Engineered product - Floating and gluing are allowed - Which one?

[harrymanimus]

Thinking seriously about this flooring (below), and instructions allow for both floating and gluing. We don't want to use quarter round, will be replacing baseboards. We have a sunken living room with 1 step. Seems like floating might require quarter round where the wall meets the floor if we put a strip of wood along the wall where carpet is now.

Bought a box to lay some out. Some boards bow up a bit. Unsure how the feel of floating would be in general, with the added concern of flatness of boards.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/allen-roth...ineered-Hardwood-Flooring-38-Sq-Ft/5002072237

 

[C.J.]

Install the sunken room first then install a piece of flooring as the riser. Set the riser tight to the floor and you won’t need 1/4 round or shoe.

 

[harrymanimus]

Install the sunken room first then install a piece of flooring as the riser. Set the riser tight to the floor and you won’t need 1/4 round or shoe.

By riser, do you mean the vertical laid piece along the wall that butts to the floor? Currently we have carpet there, and above the carpet is baseboard. We do plan on replacing the baseboards.

 

[C.J.]

New baseboard it is then

 

[C.J.]

You may have some bowed boards but it should be maybe a couple here n there and not the majority. Cull them and use them last if you have to, maybe in a closet or something like that.

Once you get the floor together the boards should be fairly flat and want to maintain a flat plane as a whole unit. How flat your substrate is is prolly more important than a couple bowed boards here n there that you can easily cull.

Remove your existing floor and baseboards, install your new floor, floating or glue down, then install new baseboards. No need for 1/4 round or shoe if you do it that way.

You doing this yourself? Paint your baseboards before you install them. That way all you have to do is touch up the nail holes and maybe caulk the top depending on what your walls look like.