Anybody put hardwood flooring over concrete?

[2manyrocks]

That was a realtor problem as I recall from other posts.

I'm not sure how you could possibly install traditional hardwood over concrete without putting down sleepers to nail into.

2nd vote for Scooby074's post on checking your moisture level in the concrete before doing anything.

I thought my concrete floor was nice and flat until I started applying mortar to set tile. Then I found out how unlevel it really was.

Tile is easy to keep clean. Hard to wear out unless you drop something on it and chip it.

 

[KennyG]

From the description, I doubt moisture will be a problem. I've put a couple of different laminates and some engineered hardwood (bamboo) over concrete and it was easy, worked fine. I used the click lock floating floors and I would recommend it to anyone. Check the thickness on engineered hardwoods and the difference in quality will be quickly apparent.

I'll agree that going with a top quality company is important. However, some woods (like bamboo) will be imported no matter where you get it.

 

[RoMad]

I have a teak hardwood floor that I put down directly on concrete. We originally had carpet. We took up the carpet, cleaned the concrete with muratic acid, leveled the low spots with some good thin set.
then we glued the floor down with some glue that came in 5 gallon buckets and looked and smellel like liquid nails. It was messy and a pain in the butt. the hardes part was keeping the glue cleaned off of the wood every evening. I also bought special ratchet straps to keep it pulled tightly together.
We did two large rooms 6 or 7 years ago and they both still look great. The only issue is that when we remodeled our kitchen and moved a wall i had to take up some of it. It is much harder to get up than tile. I cut a straight line with a skill saw where I wanted to stop and we pried, chiseled and cussed it up. Then I made a sharp chisel for my air chipper and had to chisel up the glue.
For my remodel we bought bamboo and put it down as a floating floor on white underlayment. As we put it down we glued the edges together and we allowed room at each end for expansion. It looks great, is very nice to walk on and would be easy to take up. We got it from Cali bamboo. they have a good web site and were very helpful.
No more glue down flooring for me.

 

[Bird]

We had some carpet removed and Mohawk instaloc laminate put down in July, 2007. So far, so good.

 

[WM75Guy]

We went with the ceramic tile in our office and living room. Easy to keep clean and does not scratch when I roll around the chair.

 

[rtimgray]

Thanks for all the replies. We have a low-grade laminate that we installed in the 2nd floor of the house when we built it, and it's doing pretty good, just showing a few signs of damage where water spilled/stood on it (kids knock over a cup and don't clean it up).

We like the stained concrete, we're just ready for something different (this house was going to be converted into a garage, but we have since changed our mind). Anyway, I've been doing some more research on engineered hardwood and it looks like it might be the way to go.

I appreciate all the recommendations, and no offense to CurlyDave (who's opinions I respect) - but I will never, ever, ever have carpet in any room of a house again. I've helped remove lots of carpet over the years and I've never seen any come up that wasn't disgusting. Maybe it's okay for some folks without kids, pets, muddy feets and clutzy hands (I'm guilty off all), but not for me. Contrary to Eddie's experiene with stained concrete, we like it because cleanup it a breeze, mud and spills are no concern, and dust doesn't show much. Ours is a reddish color, and most of the soil/mud around the house is red clay. We do have several rugs that we try to keep clean - and when they don't get clean to our satisfaction, we pitch 'em and buy new ones.

Thanks for all the comments, fellas.

 

[AMR]

I am a PM at University and I have done countless projects installing hardwood and laminate floors on concrete.

The laminate floors i have done are both glue downs and floating. We have no issues with any of them. If they take a lot of water you will find that they may buckle.

I have done a number of 3/4 and 5/4 solid wood floors on sleepers on slabs on grade and on deck. Some have been dance floors and some have been function spaces. They all sit on sleepers of various configurations and the are all on poly with taped seams. This applies to elevated slabs and slabs on grade. The trick with these floors is that there is a good 1/2 space all around at the edges and the base is vented.

 

[Gregg B]

Hi ,have to agree with Eddie.I am in flooring industry for over 20 years and you will get what you pay for.lots of garbage floating floors around.laminate is tougher than timber veneer as far as scratching goes but yes you can "resand " engineered timber.to direct stick the timber you have to ensure evenness of floor whereas floating is a little more forgiving.moisture is the most important thing , see if you can loan or hire a moisture metre to test your slab first ,should readbelow 5.5. They are very easy to install ,ensure expansions are enough,remember the timber will grow more sideways than in length.
I would look at product from a flooring store rarther than hardware type stores,Bunnings /Masters etc
Good luck with the project

 

[PILOON]

I have laid hardwood floors on concrete basement floors a few times. (my home is one that I laid about 20 years ago)
First you need to lay out a vapor barrier then 1 x 3 furring strips at 16" centers carefully leveling them using cedar shims when necessary.
You fasten the strips with a ramset or other concrete fastening system
Next comes a sub flooring, be it plywood or particleboard.
The rest is as simple as any other floor surface.
Not all that different than any other flooring job but kinda hard on the back.