Hardwood Flooring Installation

Staple-Down Installation

With staple-down installation, we use a modified pneumatic flooring nailer to drive 1.5-inch to 2-inch staples. This is different from using cleats to attach tongue-and-groove engineered or solid wood flooring to the subfloor.

A pneumatic nailing gun is used to drive the staple into the wood flooring and subfloor. Wood flooring 5/8 inches or thinner would most likely require a smaller pull-trigger pneumatic nailing gun and smaller-sized staples. We will read the manufacturer’s installation manual to ensure we have the right staple gun and the right size staples for your particular flooring.

Nail-Down Installation

Nail-down installation is used with 3/4-inch solid wood flooring. However, on some flooring nailer models, there are adapter plates available for the base of the manual flooring nailer or the pneumatic nailing gun. This allows for thinner solid and engineered flooring sizes as well.

For 3/4-inch thick flooring, 2-inch nailing cleats are normally used to attach the flooring to the subfloor. There are three different sizes of cleat nails that can be used for different installation applications and wood thicknesses. Solid wood flooring should only be installed on wooden subfloors on or above grade.

Glue-Down Installation

Gluing hardwood floors includes various benefits over nailing. Gluing gives your floors a solid feel and sound, as well as being less likely to have deflection between flooring and subflooring. Another added bonus to this is you should not hear squeaking.

Another pro for glue-down flooring is that it is known as the most permanent installation method. Also, wider planks will be more secure and less likely to expand and contract due to seasonal changes. A few cons to gluing hardwood floors include possible extra subfloor prep and increased labor costs. Wharton Hardwood Floors only uses the highest-quality flooring adhesive.

Floating Installation

With the floating installation method, the engineered wood floor is not mechanically fastened to any part of the subfloor. Instead, a bead of recommended wood glue is applied in the groove of each plank to glue the planks together.

There is a thin underlayment pad that is placed between the wood flooring and the subfloor to provide a cushion. This underlayment also retards any moisture transfer from below and can reduce noise when walked on and makes the floor softer underfoot. Nowadays, most engineered floors and engineered long-strip floors can be floated. Installing a floating floor is a fast, easy method of installation. Please consult the engineered manufacturer’s installation instructions to see if your flooring can be floated.

Click-Lock Installation

Many manufacturers are using newly developed ways to install their engineered flooring by milling the tongue-and-groove design of the board and turning it into a click-lock floating floor system. This allows the boards to simply fold and lock together with no messy glue or clamping.

This proven method has clearly made the process of installing wood and laminate flooring a lot faster and easier than any other type of installation method. More and more wood flooring manufacturers are offering this style of floating floors every day. All laminate flooring has a click-lock design.