designergirl_3811, Bostich does make a stapler just for this type of engineered flooring, Model LHF97125, and the newest model, LHF97125-2 is adjustable for most thicknesses of flooring. By the way, the grove you talk about on "REAL" hardwood flooring is not there in real raw wood installed flooring, the only type done until the last 10 or 15 years. The grove you speak of was designed into prefinished hardwood flooring so the finish doesn't chip at the edges when installed. What is usually considered REAL hardwood goes in without finish. The top surface is then sanded flat with several grades of sandpaper using floor sanders then the finish is applied. This flooring will last for 100 years plus and multiple refinishes, as often as 10 or 15 times. It is still available in most home centers for around $1.00 to $1.25 per square foot so it is cheaper than most other flooring. The price goes up by a dollar or two a square foot though when the finishing is included. It is harder for an amature to install if you only need to do it once or twice due to the specific sanding tools needed. jeg1125, Your flooring is designed to be stapled to the sub floor just like solid hardwood. Bostich makes a stapler designed to staple this type of flooring. See model numbers above, this may be availabloe for rental at some stores. I am doing 1200 s.f so I purchased a used one from ebay for $60.00. shammo, I believe you CAN glue this down with mastic BUT, you MUST clean any mastic off the top as you go, if you wait till the floor is done, you may not be able to get it off without a lot of work. You may try the maker of the glue, they may have some remover. I have read that you might be able to float this by putting glue in the tounge and grove and seating each plank, but I have no first hand knowledge. This entrie has been very helpful and good luck all with your floors. One last thing, I am pretty good with wood so I made all of my trim strips from oak and stained them to match. So the fact that HD had none of the trim strips was no problem and it was a lot cheaper.

lyfia, thanks, and we agree. The glass company said building codes only require us to use safety (tempered) glass for the two end panels; the center three could be annealed, if the glass started 18" off the floor. How crazy is that? We'd never want to take that risk, either. Yikes. Fortunately the bid for tempered glass was only about 15% higher than annealed glass (which really surprised me.) So we'd only consider tempered 1/4" if we use glass. Laminated glass (with the plastic skin in the middle) would be the safest, but it's super pricey. I think safety glass would be OK. Another option is 1/4" plexiglass, which I think would work as a substrate for the glass mosaic, as long as I didn't go too big with the panels. (I think big plexi panels might flex, which isn't good for a grouted mosaic...?) At some point I need to go ask the folks in the stained glass/mosaic forum here. So far the pricing for thick plexiglass seems comparable to tempered glass. There would still be small grouted glass pieces on one side of the divider (we could put it on the low traffic side) but I don't think the surface would be risky for kids, since all the sharp edges would be embedded in grout. And it would be pretty hard to break. We considered colored plexiglass panes too, but it just seems so "mod" for the informal, earthy textures in the house. Colored tempered glass and frosted tempered glass are way too expensive (pushing $1000 just for the frosted glass idea, for five 5' panels.) I considered frosted films and frosted spray paint, but I think those ideas have a limited life span (especially if the house has active kids) since the spray frostings can scratch off. And DH keeps wishing for color, and he's got me agreeing. It has to be somewhat transparent or it blocks too much light. So, now considering a fairly open wooden framework, with smallish glass mosaic panels scattered. Still playing with ideas...!

We use a stain from Germany called "OSMO One Coat Only". It is semi-transparent with color pigment but the wood grain shows through. I believe they have 15 shades/colors. We got ours on-line from a store in Seattle, Washington that sells environmentally-friendly products. This stain uses mostly natural ingredients, nothing synthetic or Benzene and such. Check it out to see if it meets your needs. We have wood Casement windows (AL clad exterior) in bathroom and kitchen. The kitchen one is over the sink and receives constant splashes. We often remember to mop condensation from the bathroom window but often neglect to dry the kitchen ones. So far, the stain continues to "bead" the water. The stain on windows and doors that receive summer sun and heat also seem to be fine so far. The stain has lasted three years so far and no fading and no noticeable degradation yet even after mopping with damp towels. At this rate, I believe it can last two more years before we have to stain again. Good luck.

Well, I'm finally checking back on this thread. We just moved back into the house after having the new wood floors installed and then having the old and new floors all finished at the same time. DH would not budge on the finish, so we ended up with the Swedish Oil Finish. I mentioned to DH that some states have made Swedish Oil Finish illegal, but he still wanted that finish for our floors because that's what we had before (or so the guy who bid the job thought). Want to know something funny? The day before they started finishing the floors the guys working in our home stated that we had WATER based finish. So who knows? On the plus side, I'm very happy with the looks of our floors. They did an excellent job threading in new boards with the old to combine the new wood floors with the ones that were installed twenty years ago. You can't tell which is old and which is new---it all just looks like a beautiful new floor. We decided to go with the natural finish, and I couldn't be happier. We stayed in a hotel one day longer than the floor guys suggested, and I'm glad we did. Yesterday I spent much of the time parked in the car in front of our house, after DH had gone in (with a respirator on) and opened windows everywhere to start airing the house out. Later, we added fans and then the started the furnace on fan only. As I write this, I'm sitting in my house with fans running everywhere and almost every window open (on three floors). My eyes sting a little and my throat hurts; I have a nagging headache. I also have noticed some impact on my breathing. However, I'm hanging in there and haven't had a full-blown major asthma attack so far. Upstairs is definitely better than downstairs. I'm disappointed to have to deal with this, but it does seem to be getting better. I'm hoping to be able to sleep upstairs tonight, but if I can't, I'm going to ask my sister if I can sleep on her sofa tonight. Does anyone have information on the time it takes for the floor to fully cure (and, thus, for the off-gassing to end)? Also, I'm wondering about moving furniture back in. I've heard everything from two weeks to sixty days, so I'm not sure what to expect. The foor guys seem to only state that the vast majority of the chemicals are off-gassed in the first forty-eight hourss. That's all well and good, but with something this strong, the few remaining can be pretty significant. If I can get through this without a trip to the doctor/hospital, it will be worth it. I'm so excited to finally have this done.