What Are Floating Floors?

It can be quite daunting to buy a wood for the first time. Everything related to the purchase and installation of the wood might seem very confusing, especially when some strange wood terminology shows up. Among them is one that you might come across more often: floating floor. But what is a floating floor?

In this post, we address the question and answer to it.

Definition

Floating floors refer to floors that don’t need any additional joining method such as nails or glue. Now, it is important to note that this means a floating floor is not a kind of floor, but rather refers to a type of installation. This means more than one kind of floor can be a floating floor, most commonly laminate and engineered wood floorings. Floating floors are laid down over an underlay. This combined with the click locking mechanism the floor comes with will help keep the floor stable.  Floating floors are therefore perfect if you are a DIY lover, since it means that you don’t necessarily need a professional to lay the floor and you can do it by yourself!

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Advantages of Floating Floors

The obvious advantage of this installation method is that it makes it much easier to lay down the floor. There is no need for extra pieces to install the floor – you only need to lay the boards and they click together. Another great feature is that with floating floors, underlays are easier to use than if you were to lay the floor with adhesive. This is important because underlays help you to insulate sound and heat and therefore it will help you reduce sound and energy costs, as the floor will be retaining the warmth. If you have underfloor heating, you can still use underlay, but it needs to be thinner for a better circulation of the heat.

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What are the Limitations?

Even though floating floors are quite good and have great advantages, like everything in life, it has its limitations. In some situations, floating floors are just not an option. To start with, a floating floor cannot be laid directly onto joists. In addition, floors such as parquet or vinyl tiles (LVT) are not advised to be installed with this method due to the need for precision. The other problem that floating floors have is that they can’t be installed on all kind of surfaces. You need to make sure that the surface where you install a floating floor is flat and solid.

As you can see, floating floors can be very practical provided they are suitable for your place. Because they can’t work in all instances, you need to inform yourself properly before choosing the floor – just refer to this article when buying your next floor!


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