In the past, adhesives used to install wood flooring created a rigid bond between the flooring and the substrate. With seasonal shifts in ambient air humidity the flooring is constantly adapting through expansion and contraction while the rigid adhesives restrain this natural movement creating shear stress in the wood, in the adhesive layer, and in the substrate. This shear stress can cause the adhesives to tear loose from the flooring planks or the substrate, weakening the bond.
This problem has been solved with the creation of new elastic adhesives that remain flexible and allow the natural movement of wood to occur without undue stress placed on the flooring or substrate.
For a number of years wood floors have been glued and floated as alternatives to nail down installation on all types of sub floors, including concrete and gypsum based.
But there is still potential for improving these installation methods so that all solid and engineered wood floors can permanently keep their appealing characteristics without damage or problems with the floor even over radiant heating.
The solution is elastic adhesives for wood floors.
With elastic adhesives the wood flooring is installed directly onto the slab eliminating the need for sleepers and plywood. This bond is permanently flexible allowing planks to expand and contract without damage to the adhesive or substrate. Using this system you can effectively install solid wood flooring up to 8 inches wide and engineered planks up to 14 inches wide directly to concrete with no length limitations.
Acoustic bonding uses a specially designed synthetic foam mat containing oblong slots which when laid out onto the slab the elastic adhesive is applied into the slots and then the floor is laid. This system combines the benefits of a full surface glue with those of a floating floor. While each plank will expand and contract individually, there will also be some expansion and contraction across the entire floor.
The combination of a foam mat and elastic adhesive makes the wood particularly resilient, considerably improves its impact noise deadening and sound transmission capacity, and reduces noise caused by walking.
The acoustic bonding system is ideally suited for installation in residential and commercial buildings when using solid wood up to 3/4" thick and 8" wide or engineered floors with three or more layers.