Posts: 2,482
Threads: 0
Joined: Aug 2004
Solid wood flooring expands and contracts and composite flooring doesn't. Why then do you nail hardwood flooring down and not the composites? It seems to be backwards to me.
Jim
Posts: 23,952
Threads: 2
Joined: Sep 2003
Location: Missouri
Cuz real wood flooring is normally in much smaller pieces. 3" widths......etc.
Composite does expand........much wider planks and is made to float, so no need to fasten it down.
YMMV
Steve
Mo.
I miss the days of using my dinghy with a girlfriend too. Zack Butler-4/18/24
The Revos apparently are designed to clamp railroad ties and pull together horrifically prepared joints
WaterlooMark 02/9/2020
Posts: 63,452
Threads: 3
Joined: Feb 2007
Location: Merryland
(02-16-2021, 01:25 PM)Stwood_ Wrote: Cuz real wood flooring is normally in much smaller pieces. 3" widths......etc.
Composite does expand........much wider planks and is made to float, so no need to fasten it down.
YMMV
+1
Vinyl plank and laminate are installed "floating" because of expansion and contraction. Vinyl plank in particular moves more than laminate. Wood moves less.
Posts: 2,482
Threads: 0
Joined: Aug 2004
Ok. Please help a hard headed German understand this expansion/contraction thing for laminates. I know and understand wood moves within the grains. But since there are no grains, etc. in composites how do they expand and contract? Plus, just how close to the walls do you lay laminate without the planks separating during movement?
Jim
Posts: 1,920
Threads: 1
Joined: Aug 2016
(02-18-2021, 09:09 AM)Halfathumb Wrote: Ok. Please help a hard headed German understand this expansion/contraction thing for laminates. I know and understand wood moves within the grains. But since there are no grains, etc. in composites how do they expand and contract? Plus, just how close to the walls do you lay laminate without the planks separating during movement?
Remember wood expands from moisture and vinyl expands from heat. As far as them separating remember they lock together so they move as a unit. On the type that have adhesive strips that glue the panels together I have seen minor separation next to a heavy appliance such as a fridge from expansion/contraction where other parts of flooring could not move. Roly
Posts: 379
Threads: 0
Joined: Nov 2010
Vinyl flooring is glued down, at least in commercial applications with the glues designed to allow for movement and gaps do not appear. Although this is typically a much larger area on install.
As mentioned, floating floors will lock together somehow (based on various designs) so the entire floor acts as one unit.
Being two completely different materials, wood and vinyl, it's hard to compare their expansion since it occurs for different reasons.
Posts: 63,452
Threads: 3
Joined: Feb 2007
Location: Merryland
(02-18-2021, 09:09 AM)Halfathumb Wrote: Ok. Please help a hard headed German understand this expansion/contraction thing for laminates. I know and understand wood moves within the grains. But since there are no grains, etc. in composites how do they expand and contract? Plus, just how close to the walls do you lay laminate without the planks separating during movement?
Everything expands and contracts to some extent. Wood moves both ways, just less along the grain. The grain direction protects wood a little in one direction. This is why ply and OSB shrink less because of multi directional grain. Some things just move more than others. This is why vinyl siding isn't nailed tightly and the nail holes are slots to allow movement horizontally and the individual pieces are overlapped at the ends so the seams don't open when it contracts. The individual pieces aren't locked together tightly so they can move vertically. Vinyl boards move a good bit too, probably more than wood from my experience.
