My brother had a laminate floor glued directly to the concrete slab in his home but I see in some threads that laminate floors are supposed to "float" and not be glued. (I e-mailed him to ask how it has held up but he hasn't replied yet) I also see talk of a vapor barrier and a cork under liner. Like I said, I'm waiting to see if he has had any issues but thought I would get some comments from here while I wait on him to respond.

Thanks for any comments.

 

Nope, laminate should not be glued to the subfloor.

 

Are you sure it is laminate? There are some similar products that can be glued.

 

Still waiting to hear from my brother, I'll ask him if it was laminate or something else.

 

Finally heard from my brother. His floor is an engineered floor, thicker actual wood on the surface that can be sanded and re-finished if needed in the future. Manufacturer recommended only their glue to use but he ran out. His installer said he had a glue that would work and thinking the manufacturer's recommendation to use "only" their glue was a marketing plow to sell their glue, let the installer use a different glue. Big mistake. In several spots when you walk and take your foot off an area there is a "click" when the floor pops back up. He has a repair kit (drill small hole and use a syringe to inject glue) but he hasn't used it yet. Lesson learned, when a manufacturer recommends a certain glue, use it.

At this point I'm up in the air about an engineered wood floor or a laminate. More research is in order. Anyone have any experience with engineered floors?

 

Just an opinion based on experience, but I would not lay laminate in a dog house. Engineered flooring is far superior in the ways you mentioned. Using click lock engineered flooring makes the job so much easier and stable. You can use an approved underlayment as a vapor barrier, which you can't do gluing it down. Remember laminate is cheap for a reason. It is MDF with a picture of wood glued to the surface and coated with aluminum oxide. Below grade moisture will cause laminate to.....well,delaminate.

 

This is caused by an concrete slab that is not level and has a low spot relative to the balance of the floor. I doubt any glue will keep the floor in place and prevent it from popping back up.