How do you put down a hard wood floor on a cement slab?

Question

I want to know how you put in a hard wood floor on cement and do you need to put down ply wood first before you put the floor down? I will be the one installing the floor

Answer 1

  Full 3/4 wood floor?  If so you ll have to put a "sleeper" floor in first.. That consists of 1x2  (or 1x3) glued and nailed to cement and then 3/4inch ply on top of that to nail 3/4 in hardwood to. If your talking 3/8 or 1/2 inch engineered hardwood them you can glue that directly to moisture tested cement..You won t be able to glue 3/4 hardwood to cement because there is to much natural warpage in it that only nailing (or stapling) will take out that warpage  GL  

Answer 2

There is a system that supposedly requires no glueing that I found at 'Sam's club'  it fits together like a puzzle piece on its side.  I haven't put mine down yet but the instructions are simple enough.

Answer 3

it depends on if it is true hardwood or if laminate floating flooring.

if true hardwood at about 3/4" thick, than yes you should install a sub-floor of some type of plywood and you also may have to install sleepers before sub-floor depending on condition of concrete an levelness of floor.  

Answer 4

First you need to check for moisture. If it is a dry area, you could use plywood over the cement floor but be sure the area is level.

Answer 5

Rob S has the right idea. FYI one problem with a solid hardwood floor using the sleeper system is that it reduces headroom. If you're flooring a basement that can be trouble. But it can be tricky even upstairs because of how the increased thickness affects door swings, cabinets, dishwashers, etc. An engineered wood floor isn't as thick. One engineered wood system you might consider over a slab is called a floating floor. I installed one in my basement several years ago and I'm very happy with it. Here's the how-to:

http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/how-to/i...

But various types of engineered flooring can be adhered directly to the slab itself as long as there are no moisture problems present.