FLOORING : 2 Types of Laminated Wood Systems Provide Firm Footing, Step by Step

If you’re considering installing a laminated flooring system over your existing floor, there are a number of things to consider.

There are generally two types of laminated flooring systems, which differ in how they are installed.

Much of the three-eighths-inch-thick flooring is glued to the subfloor, which, in this case, is your old wood floor. (Always place the planks at either a 45-degree or 90-degree angle to the original flooring to prevent the old floor’s natural expansion and contraction from affecting your new floor.)

As a bonus, the elastic properties in the adhesive, like the laminated wood’s cross-grain construction, help stabilize the floor.

Glued-down laminated flooring comes in many styles, including planks that are three inches, five inches and seven inches wide. You can also find laminated plank flooring with pegs for added charm. Beveled edges create a groove or channel between the boards, completing this old-time look.

The other type of laminated wood flooring is called a floating floor system. What this means is that the laminated planks, usually about half an inch thick, are layered over a thin (one-eighth inch) foam pad. Other than the glue used to secure each tongue-and-groove plank to the next, no adhesive or nails are used. As its name implies, the floor floats on its foam pad.

The advantage this floor has over the glued ones is that it is easier and quicker to install. Also, the foam can better bridge irregularities in the floor below (so it can also be installed over cement slabs, in basements for example).

Floating floor systems usually come in relatively large pieces. One of the styles imitates the old strip flooring. Each piece is about 7 inches by 8 feet and looks like three strips of 2 1/4-inch flooring put together. The sides and ends are milled with tongues and grooves for easy, tight installation. Most floating floors are square-edged rather than beveled.

If you’re interested in parquet, look at some of the glue-down fingerblock parquet floorings. It’s probably best to use a very thin (quarter-inch) plywood overlay over an old wood floor.

Because the original floor is going to expand and contract, gluing the parquet to plywood will make the new floor more stable. Fingerblock parquet comes in different sizes. Many are solid wood, five-sixteenths-inch thick. Common sizes include 6-by-6-inch and 12-by-12-inch squares.

Solid strip floors are beautiful and long-lasting, but installation is more time-consuming and difficult than with laminated products.

Although most of these products are used in new construction, they can be added over an existing wood floor.

That’s not easy to do, though. Because solid wood flooring is usually three-fourths of an inch thick, the added height can cause some problems, especially if you can’t--or don’t want to--remove the old flooring first. If you choose this route, be prepared to undercut doors and casings to make room for the new boards.

As far as cost, there isn’t much difference between laminated and solid wood products if you do the installation.

So your choice boils down to the effort and time involved in the job and the relative complications involved in raising the height of your floor.