Wood over concrete

[A1an]

Over the next year my wife and I want to rip up the existing tile put in new flooring. We would either go with all tile (my preference) or hardwood in the main living areas with tile in the kitchen.

We have a one story home with concrete floor under the tile. I am no flooring professional, but am I correct in assuming a real hardwood floor is pretty much out of the question? Seems that engineered wood floors are the choice for this application...only thing is I am not a fan of engineered wood floors because you can't refinish them down the road (we plan on living in this home for a very long time).

Now if my wife talks me into the engineered floors I know I'd have to use a vapor barrier and spend a weekend cursing at glue. If we go this route is there any way to make the wood portion level with the parts we plan on tiling? By level I mean the transition between the two does not have a step up or a step down. I've seen this sort of seamless transition before but being a relative new person to home improvement I am not sure how to accomplish this.

I'm trying to talk the wife into getting a nice tile throughout the entire house for ease of install. Not sure if I will win that battle.

I appreciate your help/insight.

 

[shoot summ]

We have mostly tile in our house, and are toying with wood in a couple of rooms. We are on a slab, installed mostly ceramic almost 10 years ago and really like it, some of the carpeted rooms are the focus for the wood.

There are a number of ways to put wood/engineered wood over a slab. All of this assumes you have checked the slab for moisture....

I've seen a method where the installer uses 5/8 underlayment, 2 layers at opposite directions, with the flooring nailed to the underlayment. This method was in Fine Homebuilding in the last year or so. This gives you a 1 1/4" rise just for the underlayment, and up to another 3/4" for the flooring.

I've seen solid wood and engineered flooring glued to the slab, everyone says it is a mess....

I don't like the hollow sound of a floating engineered floor.

Some engineered floors can be refinished, they have a layer of "veneer" that will hold up to 1 or 2 sandings.

I've actually scored some nice hand scraped engineered flooring for my office, I found a newer product that seems to cover floating, and adhesive. It is an underlayment with adhesive on 1 side, it's called Elastilon, looks promising to me, even though it is somewhat pricey the reviews of the product are good.

http://www.lumberliquidators.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId=7504&categoryId=513&&nonFlooring=1

ETA, the condition of your slab is a big factor in the method you choose, it needs to be level, and overall in good condition.....

 

[draglink]

We have mostly tile in our house, and are toying with wood in a couple of rooms. We are on a slab, installed mostly ceramic almost 10 years ago and really like it, some of the carpeted rooms are the focus for the wood.

There are a number of ways to put wood/engineered wood over a slab. All of this assumes you have checked the slab for moisture....

I've seen a method where the installer uses 5/8 underlayment, 2 layers at opposite directions, with the flooring nailed to the underlayment. This method was in Fine Homebuilding in the last year or so. This gives you a 1 1/4" rise just for the underlayment, and up to another 3/4" for the flooring.

I've seen solid wood and engineered flooring glued to the slab, everyone says it is a mess....

I don't like the hollow sound of a floating engineered floor.

Some engineered floors can be refinished, they have a layer of "veneer" that will hold up to 1 or 2 sandings.

I've actually scored some nice hand scraped engineered flooring for my office, I found a newer product that seems to cover floating, and adhesive. It is an underlayment with adhesive on 1 side, it's called Elastilon, looks promising to me, even though it is somewhat pricey the reviews of the product are good.

http://www.lumberliquidators.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId=7504&categoryId=513&&nonFlooring=1

ETA, the condition of your slab is a big factor in the method you choose, it needs to be level, and overall in good condition.....

All of the above is correct......but be VERY CAREFUL...3/4" solid can only be glued with a wood that has been finished on all 4 sides(for this purpose), or in some cases if a urethane adhesive is used. Either way check your wood suppliers recommendations. In all my years I have only seen one 3/4" solid hardwood that was designed to be glued and it was $$$$$!! Urethane adhesive is a nightmare to work with. I would go engineered, but find one with a veneer designed to be sanded and finshed at least once.
I was in a new home today that we installed about 1300 sq ft of engineered prefinished oak. It was glued to the slab, has a nice solid feel, no way by looking at it you can tell its engineered.

As far as level to the tile, depends on what kind of tile you are installing- how thick, what kind of underlayment if any etc. Most tile and wood are damn close to same level in the new construction we do, plus each wood manufacturer makes a bunch of different types of transition pieces to match your hardwood

 

[rsanter]

in my dads house, we installed 1/2 plywood with a little adheasive and then nailed the 3/4 hardwood to that. 20 years later and no problems

I am looking to install hardwood in my entryway. I dont want the added height so I was thinking of using 3/4 solid hardwood. glue it down with flooring adheasive AND use woodglue between the pieces of wood flooring

bob

 

[A1an]

Hmmm...lots to think about. Thanks for the information.

One thing we were considering were the porcelain tiles with the wood slat look to them. We saw them installed in a home on DIY and they looked really nice. They are friggin expensive though.