The pros and cons of floating laying vs bonded laying
THE PROS AND CONS OF FLOATING LAYING VS BONDED LAYING
Below you will find some brief preliminary terminology:
FLOATING LAYING
this means that the parquet is basically leaning on a laying plane; it can be laid dry in the event of self-locking click joins which bind one board to the other, and this is when the parquet can be dismantled and refitted whenever you wish; or you can do so by applying adhesive into into the male-female interlocking, provided that the axles are bonded together so that they do not slip away; here the parquet would be removed, although this would not be possible without breaking the adhesive which binds the axles together, therefore resulting in most of the boards being lost.
BONDED LAYING
this means that the flooring which has been chosen is bonded to the floor with an adhesive and can no longer be removed unless it has not broken anything.
HARDWOOD PARQUET
flooring which has essentially been extracted from a tree truck, and which is essentially noble for all of its thickness.
SUPPORTED PARQUET
a multilayer parquet composed of various cores: the lower layers can be compensated for as birch, poplar or HDF, and the upper layer consists of a noble core of any species; please note that the upper layer must often be of at least 2.5 mm for it to be called a parquet.
PREFINISHED PARQUET
wooden flooring, whose surface has already been finished at the factory, meaning it can be walked upon immediately after being laid; this should not be confused with the supported parquet, although it is true that almost all supported types do come prefinished, whereas it is not true that all prefinished versions are supported as there are also a number of prefinished hardwoods.
WHAT TYPE OF LAYING SHOULD BE CHOSEN?
No method is better than another. It depends on various factors:
– what type of parquet has been chosen;
– what kind of substrate will we find as a laying plane;
– what preferences the customer has.
Let’s look at one factor at a time:
THE PARQUET CHOSEN
There are countless types of parquet available on the market, various types for composition, coupling, finishing etc. There are a number of exceptions and special cases, however as a general rule, we can say that hardwood parquet should be bonded (or nailed) to the ground because it is slightly less stable than a supported parquet, although having said this, a lot depends on the core which has been chosen; however, a click interlocking feature means that the core and the processing phase guarantee that it remain stable to allow a floating assembly (as with our 12 mm tempered type). On the contrary, the supported parquet can be bonded to the screed or can be floated, whether or not it has male-female click interlocking features.
SUBSTRATE
Given that the substrate needs to be solid, dry, clean and flat, if we have a cement screed, then we can both bond it and float it; if we have a damp substrate, or we suspect that it may become somewhat damp over a period of time, then it is best to lay it floating (if the core chosen allows this) by using an anti-moisture PVC cloth underneath the mat; if the substrate is on the grainy side, there are tiles which jump off of it for one reason or the other, or if its neither smooth nor compact, then a floating floor will be laid once more; it cannot be bonded if the substrate is made of wood, because the movements of the two types of wood would “pull” in opposite directions.
CUSTOMER PREFERENCES
This is entire personal both in terms of taste and requirements, etc. What we can do is outline the main pros and cons when it comes to laying, citing both methodologies.
WHAT DOES BONDED LAYING PREFER?
– it wants a feeling of greater solidity under the feet;
– those who knows what will retain parquet for decades and believes it will be rebladed after several years; this process is easier with bonded flooring;
– it does not want to see any expansion joints between one setting and another;
– those who have floor heating;
– for laying inside a bathroom..
WHAT DOES FLOATING LAYING PREFER?
– it prefers to have the parquet installed itself (DIY installation);
– it wants to be possible to dismantle the flooring and reuse it in another location (around 80% of the flooring can be reused);
– it wants to preserve underlying flooring which you do not want to ruin, for instance when renting out a home to strangers;
– it does not want to be found underneath feet, even when at its most ecological;
– it wants to know moist areas where humidity levels are marginally above normal;
– any defects are rectified by using an air mattress which is always applied during floating whenever the substrate is of an irregular nature.