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Narrowing down hardwood choices, need advice.

17 years ago

Tight budget. Going to do hardwood in LR, DR, K. Want light red oak. Get the idea from past input that engineered would be best over our new slab. DH lowered floors in those areas 3/4" (my fault he didn't go 1.5"). Must self-install to stay within budget. Experience glueing down, not positive. Experience floating, great both click and glue-together. With the plywood beneath, could staple or nail, but no experience.

Here are the three brands and their line within the brands under consideration, samples ordered when possible:

Kahrs 2-strip: 3-strip; and "builder" amber (which is ash).

Mullican Northpointe; and Meadowview.

Award 2-strip; Natural Advantage.

All prices in the $3.50-$6.00 range. Lower end of that range most appealing.

Opinions on any of these brands vs. the others?

And since there is only 3/4" lowering of slab, would 1/2" plywood be ok under any of these or all of these?

All advice/opinions appreciated.

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Comments (4)

popeda
Original Author
17 years ago
Surely someone has some experience with these brands?

Or an opinion about the 1/2" plywood, would it work for stapling if we don't float?
pearlchow
17 years ago
hddana,
I hope your installation went well!
You mentioned you had experience doing both click float and glue together float. Can you tell me a little bit about the differences and would you do one over the other now that you know what you know?
The reason I ask is we would like to install Kahrs click, but my favorite Kahrs styles (Castle & Cottage line) are all glue together. We have approx. 1300 sq ft to install so I'm worried were going to be tackling something too big if we go with the glue together.
Is glue-together harder to install or just more time consuming? How fastidious do you have to be about wiping off every bit of glue? Does it fit together as well as click or do you have to push together harder or even strap it together?
As you can see I'm a big worry wart!
Thanks for any insight you can offer!
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sheppardk
17 years ago
I cannot really help much. I DYI installed Kahrs Red Oak Gent 6 years ago. It was glue together tongue and groove longstrip. I think it is now click. It went together fantastically well and still looks amazing. Gluing was easy and it seem more secure then click. 1300 sf will take a long time to install. I am not speaking from experience, but I imagine that glueing the Castle and Cottage(floating not glue down) is not hard, but since the pieces are so much smaller(5", random length, vs 7"x 8') it will take longer to install. On the other hand the smaller pieces may take less skill as it can be hard to close the bottom on the longstrip.

good luck
russmahogany
17 years ago
Most manufacturers put out instructions, or you can get a book or a dvd at the hardware store. Other than that, do a search on your computor for "engineered hardwood floors" and you can get the instructions. The instructions are straight forward and you are getting them from the people who make the product. Tell us how it works out.

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