I will be using prepaded laminate flooring on top of a concrete slab. Do I need to use an adhesive ? How does the floor stay down ?
is it a rolled sheet laminate floor? if so then yes u will need an adhesive to told it down...the direction on the glue will tell u what size V shaped notched trowel to use...must of the time you'll need a 1/8 trowel.....roll back the flooring half way and apply the glue to the floor....fold back over glue and press into place....u can rent a 100 lb. roller for this which help it stick to the floor and squeezes all the air out from underneath ...repeat for the other half of flooring....if no roller then press the floor into place with a soft towel
I am assuming that you mean a laminate wood floor glue is not normally used but read the manufacturers instructions You are putting it over concrete then you also need to put a vapor barrier down or your floor will absorb the moisture through the concrete and swell and become garbage
depends on the laminate. Some of them do require adhesive. Others are what is called floating. They don't use adhesive, and they kind of snap together. Others use nails. I would check the directions before buying and ask at the home improvement/hardware store to make sure it's not going to be more work than you want to do. A friend of ours bought regular strip hardwood flooring and didn't realize that he would have to line up each strip, hammer it securely into place and nail it down. It took him a week to do a floor he wanted to finish in a couple hours.
hey all we just had a tiny house built on a concrete slab. We chose a laminate flooring installed. The contractor installed it. About a month after being built, the floorboards started to buckle - they gradually started curling and going concave. We don't know if there was an underlayment, and a new set of the exact same flooring has been installed as of this week. Are we screwed? Will the same thing happen again? Should there definitely be some kind of vapor barrier installed between the slab and the flooring?
No do not use adhesive.Your laminate is a floating floor and will expand and contract with heating and cooling of the floor.You will need a moisture barrier(plastic sheeting)because all the prepadded laminate ive ever seen requires a moisture barrier over concrete slab.The weight of the floor keeps it down but if you attach it to anything it will cause the floor to buckle or seperate when it expands or contracts.Depending on where your installing it and what brand you may need to fill expansion gap with silicone and/or to glue the pieces together to keep moisture from getting down between the boards.
