Laminate and prefinish flooring have an aluminum oxide finish that is extremely durable. Laminates can't be refinished at all. Engineered can be recoated multiple times without SANDING. Aluminum oxide can't be applied outside of a factory so you would never ever want to sand it all off as there is no way to refinish it, however you can recoat it very easily. To recoat you use a chemical that abrates the top surface allowing new material to adhere to the old. When your floors get scratched or start showing some 'wear' you can recoat them for a few $$ a sf without any dust or problems. I would not expect a floating engineered floor to have the same hollow sound as a laminate though I share your opinion on the the 3 strip on a plank look. Lowes had an Armstrong Laminate that cane in single strips and looked very well. I worked for Bruce and any single strip flooring is pretty easy to install with a nail gun. Glue gets a little trickier but not hard.

Thanks for your input.

We aren't able to do a nail down installation w/out first using 3/4 inch plywood over the slab which would raise our wood floors a good bit higher than the tile floors: unless we use some sort of underlayment under the tile which we don't want to do.

I think we will consider the single strip glue down/engineered flooring by Bruce. We have plenty of handy people in our family that I think we could figure it out.

If we go w/ engineered wood floors we would have to use some sort of vapor barrier. Right? What do we use?

We've read about a paste/glue type troweled on vapor barrier. Is it also a glue? Or is it troweled on; allowed to dry then the glue/engineered floor installed?

If it takes two separate processes then a floating engineered floor may be our most feasible option b/c the vapor barrier is more of a roll out type stuff.

We're going through the same decision process for the same reasons-- I wish there was a perfect, simple answer. We've bumped around between laminate and engineered wood for months now (having ruled out solid wood for the reason you mentioned.)

I do know there are solid wood products available that are thinner. The ones I've run across are all prefinished, but ran around 1/3 of an inch thick which might bring the height of the floor down enough to work in your situation.Its been a while since I looked at them, but I believe Bruce has quite a few to chose from.

We've finally (or at least finally as of this week--maybe it'll change *next* week :-) decided to go with a strand woven bamboo that can be glued down to a concrete slab. I'm a pretty traditional sorta gal and didn't think I'd like it in our country home, but after getting the samples and seeig them in person, have changed my mind. Its very solid, durable and has a hefty feel that appeals to DH and me.

This is the color we're considering. It only comes in two-- natural and carbonized. There are other types of bamboo products (vertical and horizontal) but we ruled those out because of chipping issues on our test pieces. Plus, to us this looks more traditional.

{{gwi:1532038}}

Here is a link that might be useful: Yanchi strand woven bamboo

Bostiks best and several others are urethane glues that do act as a moisture barrier as well as the glue. Look at Bruce's Natural reflection. Its a solid but thinner so that might help the height issue. It can be glued or stapled and comes in single strips like you want.

I have used two floors that are really great engineered woods that can be sanded up to three times. One was Lauzon, and the other was Mirage. If you glue it down, it is going to be permanent and its an important decision. There are nicer products than Bruce in that price range. I ordered off the net.

You can get a fantasic education on a website called Hardwoodfloorinstaller.com

Thanks for the info. I still don't know what we will do.

We contacted a flooring company that is going to come out and give us a quote to do our flooring. I'm bracing myself b/c I just know the price is going to be very high but we are thinking that it might not be better to DIY this floor.

Still considering the other options though. We just really don't want the floor to be 1.5 inches high where there is wood floor and the rest of the house lower.

We are in a single story home on a concrete slab and grappled with this very issue.

We decided to use a solid wood floating floor by Junckers - a Scandinavian company - that comes in both a 9/16 inch and a 7/8 inch thickness and is floated over a thin vapor barrier/felt pad. They are attached to each other with a special "clip" system. (they can also be glued or nailed down to plywood sustrates.

We went with the 7/8 inch thick beech version. The 7/8 inch floors can be sanded up to 7 or 8 times (it can also be "screened" without sanding - i.e., the process that boxers described above). You wouldn't need the expense or the height of the plywood subfloor (although they will be higher than tile floors. Rather than put transistions, we had our tile installer raise the height of the bathroom floors (we were remodeling them anyway). He added concrete to the existing slab in the bathrooms to raise the height, but he could've used hardibacker if he wanted to.

One of nice things about Junckers floors is that you can remove parts of them or add to them if necessary (they claim that you can take them with you when you move, but obviously no one's gonna want to do that). We were able to lay the floors in two phases - the main living areas were laid over a year ago. We recently remodeled and expanded the bedrooms. We then laid floors down that integrated seemlessly with the existing floors in the main living areas.

I *love* these floors - they are sturdy and solid, and have all of the beauty and durability of solid wood. They're comfortable to walk on and don't sound hollow in the same way that thin laminates or other floating floors do.

Here is a link that might be useful: junckers floors

arielitas_mom,
where and how do you order from Junckers Floors ? Do you have them deliver ?

Sound like you want real wood! Why would you buy something that you don't really want just because you may stub your toe? I would raise the other floor, and go with what you want. I am not experienced in buying things I don't want so I can't help you.
From where I sit I can see a vinyl floor -wood strip-laminate floor -wood strip- carpet floor - wood strip to hardwood floors, not to mention the foyer that steps down to vinyl tiles. Oh Well.

Skeeter: We do want real wood but the reality is that we are on a budget and are trying to look ahead some.

We could do real wood and have a 1.5 inch height difference w/out raising the other floor height but that wouldn't work well over all: we don't think it would work right and if we ever move in either of our aging parents then it becomes a tripping haazard.

We could raise the level of the other floors but again that isn't really cost efficient unless tile can be raised that much using thinset mortar which I don't think can.

Engineered wood floors seem like our best option. I like the look: some of the better ones look no different than solid wood. I've read that they wear well, too. But again we would not be able to use the nail down type or we will end up in the same situation that the solid wood floors would pose.

We are going to have to find a good quality glue down or floating engineered floor.

razorback, HD has a 20% off sale right now on all special order flooring. With the sale you can get the engineered down to less than the stock laminate.

Thanks for the info Ton. I'll look into it.

Dreamhome - There are dozens of retailers in my area that sell Junckers. I got a killer deal on Junckers overruns from my flooring guy (who walks on water, IMHO) - it was less than 50% off the usual price for the 7/8" Classic (highest grade) Beech. He delivered and installed it - also quite reasonably. We actually over-ordered because we knew we were going to do an addition, but ended up doing a much smaller addition than we had planned, so I have a bunch left over. What area are you in?

how would I install engineered wood flooring over old tile mortar? the tile has been ripped up, and it is a concrete slab, some of which has old tile mortar left on it, with about 1/2" wide ridges (flat) and 1/4" valleys. What should I do, and what options do I have? I've been thinking about just gluing down the wood to it....???
Many thanks!
Arden B.

Grind the mortar off.

The substrate needs to be flat, and smooth, or your going to have a lot of firewood

scrape off what you can with a flooring razor scraper available at most big box home improvement centers and buy lots of extra blades. Use extreme care as the blades are razor sharp. Shop vac clean.

Anything you cant scrape off, grind so the floor is flat, to within your wood manufacturers specified height/flatness tolerances (should tell you this in the products installation literature).

If the floor still isnt within those height/flatness tolerances, then you may need to perform additional preparation (filling/screeding/grinding) until it is.

if you are having an extreme amount of trouble getting the mortar off the floor then you might need to use a small electric chipping hammer with a spade bit, or screed over the area with a cement based filler to flatten it to within tolerances.

Dear Wood Lovers! If you haven't heard or seen wood tile before, it's a MUST SEE! It's the coolest stuff ever! As crazy as it sounds, it looks and feels just like real wood, without the hassle, maintaince, or costs. It's the upcoming thing. Check it out on line. If I knew how to post a link/picture of it I would. I'll try later.

Dear Wood Lovers! If you haven't heard or seen wood tile before, it's a MUST SEE! It's the coolest stuff ever! As crazy as it sounds, it looks and feels just like real wood, without the hassle, maintaince, or costs(well...the ones I've seen do). It's the upcoming thing! Check it out on line. If I knew how to post a link/picture of it I would. I'll try later.