Any issues with nailing AND glueing a wood floor?

[ln1234]

Hi Guys,

Are there any issues with secret nailing and glueing a T&G oak wood floor (18mm thick)? We will be using 38mm nails on an 18mm ply base, and were thinking of glueing as well to try and prevent water from spills etc getting in between the joints (onto the untreated wood). We have kids in the house and this is bound to happen!
Is this a good idea, and would this affect the natural movement of the wood? The wood floor we have, has grooves on the bottom.

 

[WoodYouLike]

It's a bit double. Why nail if you can install the floor floating (glueing the T&G)? Floor is heavy on it's own to use this method.
Just make sure you use proper underlayment (no DPM) otherwise you end up with a proper wooden floor sounding lik Melamine Laminated

 

[ln1234]

I get a lot of conflicting advice whether to nail or glue. The place I bought the wood from recommend nailing, so I was thinking doing both - a bit overkill I know, but i'd much rather be safe than have problems later on.

Does glueing take longer?

 

[WoodYouLike]

IMHO there is no need for either nailing or fully glueing the type of wooden floor on the type of underfloor you have.
95% of the flooring we install are installed using the 'floating' method and I can say we have fewer (hardly any in fact) problems than some colleagues who constantly 'stick' the floors down.

 

[ln1234]

are there any disadvantages to glueing compared to nailing? I must say, it's a very convincing argument for glueing, so i'm wondering under what circumstances to people choose either, and is it a personal preference thing?

 

[WoodYouLike]

Fully glueing wooden flooring to the underfloor is normally only done with pattern floors (like herringbone) or strip floors (6 - 10mm thick) without T&G.
Wood is very strong, the weakest link is always the quality (or lack of) of the underfloor (concrete and screed are notorious).
Glueing won't prevent the floor to shrink or expand, when it does, you have more problems correcting it then when you use the floating method.

Secretely nailing is normally only done when you install directly onto joist (real joists, not extra battens screwed on a concrete floor).

Using the floating method on a screed floor also gives you the opportunity to protect the wood against any residue moist in the screed/concrete floor by using a DPM.
Plus by installing a proper sound-insulation you reduce the noise of the footfall better then when you glue the boards fully to the floor (you can't use an underlayment then).

Hope this helps.