Can You Float Engineered Hardwood Over Tile

This type of structure will ensure that the floor will stay stable.

Can you float engineered hardwood over tile.

We often float wood floors over concrete. Laminate vinyl hardwood floors and even some types of tile. Engineered wood floors can be floated over existing floors such as. For a successful glue down application over older tile the single largest issue associated with failures are older loosened tiled floors.

I am interested in floating engineered hardwood which is designated for floating on ceramic tile floor which is not damaged. Here s where it can become tricky. The plywood is loose laid so the floor floats i don t see why you couldn t do something similar over tile. But you are adding 1 3 4 to the floor build up.

Engineered wood flooring on the other hand can be glued directly to the existing ceramic. Only in recent years have some hardwood adhesive manufacturers given the green light to gluing over ceramic but there are some important considerations before starting the job. You can install laminate over tile. We place a layer of visqueen then two layers of half inch plywood then the wood floor.

A laminate floor is a floating floor which means it doesn t get nailed or glued to the subfloor. I can not believe you would give such bad advice as to say it is ok to lay glue down wood flooring on top on tile. The planks glue together to create a floor that floats moves freely as a unit. This type of wood ranges from 5 16 to 5 8 of an inch thick and won t create a height problem.

You need to leave a 5 16 inch gap between the flooring and the baseboard or wall around the perimeter of the room to allow the floor enough space to expand. There as a few issues with laying gluedown wood flooring over tile. When installing a floor over your existing floor you will want to choose an engineered wood floor that is at least 1 2 thick and over 4 3 4 wide. First you have the height issues.

Ceramic floor tile commonly has a finished height of about 3 8 inch so if your hardwood floor joins an adjacent tile floor the thinner 3 8 inch hardwood flooring may be a better choice for you. Engineered flooring goes down over a thin foam sheet which provides cushioning and sound dampening. We ll get into the latter further down the page. Most engineered flooring is prefinished and this permits a very clean installation process.

As an installer i ve always been skeptical of leaving an older vinyl floor in place and gluing over top of it. Most wood flooring installed on concrete are glued type installations while others are floated. I am told that it is standard to remove the tile which can cost a lot to remove and will require much more time to complete not to mention the dust factor.