptions can cause a world of headaches), continue working to resolve your flooding issues. If you experience no moisture issues then you can work to find a new floor. Until you have resolved your flooding issues, do NOT install a new floor (unless of course you want to put in a new floor every time it floods).

Good luck to you as I know this process can be a pain.

Q: Thanks for all the informative articles on laminate flooring. I still have one question before purchasing. Perhaps you can help. I want to put new flooring down in my utility room and kitchen. I have read the info about water in utility room and I am taking that into consideration. My question is-
Is there a laminate that WILL NOT show scratch marks from dog's toe nails? I am considering laminate or vinyl.

Thank you.

A: I'm glad you like Steve's educational articles such as Brand Wars II: A Laminate Showdown.

When it comes to putting a floor in an area where you are more likely to encounter water, such as bathrooms, kitchens, and utility rooms (I've had my washer flood a few times sadly); the mind set of wood and water do NOT mix is good to keep in mind. Now several people have had past with various floors in these areas including 3/4” solid hardwood floors which I tend to cringe at the thought of installing in a high potential moisture area.

Your major question has to do with pets, namely dog toe nails. Unfortunately with wood flooring, even super tough floors like AC5 rated laminates, no floor is impervious to damage. That being said, if you keep your dog's nails trimmed this will significantly help in reducing scratches.

In your case, when combining dogs and water, I would honestly suggest using a vinyl product or a higher rated laminate such as Westhollow's Vise-Loc series. Using cheaper laminates would not be advised.

Congoleum makes a very nice, very easy to install wood looking vinyl in their forum plank and regal plank collections. This way you can still get the great look of wood, but the durability and benefits of a vinyl. This is actually one of Steve's top picks for DIY friendly products and from the time I have had to look over the Congoleum planks myself, it looks great!

Keep in mind, nothing will be impervious to traffic from our furry friends, but with a few precautions such as trimming nails we can vastly improve the longevity of a floor. Our purchasing specialist, Ryan W., related the story of his own floor and pet experience. Ryan has Westhollow's South American Walnut installed in his home with his dog Jin. Jin is an 85 lbs. Dog who loves playing. Ryan mentioned that he has had this floor for 2 years without a single mark on it. He mentioned occasionally when Jin “gets a bit crazy” he'll leave white marks on the floor, but these are from his nails and not damage to the floor. A simple wipe with a lightly dampened cloth and they are gone.

Here is a picture Ryan took of his floor, you'll notice a few of the white marks left by Jin's nails (and the use of a nice area rug to protect the floor with furniture over the top)

Here's a picture of Ryan's dog Jin. To give you and idea of the type of dog running over his laminate floor.

Ryan and I both agree that if the room has high humidity or there are issues with standing water, such as a leak from a washer, then laminate might not be the best bet. Ryan commented "If the room has normal moisture in the air, 28 to 40 percent, then it should be no issue. You just can't put wet clothes on the floor or leave standing water on it, like I always say: it's a floor not a pool and if you treat it like a floor then you should have little or no issues"

So, as long as you trim your dog's nails and prevent moisture issues like standing water or high humidity, a good laminate can stand the test of time even with medium sized dog like Jin. Now keep in mind, some rather large dogs like Great Danes or St. Bernards might not be as forgiving to a floor and now floor is impervious to damage, but many are rather tough. Good luck!

Q: I’m a professional builder. I’ve installed a number of laminate floors for clients. 5 (?) years ago I used Wilsonart’s Classic line in a couple of rooms in my own home. I’ve been pleased with the results. When I chose the Wilsonart Classic product five or so years ago it was a glue-up product (click-lock was just coming on to the scene). I chose the Wilsonart product after careful consideration of composition, warranty, oxides etc. Price was not a consideration. I was and am more concerned about durability and performance.

Tim O.
Seattle, WA

A: Tim thank you for the excellent question. Furniture like pianos or pool tables where they have concentrated point-loads become a subject of various questions when installing a hard surface floor.

Laminate nowadays is very similar brand to brand in the sense of core density. Also, most locking mechanisms are similar in the concept and application. The key points to focus on for your project would be underlayment, furniture cups and the floor.

Furniture cups are big on ANY wood floor. This will prevent the furniture from making direct contact with your wood floor and provides a buffer which will help to prevent denting and scratching.

In regards to underlayment, you will want to use a dense underlayment, which in this case I would suggest 6mm cork. This will keep your floating floor stable and the natural qualities of cork will prevent it from breaking down some over time.

In regards to the floor there are a few approaches to take. Since this will be a floating floor, you can look at some of the click-together engineered hardwood floors, such as Philharmoniker's line. The advantage to an engineered hardwood is the value it adds to your home along with the beauty of real wood. Should you wish to use a laminate, I would suggest using an AC4 rated floor at the minimum. Personally I would look for a thicker laminate such as the 12mm offered with Westhollow's Vise-Loc line or 10mm laminate like Pergo® Select.

The issue you will run into with laminate is that most of the really well built laminates have a beveled edge. Keep in mind, these bevels are designed to give a more realistic look to the floor. Micro bevels rarely cause issues with cleaning because of how slight they are.

If you want to avoid a bevel, you might want to consider an engineered hardwood over laminate. If the bevel issue is less important than finding a product with the specs to work with your piano, there are several great laminates to look at such as the Westhollow Vise-Loc, Pergo Select, Quickstep Perspective.

I will also mention that I know several customers, even in the commercial aspect, whom have had great experiences with cork flooring for similar applications, which could easily fit the project you have here as well if your not dead set on the wood plank appearance.

To sum everything up: get a dense underlayment (6mm cork is preferred), a good floor, and furniture cups. If you want a floating floor, look into engineered hardwood, an AC4 or AC5 rated laminate or cork.

Q: My husband and I cannot settle on flooring for our house. currently there is about 4x4 tile in the entry way and it continues with carpet the rest of the entry way, living room and dining room areas. Then there is tile in the family room that continues into a breakfast nook. I want to keep carpet in the living room only. Put hardwood floor or laminate in the entry and dining area.

Thanks,
Irma G

A: This will be heavily dependent on the floor you choose and the look you wish to achieve. If you want to have a more unique look and feel to each are of your home, this would be a perfect way to go, as each room can have an entirely different floor.

Now if you want a coordinating look, this will be difficult, but can be done and if done properly will be well worth the time put in. If you have lighter colored carpet and tile, try looking at natural White Oak, Maple and even American cherry. For darker tones, look into walnut, various stains like gunstock, or some of the exotic woods like Ipe and Jatoba.

Another approach is to have a floor that is opposite to the current carpet, but still gives an elegant look. Such as white or cream carpeting to a rich floor like Brazilian Cherry or Kempas or a great character floor like Tigerwood. The goal here is to mix elegant with a casual/contemporary feel to give a blend that just looks phenomenal.

The key thing for your project is to find a floor you love and then ensure your transition work is done well. In the end, I would say you can get a truly great looking floor by mixing these three, but its a matter of finding a floor both you and your husband love and then taking the time to coordinate transition work and any decorations in your home.

Good luck to you on this project!

Q: We are looking at putting hardwood floor / laminate in our home. Just wondered what you would recommend for a high traffic area, plus we have 2 kids and a dog. We need something durable. Our home has white wash oak trim throughout, was wondering also if this would be a wise choice for flooring being it is a lighter color.

Thanks!
Tami S.

A: When looking for a durable floor laminate is a great choice. As we discussed about Ryan W.'s dog Jin and his floor. A good AC4 or AC5 rated laminate with proper care taken will stand up great to the traffic of kids and a dog.

The key here is keep your dog's nails trimmed and ensure you used a good underlayment along with purchasing a good floor. You can also look into several engineered hardwood floors, such as Bellefloor or Philharmoniker, but if you want to ensure greater durability go with a laminate.

Try taking a look at Westhollow's Vise-Loc products, Pergo Select, or Quick Step's Perspective for a few great laminates that should fit your project. I would personally suggest using a 3mm cork underlayment below the floor to give it a great feel, reduce sound, and to have an underlayment which is naturally better at handling higher traffic.

Here is another special boost of information from Ryan W. helping folks out with a flooring question for their upcoming wine room.

Q: Ryan,

Sincerely,

John and Jean

A: I would not recommend a floating cork because the core material (HDF) does not like high moisture in the air. For a wine room a glue down cork tile would work perfect.

Ryan

Q: I have read all the great articles on your site comparing solid and engineered wood floors and laminates. Great articles. I have read the recommendations / reviews of the hardwoods and laminates that you have created. Again - great stuff.

Thanks - Kevin

A: There are several approaches you can take at this point. I understand why your builder suggests avoiding a wood floor, but you can use a wood floor with active dogs. There are a few things you can do to increase the lifespan of a wood floor and drastically decreases the likeliness of scratching from your dogs.

To begin, you will want to find a good floor. Typically this is achieved with a AC4 or AC5 rated laminate such as Pergo Select, Westhollow, Wilsonart Red Label, and Quickstep Perspective. AC4 and AC5 rated laminate is where you begin to run into laminates that can take light commercial traffic, meaning they are tough. You can also look into the route of an engineered hardwood floor. Based on the weight of your dogs, I would suggest getting a wood that is at least as hard as white oak. Anything softer, like American Cherry or Black Walnut, will be too soft and is likely to dent.

Scratches will occur over time no matter the wood floor you choose, even the toughest laminates will get some scratching. When scratching occurs, it usually causes a white colored streak ad the finish is scratched. Over time these will blend in a bit and not be white streaks across your floor.

With your dogs, I suggest keeping their nails trimmed. This will drastically reduce the potential for scratching from your dogs. Beyond keeping your dogs' nails trimmed, if you keep up proper maintenance and cleaning you will increase the lifespan of your floor and keep your floor looking great.

As I always suggest with any floating floor, get a good underlayment. With active dogs, I'd suggest my underlayment of choice: cork. Due to cork's density, cork can stand the test of time far better than other underlayments – plus it feels great under your feet. You can also use Sound 6 Barrier Acoustical Underlayment to get the best sound out of your floor. Laminate will have a “hollow” or “clicky”sound when walked over, but this is reduced by underlayment, so the better the underlayment, the better the sound. Sound 6 is designed specifically to reduce sound and give a more solid wood floor sound.

In regards to the repetition with laminate, if you intend to put the same floor throughout your home you could run into this issue, which is why an engineered hardwood could be a route to consider. One thing you can do to reduce this, is to pull planks of the floor from 5 – 6 boxes at a time when laying a floor. This will help to randomize the appearance. Another approach you can take is to use a different floor in each area, which will give each room its own look along with helping to hide repetition.

For your kitchen, tile can be great as it can take a lot of abuse without getting scratched. Also, tile is great when it comes to moisture worries. However, you can keep with a wood floor, as it seems your own Pergo has stood the test of time.

When it comes to cost, laminate and engineered hardwood can save a great deal of money when compared to solid hardwood floors, and engineered wood floors add great value to your home. A few things I suggest, look into financing and find a floor you love. Don't buy a floor just because the price is good, find one that fits your project and the look you want. Financing is common these days and can be a great way to make the cost of a new floor easier to handle, which is part of the reason why iFLOOR.com offers financing, to help our customers get the floor they want.

I hope this helps you make decisions on your new floor and when you do get everything done, send us some pictures!

Q: I've been Googling in a search for waterproof flooring that's not tile. I found one company, Foresta Waterproof Flooring, which makes fake wood out of PVC but they have no distributor in Florida. I need only about 700 square feet, so a wholesaler isn't going to be too interested.

Marilyn S.

A: My first bit of advice is do NOT install wood flooring or carpet, as both are susceptible to water especially wood floors. Wood and water do not mix! I will mention I do not prefer installing any flooring when there are continual moisture issues, but at the same time I understand your plight and since the area in question is not a basement, you have some room to work here.

The floor I would suggest looking at for this particular project is Mannington's iCORE. Before we get into talking about this product I will warn you that all of my vendors for this product get this as a special order only, which means they don't allow returns on it. What does this mean for you? It could be very difficult to find a decent display of this product locally.

iCORE itself is similar to laminate, but with a composite core rather than wood. iCORE has a rather tedious install process, but once done it is a great product. For iCORE, you will need to use splines and an adhesive to connect each plank to the next plank, but in doing this you get a great stable core. The only issue you could run into with iCORE is it is meant to be floated over an underlayment; however, you could glue this product down to ensure nothing in your floor will get moisture damage. Since the flooding issues you are encountering are not considered “normal use” any warranty you have would be voided by a flood.

The good news is, this floor was designed for higher moisture environments, like a bathroom. So if your looking for a floor that can handle some water, iCORE is a good one to take a look at.

Q: We are considering using a cork or bamboo flooring for our three season porch. Being from Minnesota where temps often get below 0 degrees, is this a problem for those materials? Also the porch has several steps, can these materials be used there?

Thanks
Marilyn

A: I would NOT use bamboo or cork flooring in this case. Being wood, they will expand and contract drastically from the conditions they would be exposed to. This will cause gapping that will be very obvious and you will likely see the product warp as well.

I spoke with Tad A., Director of our Installation Program, and he stressed that if you chose to use flooring for this project it would instantly void your warranty because it is being used outside. Gene D. gave me some additional insight from Pete over at APC Cork (great products). To quote Pete “It would not hold up to the elements.”

You will want to look into a decking based solution, essentially you need a product that is built for outdoor use. If you can find a bamboo decking then you'll be set, but using flooring will not hold up to the temperature extremes and you will not have any warranty on the floor.

Q: After the laminate flooring is installed, I plan to move the large (8' tall) bookcases that are currently in a small hard-wood-floored bedroom to the newly floored room. These bookcases will line at least one wall, possibly two facing walls, and then be filled with books. I decided to go with laminate flooring because I was concerned that they would not be particularly stable on the current floor covering (carpeting). They are now and will be pretty heavy. Is there a problem with that, particularly since that will keep the laminate from using its "breathing space" near the wall? Is there anything special I should do?

Melinda

A: With such large bookcases, I would suggest putting the book cases in place before installing your new laminate. With how floating floors work, putting such heavy objects on one side of the floor near a wall will tilt the floor a bit and is bad for the stability of the floor. In the case of pianos, they don't line an entire wall so you can make that work, but with 8' tall book cases across an entire wall I would heavily suggest installing the floor after putting in the book cases.

Follow-up Q: I'm glad I asked! I haven't removed the carpet yet, and thus am not sure of the look of the underfloor. But when we move out some day, we'll take the bookcases with us. The resulting holes along the edge of the walls will not be pretty. But, assuming we do put the bookcases in over the subfloor, then put in the laminate flooring up to the bookcases (with expansion room), would we be looking at some transition element, like a baby threshold, alongside the bookcases?

But maybe laminate flooring is not the solution. Do you have any other recommendations? I can use a saw, hammer, level, straightedge, and lever, and didn't figure laminate flooring required gobs of strength, just patience.

A: If you have a wood subfloor, I would look into a floor you can nail down (3/4" solid being your best bet). Solid floors that are directly anchored to a floor will have no issue with your book cases. The other major benefit to a solid hardwood is it adds great value to your home. Laminate will add some value, but in the end it is laminate. (The good ones are durable as all get out though!) You can also look at an engineered hardwood floor, but make sure to use a harder wood with minimum hardness of white oak. (Avoid American Cherry, Black walnut and similar soft woods as they will dent under the book cases). Westhollow and Woodstock make some excellent solid and engineered hardwood floors (for this project I would suggest a pre-finished floor as the finish for these two companies is rather tough).

When it comes to transitions if you use a floating floor I would suggest using end caps/square nose. These will give the floor a smooth looking end to the floor and can go up against the book cases.

In regards to the platform-like approach for your book cases. You could build an area of flooring just for the cases, then put in t-molds to cover the gap between that and the remainder of the floor, but honestly I would look into a nail-down application for this project, as floating floors aren't designed to handle large furniture as effectively.

Q: I am considering laying a high end 9/16" thick x 3-3/4" wide engineered oak floor over concrete in 3 rooms and 2 hallways. I intend to glue the floor to the concrete. Except for one hallway, the rooms and a second hallway are all part of a common area. The total area is 860 sq feet.

I sincerely appreciate any advice you can offer to assure a successful outcome with this project.....
Bill Rahm

A: The advice you have been given is correct. As long as your drywall is installed properly you should only need a 3/8” gap; however, if you want to be safe, use a 1/2” gap. A very important thing to note is th ensure you under cut your door jambs to account for the height of the floor.

The big benefit of an engineered floor is the ability for the floor to control expansion and contraction from the cross-ply lamination used to make the product. I would heavily suggest looking into a product with seven or more plies. This will control your expansion/contraction concerns without need for transitions.

Beyond this, the only suggestion I can give you is to use a good glue, such as Bostik's Best. Take time with your installation and follow all of the suggestions and your floor project will come out great.

Q: Dear Steve,

Sincerely,
Marilee B.

A: Steve has been real busy since his return from his trip to Europe getting everyone ready for the great new stuff we'll have coming in along with the great information he learned over there, so I decided to tackle this question as it is a growing concern with folks looking into a new floor.

Formaldehyde outgassing is normally only a problem with bamboo floors, especially strand woven bamboo floors, because of the glues used to make these products.

For those unfamiliar with outgassing, this is what occurs to products containing glue where over time they will slowly release low amounts of vapor as the glue continually cures in the product. This is similar to why you need a moisture barrier for concrete, the concrete will continually out gas water vapor over time (since concrete is a moisture based product).

Outgassing, also called offgassing, is most commonly associated with bamboo floors because the adhesives used to make bamboo flooring contain some formaldehyde. Although this is in minimal amounts with the higher quality products, such as Westhollow and Panda Bamboo. Keep in mind, its not like these products have a continual stream of poisonous fumes coming from them, but rather very minimal amounts, which becomes far less with higher quality products. Despite these amounts, people with certain allergies or sensitivities can have issues with these types of floors. These emissions are monitored and graded, so when you see an E0 or E1 product, your looking at a product with minimal emissions, meaning these are best if you have chemical sensitivity like Marilee.

With laminate you should not encounter these problems; however, if you want a truly eco-friendly product look into a floating cork. Cork is a great hypoallergenic product and since many of the cork floors are made in a floating click-together format you will be able to install it virtually anywhere.

Now if thickness is a major concern, you will want to look into a laminate. There are glue down versions of cork, but you might not want to risk it with your chemical sensitivity (although the good mastic adhesives out there don't use formaldehyde.) Adhesives such as Bostik's Best which are urethane based or DriTac which is a water based adhesive made to work best with cork tile would be your best bet in this case. Many adhesives also have an anti-microbial additive and moisture sealant to prevent mold, mildew, and other allergenic nightmares from occurring between your subfloor and flooring.

Another note on glue down cork is to look into using contact cement. Gene D. has always told me whenever he lays down cork tile, he will always use a contact cement over urethane and water based flooring adhesives. A good contact cement to use would be Fastbond 30 or Fastbond 40 (the only difference is solvent vs water base). When using a contact cement, make sure your subfloor is clean, then apply (usually rolled on) 2 coats to the subfloor and 1 coat to the cork and follow instructions and everything will turn out great.

If you allow the proper cure time and were to ventilate your home well during the installation (although you would most likely need to stay in a hotel or such during the install time to be safe) this would be a very good route to go.

So to sum up, formaldehyde in flooring is usually only found in bamboo flooring. Laminate will work in this case, but a great eco-friendly and hypoallergenic option would be cork. If the thickness of the floor is a big issue, you will want to use a glue down cork with a mastic adhesive such as Bostik's or DriTac, or look into laminate.

Q: I have a quick question. I'm interested in reflooring all of our downstairs - living, dining, kitchen, half-bath and laundry area. I am very interested in cork for most of the areas. What is a good, eco-green, flooring option for the laundry and half-bath other than tile? I just don't like cold, hard tile.

Melisa L.

A: When it comes to an eco-friendly choice for flooring, Cork really is the top choice. You can look into using the same Cork in the half-bath and laundry room as long as you follow some simple precautions. Since we go by the philosophy of wood and water don't mix, avoid standing water at all costs. Since the bathroom is only a half, this will be great as there is little likeliness for water getting on the flooring, but should you have any ensure to clean it up asap.

With your laundry room, just ensure to not leave any wet clothing on the floor. If this is something that can not be avoided, you could try looking into vinyl tile. Although the tile will be a bit colder than cork, it won't be like stone or porcelain tile.

When installing the floor in these areas, just ensure to take your time and you may want to look into getting a site finish to ensure some additional protection.

Q: I am wanting to replace the carpet and vinyl in an “L” shaped area that is my living (approx 310 sq. ft.) and dining area (approx 110 sq. ft.) with wood floors. My home is only 5 years old, located in Charlotte NC with a concrete slab sub floor. I am very interested in the Westhollow Wood 3/8” Engineered 3” Bubinga Deep Cognac floor and I plan on installing it myself. I have no animals that can scratch the floor and everyone takes their shoes off when you enter the house. My questions are as follows:

Susan S.

A: The Bubinga flooring from Westhollow is a great floor. Being an engineered, its built to resist expansion and contraction from temperature and is also built to float or be glued to a concrete subfloor. Is this a good choice? Yes, especially if you love the color.

We recently had a new batch of the Bubinga come in, so I took a trip over to our sample department to get acquainted with the new batch of this great floor. If you're looking for a rich color, the Bubinga is amazing. With any floor, I would highly suggest getting samples to actually have a piece of the floor in your hand. Another suggestion I have is to order multiple samples of a floor your set on, then put a few of them together and lay them down. This will give you an idea of how the edges look.

With the Westhollow engineered products, they have a great species/wear layer and in the case of the Bubinga the color goes all the way through the species layer. What your neighbor's floor is (by my guess of course) is a stained floor, where the stain is not through the product, so different colors can be seen. Also, the micro bevel on this product helps accent the individual boards while still allowing you to see only the rich color of the floor. This is the major benefit of any bevel, it will accent each board, but with a micro bevel you will have no worries of dust accumulation as the bevel is so slight.

A straight or square edge will show each board less dramatically. One issue that can occur with square edges is that slight differences in floor height become more obvious than when you have beveled edges.

As far as showing dust, darker colors will show dust more than light colors (just like cars). You will see a bit more dust with this floor than something like a white oak or natural maple, but if you keep up a good cleaning schedule (about once a week) this should really be no issue.

For underlayment, I highly suggest using Cork. The reasons behind Cork being such a superb underlayment are numerous, but the big things to focus on here is the density of the cork and the sound suppression granted by Cork. This will give you a comfortable yet solid feeling and sounding floor. This will make it sound a bit more like a 3/4” solid floor. Keep in mind, this is only if you intend to float the floor.

If you have heavier furniture (book cases, entertainment centers, etc) you may want to look into gluing this floor down. Should you go this route I would highly suggest having it done by a professional, but with a good cork underlayment you should be ok to float this floor without issue. In the case of a glue down, iFLOOR's installer in the Charlotte area, Jose N., is amazing. Recently he was given an 11 out of 5 star rating from a customer which speaks for the work and service he provides. (For the Spinal Tap fans, Jose goes to 11).

One thing to keep in mind is smaller widths (like the 3” vs the 5” Bubinga) will make a room seem larger, but this also happens with lighter colors. The bevels, which accent each board, will also help to make it seem like there are more boards in the floor, thus helping to open the room up. The darker hue of this floor will give it a bit of a formal look, but also the great color is one that is a real treat to see, so it will definitely be seen when someone enters your home.

Here's a few tips. This is a glue-together floor when it is being floated. This means you will need to use a tongue and groove adhesive between each board to anchor the boards together over the floor. Usually you will use a thin 1/8” bead of glue in the groove then slide the tongue of the next board into place, but always follow the suggestions from the manufacturer.

Order a couple of samples so you can see this floor in person. Put a few of the samples together to see how the edges will look and get a feel for the floor in your home (although I'm sure you'll love it, I do). My final tip would be to take your time if you're going to install this yourself. I do encourage you to visit our team down at the Charlotte store and get any tips they may have for you. Nate B. has a great floor in his home from Westhollow and I'm sure he can give you some great insight from his own experiences with his floor in the Charlotte area.

My final tip is to acclimate your floor. Give the floor plenty of time to acclimate to your home (I suggest a week or more). This will help to prevent any expansion and contraction issues because the floor should be accustomed to the environment of your home and will ensure your remains beautiful 10 years from now, just as it was when it was installed.

Q: I want to replace carpet floor covering on two different sets of stairs and am confused about what would be the best choice other than more carpet.

Pamela D.

A: When it comes to stairs there are several choices you can make. I personally am a big proponent of hard surface flooring. This being said, I understand your wish to avoid carpet.

Let's tackle the stairs with existing wood first. I would have someone take a look at these stairs to ensure they can be properly refinished before pushing too far into your project. If they can, you will want them sanded, sealed and finished with at least 2 coats of a good finish like Glitsa's Infinity II or Bona's Traffic. You can also look into staining these stairs during the refinish process to get a color you desire.

Should you need to replace these stairs, then you can pick out any flooring type you prefer that has accessories for stairs such as hardwood or bamboo. I don't know of any cork floors with matching nosing for stairs, so you will most likely want to avoid looking into cork.

For your other set of stairs, I would look into a new wood or bamboo floor. The benefit of bamboo is that it is very easy to obtain solid treads and risers, making the install both easy and clean looking. The downside to bamboo is the lack of color choices you will get. Hardwood on the other hand gives you a myriad of choices and looks great when installed.

When it comes to stairs, I highly suggest contacting a professional installer as they can be difficult and you want them to look great. For the DIY folks, make sure you take your time with stair install, measure carefully and cut even more carefully. Install tread, then the riser above the tread, starting from the bottom of your stairs and moving to the top. Afterward install your stringers (also called skirt boards). This will allow you to cover all of your cuts and make the stairs look great.

Q: We have two questions about a job we are about to start:

Lev

Here you can see a couple of pictures Lev sent in of his basement to garage transition

A: Concrete is a major factor in determining what floors you can not use. Normally for a comfortable floor over concrete I would suggest cork, but when you factor in an underfloor heating system it throws the proverbial monkey wrench into the thought. Cork, being a natural insulator, hampers how well heat transfers from radiant heat systems. This is based on the R rating of the heating system you are using, as thinner cork (like using 3mm cork underlayment vs 6mm cork underlayment for floating floors) will insulate less heat than thicker cork.

On concrete with a radiant heat style system, I would look into using a floating floor. For bamboo you could look into Springwood, which makes an excellent engineered floating bamboo. Laminate is king when it comes to durability, so this can be another great choice. Engineered hardwood can also work in this application.

If a major concern is comfort for your kids, you may want to look into carpet. Although I personally like to avoid carpet, it is undeniable comfortable under foot and warmer than hard surfaces like tile and linoleum. We carry carpet tile made by Milliken which comes with preattached padding, making it easy to install. Also, the tile format of this carpet allows you to buy multiple colors to create patterns and interesting visually looks to your floor beyond the simple look of a single color of standard carpet by the roll.

In the end, my suggestion would be to decided if you want a wood floor or a comfortable floor. Here's the steps I would take to decide what floor choice is going to work out best. First check the R value maximum for the underfloor heating you intend to use. This will help to narrow down your field. Afterward decide what floor choices will be both comfortable and durable. Cork is great, but if its R value is too high you will need to look into carpet or a floating wood floor. Laminate will give you the best durability along with the look of wood, but it is a harder surface than cork or carpet.

Now to address your transition, I would treat this just like a normal stair. Floor it to match the garage (if possible) and then use a t-mold or similar transition to cover the change from tile to the flooring in the garage.

Follow-Up: Lev and I have gone into depth about this project. Lev mentioned he has had a flooding issue in the past and was a bit worried about the stale or damp smell that could occur with carpet.

Q: Thank you for your excellent guidance. Based on what you indicated, we will give up on the ramp idea. We are inclined to have a small step down. We are attaching some photos for you to peruse. The current step is about 3 1/2". Since we are putting in a heat element under whatever floor we choose, plus the new floor in the garage, we will eat up about another inch in the garage. So the "stair" would only be about 2 1/2".

--Lev

Here you can see a bit more of Lev's garage.

Lev also followed up to mention that they intend to remove about 2ft of the wall to the left of the entry way when looking from the garage to the basement, similar to the view in the photo above.

A: After looking at your tile and tossing a few ideas around I have a few suggestions. First, I think the step down will be fine as it adds some design element you can work with.

If your worried about another flood of some form, I would avoid a wood floor. Wood and water do NOT mix. You could look into a vinyl tile with wood appearance, such as Congoleum's Forum Plank.

If it is very unlikely you will encounter water issues again or you have resolved the issue in your home that caused this previous flood, give cork a serious look. I mentioned that cork is an insulator and to investigate the R value of your heating system, but after seeing your tile I think you would have great success using a pattern similar to the Labrador pattern from Westhollow.

I had a short conversation with Steve while he was making his rounds for the day and he offered up this great bit of info. Cork flooring causes a 3 – 5% reduction in heat generated by a radiant heat system. He also mentioned you will see more if you use cork underlayment, but if you use 3mm underlayment you would still have plenty of success with this combo. When it comes to a wood floor and comfort, Cork really is the best stuff out there hands down. Cork also is naturally moisture resistant (hence why its used for bottle stoppers), so small spills won't be a big worry as long as they are cleaned up in a timely manner.

If you want wood, I would look into a good click together floor like the ones made by Philharmoniker. Also, try to avoid a softer species like American Cherry or Black Walnut. Find something that is at a very minimum, equal in hardness as White Oak otherwise you could run into issues where your children playing will cause denting in the floor.

In regards to the slant, you will always want a floor to be flat. However, if you have a 1/4” slant across the entirety of the garage and the floor is even along this slant, meaning no variation side to side, you should be fine with a floating floor over a good underlayment. I would avoid using a 2-in-1 or 3-in-1 underlayment if you intend to have the slight slant to your floor.

After you widen the entryway, I would actually suggest installing a bit more tile. You could tile the step, then install cork or the floor of your choice up to the step and this should give you a good look, as the step will flow into the basement and the garage will have its own appearance, but still flow well. With the engineered you can do this approach as well or you can use the wood to cover the stair and install a t-mold that matches the floor to transition to the tile. This is a very common approach and works well.

Q: Because of respiratory problems, I too am looking for an engineered wood flooring that contains no VOCs, formaldehyde, etc. I think this is a more general problem than just bamboo since the installation instructions for Armstrong engineered wood floors contain warnings required by certain states about formaldehyde emissions. I would like to know if there are companies that address this problem by stating that the adhesives or other ingredients in their engineered products do not contain VOCs.

A: To my knowledge there are no companies which have a direct claim of no VOCs (volatile organic chemicals) for products which contain an adhesive. One thing I will mention is you can use a cork to evade larger amounts of VOCs as it is naturally hypoallergenic. The newer Westhollow Cork has a low emission rating compared to much of the cork made in China.

I spoke with Ryan W., iFLOOR.com's product specialist, and he mentioned he did not know of any E0 engineered products, but that E1 products are well below US standards for emissions producing very very low amounts of emissions.

Follow-up: I have had a few conversations about emission standards and what products to look into. Many of the quality manufacturers make E1 - so it is important to find several floors you like and look into the emission ratings of each one.

Most bamboo contains some formaldehyde; however, quality bamboo products such as Ming Dynasty, Panda, Springwood and Westhollow all make products with much lower emissions than other bamboo products.

Cork is one of the best choices in this category as it is naturally hypoallergenic. Ensure to get the cork products made in Portugal when possible as these are much higher quality than those made in China, as Steve mentioned in his blog.

My best advice is to contact the manufacturer about any products you are interested in to get the emission ratings from them directly on any of their products, along with a spec sheet to show you the testing that has been done.

Q: I am opening up a children's museum where I will have an arts and crafts room and party room sized 11.6' x 24'.

Sarah

A: There are a couple routes you could take here. If your worried about spills, tile is a great way to go, but at the mention of “fall zones” I would go for something a bit softer like cork. Cork has been growing in the commercial market as it has many qualities which make it durable and attractive.

One of cork's features is memory. Cork will naturally return to its initial state, meaning when something drops onto cork and dents it, the cork will naturally remove the dent over time. Cork also has natural sound dampening and insulation qualities. This means cork is comfortable, warm, and quiet.

In your case, I would ensure to get the cork site finished for additional durability and to seal the seams where it was installed. Cork is also fairly inexpensive to install compared to tile, so you can save a bit of money too.

Q: We raise Shih Tzus dogs and we installed Wilsonart Flooring in a kitchen/dining/living area portion of our basement area a few years ago. Our dogs don't stay on this area but sometimes they have an accident and we clean it up as soon as we notice it. My main problem with this flooring is that it shows everything, is difficult to keep clean, clean and it is noisy. The dogs run across the floor but have not scratched it which is the only good thing I can say about it. Right after I clean it, it looks great but it's just been very hard to maintain.

Thanks,
Barbara F.

A: Situations like yours can be very tricky, but the end all question here is durability vs noise. Laminate is your best bet when it comes to durability. Although its naturally louder than other wood floors, there are a few tips to help suppress most of the noise. The other thought would be to use something like cork. Since you have smaller dogs, I would have less worry of their nails digging into the floor.

For laminate, make sure to get a thicker laminate (usually 10mm+ is your best bet) and use a good underlayment for sound control such as cork or Sound 6. This will help reduce most of the noise. Also, use a lighter color as this can help hide some of the dust.

With Cork, look into a site finish to help give a bit of extra protection from pet messes. If you intend to site finish the floor, you will want to glue down the cork, otherwise, I would float the cork using a 3mm cork underlayment to give the floor a bit of extra sound suppression and keep the floor a bit more solid than if you use a foam underlayment. Cork is naturally resistant to moisture, but this does not mean it is impervious to moisture issues. As long as your installation is done with care and the locks on the floating cork engaged well you should have little worry about pet messes, but always clean them up ASAP.

A few tips with your pets to help reduce scratching. Always ensure you keep your dogs' nails trimmed and should any longer hair (in the case of Shih Tzus) or fur (in the case of most of our pawed friends) be covering the pads on your dogs' feet, trim this away to allow your dogs to use the natural traction of their pads, this will prevent them from digging in with their nails to get traction.

With your Granddaughter the cork will be a bit more comfortable to play on, but the laminate is naturally more durable. However, cork resists denting, so its a bit of a toss up. End result - laminate is very durable and with the right product and underlayment you can suppress most of the noise you encounter with laminate. Cork is great for comfort, sound suppression and is naturally moisture and dent resistant, but if some precautions are not taken, you can run into issues with it being too soft.

Q: I am placing a wood floor on an old airstream trailer and an important factor in choosing the right floor is the weight because the trailers needs to as light as possible. Among the wood options: laminate, wood, bamboo, and cork, what are their weight per square foot? Any other suggestions? Your website is very nice.

Thank you,
Cris

A: Weight per sf is heavily dependent on the product itself. Generally speaking laminate, bamboo and cork will provide the lightest floors. This also depends heavily on the type of installation you intend to do. Before we get too deep into this subject, have you looked into the various options and found a few products on your list as far as top picks are concerned? If so we work a bit more in depth with these.

Follow-up: I really like bamboo the best because of the ecological aspects of it. I would be installing the floor floating on top of the plywood that is already on the trailer. I can't add much height because the cabinets are close to the ground. Everything is tight on a trailer.

Cris

A: As long as you have about an inch or more of clearance for your cabinets you should be ok to go with a floating bamboo. If you intend to install this yourself, I would look into Springwood's click bamboo line. This will give you the benefits of an engineered product with the appeal of bamboo. I would heavily suggest using cork underlayment (3mm should do the trick for you here). I say this because cork will hold up better under the floor than cheaper foam underlayments and you will get a better feeling floor in the end.

If you have less than about a 1 inch gap, I would look into a glue down cork tile. Typically these tiles are around 6mm thick of pure cork. Once installed, which I would suggest having professional help, these floors are durable and comfortable while taking up very little room height wise.

You could also use a floating cork as they tend to be about 1/2" thick which is just a tad thinner than the bamboo. Floating cork planks have a cork backing which means it is not necessary to install an underlayment (although I tend to recommend it), so you can shave off a bit of thickness by going with this option and still get the ease of a floating installation.

For Cork products, look into Westhollow or APC. Westhollow has some great floating cork and APC has a great selection of floating and glue down cork.

Weight wise, bamboo and cork are both fairly light, glue down cork being the lightest flooring choice that fits the eco-friendly side of flooring.

Q: I have seen photos of brick flooring with wood trim. I asked a representative of a brick company about the photos as they were in their advertisements. He suggested I install the wood (I think oak 1 x 6) first by nailing it to the floor, which proves to be a problem since we have concrete slab floors. He also indicated that we would need to allow for expansion around the wood. How would I do that if I was going to grout between the bricks and the wood? Any suggestions on the whole process and the specific points I’ve noted?

A: The method used to install wood flooring as an accent or trim around brick flooring is heavily dependent on the look you are striving for. Regardless of design, you will use the wood to create a picture frame like border around the areas where the brick is to be installed. You will want to build a 2 – 3 plank border (depending on the width of the planks) then install the brick (tile or stone can also be used).

Since you are installing over a concrete subfloor you will need to look into a wood product that can be glued down. I would suggest looking into an engineered product as they tend to expand and contract less than solid wood flooring.

Assuming this border will only be along your walls or mostly along the walls with little wood intermixed along the floor itself, you should only need to account for expansion gaps along the border of the floor. This means inside each frame of wood you will be able to grout the brick accordingly without any gaps.

This technique is very similar to one suggested for Ruthie's project back in July where we talked about making a foyer to break up the bowling alley appearance of her hall from the entry way of her new townhouse. I also discussed this somewhat with Glenna when she asked about wood flooring with tile insets.

In the end the key here is first deciding how you want the floor to look, then finding a suitable flooring to go over your concrete. After this is done, mapping out the project itself becomes much easier and accounting for the proper expansion gaps will be a breeze.

Q: Hello. I need some advice. About a year ago we installed a bamboo floor (glue down) with no moisture barrier directly on our cement slab. It completely warped. We then had a flooring expert tell us that we have 5% moisture in our floors and that our only choice was to remove the bamboo and install carpet.

We are looking into a french drain for our lot as we have a hillside behind our house and apparently a lot of moisture comes through the ground and into our cement slab. However, we are stubborn and are looking for a possibilty other than carpet. We are willing to have our cement resealed and use any type of moisture barrier necessary.

Could you recommend an alternative type of flooring that would be more resistant to moisture and an installation method that would work. We were considering engineered flooring, cork, etc.

Thank you, Audrey

A: Based on the description of your installation and the problem that occurred I would normally question a few things about the install process and time allowed for the bamboo to acclimate. In a glue down application, the adhesive itself acts as a moisture barrier so in that sense you should have been protected. The amount of moisture in your flooring does matter somewhat, but 5% is not very high. What is most important is the moisture content of your flooring versus the content of the subfloor before installation. Typically the difference between these two, regardless of installation type, should be 1 - 3% and I tend to recommend a 2% or less difference. This becomes a matter of acclimation time, giving your flooring plenty of time to acclimate to the environment of the room it is to be installed in is KEY.

I have had some personal experiences with moisture issues in my own basement to the point of getting a French drain system and various other issues with the concrete looked into, so I feel your pain here.

After you have your concrete cleaned, sealed and prepped for a floor, I would look into either a floating or glue down application. Floating would be the easier choice here as far as labor is concerned and you have lower risk of failure. Sadly glue down installations have the highest rate of failure because they must be done perfectly, for lack of a better term, to succeed.

As far as floors are concerned, I suggest looking into laminate or cork. Both of these types of flooring are a bit more water resistant that hardwood, but keep in mind no floor is water proof. Cork could very well be your best bet here as it is featured in both glue down tiles and floating planks. Cork is naturally water resistant, but keep in mind you still need to follow the rules here that wood and water do NOT mix. Ensure to clean up spills as soon as possible and ensure not water is left standing on the floor.

In the case of a floating floor ensure you use a moisture barrier (6mil polyethylene) then install your underlayment and then the floor. For a glue down application with cork, use a contact cement like Fastbond 30. My good friend Gene D. suggests using a contact cement over standard trowel adhesives as the cement performs better.

Once you choose and order your floor, give it plenty of time to acclimate. This means stacking the boxes in a lincoln log fashion to get maximum air flow around the boxes of product. This process can take time, so be prepared to give it a week or more. Pick up a moisture meter and test the subfloor and the product and make sure to record these numbers. For the subfloor, check each corner and the center. Once the floor is within 2% of the subfloor you should be ok to install. At this point, just make sure you give ample room at the edges of the floor for expansion and cover with appropriate trims and you should be golden.