Thread: Can anyone here give advice on Hardwood Floors

Originally Posted by shayne

May I suggest that if you are going with hardwood floors you also add underfloor heating it will actually save you money during the colder months on your power bill and keep the room or rooms a really nice temp as well as keep your feet nice and toasty.

That sounds dreamy Shayne, but as I stated in the OP, I'm on the ground level of a condo, with a concrete slab to work on.

Hmm, some good tips here...

FWIW (I'm the "outlier"here):

When we did our floors (the ground floor is concrete slab, in contact with the ground), I looked at a lot of flooring.

As soon as I said "We might get a dog", everyone said:

. . . Use high-wear-resistance laminate flooring, rather than engineered hardwood.

And the concrete slab dictated a "floating floor" over a vapor barrier, not a glued-down floor.

We used commercial-rated laminate flooring by Torlys. I don't know what the equivalent is in the US.The stuff cost as much as some engineered hardwood flooring. It was laid over their high-density vapor barrier / anti-vibration foam. I think the wear rating is AC-4 -- it's got a really thick protection layer. And the surface texturing is synchronized with the visual grain pattern.

Over most of the floor, there's no problem with noise or movement. In a few spots, you can feel the floor "give" as you step on it, but it doesn't click. If our installer had been more careful with levelling, that problem wouldn't exist.

We're happy with the result. Maybe our standards are lower than other peoples'.

Charles

I am in the PRC all floors are concrete ! everyone north of Beijing has heated hardwood floors.