There has been a recent increase in the use of glue with wood flooring of all types and an increase in wide plank engineered wood flooring that recommends installation with glue and nails, and solid wood flooring that recommends or allows for installation by glue down methods. This text addresses these changes, recommends several types of glue to use when wood flooring is installed over Ecowarm RadiantBoard with glue and highlights concerns and limitations that should be considered.
General Considerations: Great efforts have been made to make Ecowarm as green as possible, and this applies to our glues as well. We use No VOC (Volatile Organic Compound) glues to bond the aluminum to our plywood, and our aluminum is additionally a positive barrier to outgassing from the glue and the plywood. Since wood flooring glues used to bond flooring to Ecowarm RadiantBoard are applied on top of our aluminum, they have the potential to significantly affect the indoor air quality of a room. There is a new generation of more environmentally benign adhesives which substantially reduce these possible emissions, and we recommend their use when gluing down a floor. But consumers should be made aware that traditional nail down methods, edge glued floating engineered wood flooring and floating edge lock flooring, have, in general, less likelihood of affecting indoor air quality and can be a great choice. Traditionally, in all homes and those with radiant heated floors, wide boards have presented more problems in terms of contraction and expansion than narrow boards; narrow boards allow more small spaces for expansion and contraction from changes in humidity and temperature. Use of wide plank engineered wood floors or stabilized reclaimed wide plank wood requires the sophisticated manufacturing of a well-stabilized product and should be carefully researched before use over radiant heat. Wide plank boards are best glued and nailed, and wide plank flooring of species known to expand and contract significantly with changes in humidity should be avoided. Wood flooring installers are advised to discuss these issues with their clients.
Additional Considerations: Any wood flooring glue used must be compatible with PEX pipe. Due to our board’s aluminum layer, glues dry significantly slower than when applied on a wood subfloor, so be sure to account for this in timing your installation.
Also See: Hardwood Considerations over Radiant Floor Heating
