Installing Floating Engineered Hardwood Flooring

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Floating Engineered Flooring The photograph shows the installed floating engineered hardwood flooring in our living room area. I installed a total of 260 sq ft in the space shown and a 15 foot hallway. I used Tarkett Genesis ® engineered flooring available from Home Depot in their Harvest color shade, a golden oak stain level.

This photo also shows my magazine rack near the sofa and a small Myrtle wood table with a cherry shirt and legs that I made a few years ago. The Myrtle wood was from a small log a friend gave me while we were on a visit to Oregon. This species only grows in a few coastal counties in Oregon. It is noted for the brown tones with this table top shows off beautifully.

Now I do woodworking and have lots of hand tools and some power tools. Festool power tools are the best if you can afford them. But I have never installed hardwood flooring, either the traditional staple down or the newer engineered floating designs before. So this took me into an area where I was a novice. I'm now a little smarter and thought my experience notes might be of help to others. So read what I offer in good faith, integrate it into your experience and plans and hopefully you will be a little better prepared then I was.

At least for the engineered flooring I purchased there was no mention of the need for any "tapping" tools to insure the engineered locks seated completely. It's my opinion even for an engineered locking system some tools are needed. This was my first learning experience.
As to seating or tapping tools the perfect fit tools are in the box with the flooring and are free. As one precedes you quickly get either a short piece, say well under 12 inches, or a piece with both of the manufactured short ends cut off. Either type of piece is the material needed to make the perfect seating tool for the flooring you selected. For the long locking edge I would use a 6 to 8 inch strip. For the short locking edge, which might be specific to Tarkett Genesis line, I cut of the long lock side from a short piece preserving most of the short side. This yielded a piece that mated to a short side, could be used to slip the piece along the long edge groove into position and still be able to be removed after use. This allowed me to insert a starting strip a little short of the end and then move it closer or under an undercut doorway molding into a position it could not be directly inserted. Be sure to still meet the required minimum distance to a stop needed for a free floating floor.
I ended up with one poor long edge fit, a 15" run at the end of a full length 15 foot room strip that was not noticed until a day later. At 20 rows back and under a sofa it stays. What I believe happened, my second learning experience, is that when doing the next row I must have disturbed the previous one. I was very diligent in inspecting the long locks on each finished row before proceeding but did not go back to previous rows. This I was a mistake that those who have laid flooring before seem to know but I didn't see in my online reading before doing this project. It would seem at least 2 rows back from the last locked row is a good rule.
Specific to the Tarkett Genesis ® engineered flooring that I used, I believe there may be a minor manufacturing issue. I inspected all boards to make sure there were no small wood pieces in any of the locking grooves. What I found was that about 1 piece per box, one in say 20, would not seat correctly on the short side groove no matter how hard I pushed. I then discovered, by accident, that by just swapping the piece out and using another piece the short edge clicked in easily. In addition, the "trouble" piece worked fine with another long piece every time. To me this says some very minor variations in either one or both sides occurs with a low probability and results in the short side not being able to engage. When I realized that by swapping out the piece with another one it became a non-issue. But it wasn't obvious at first.

Overall, I'm very pleased with my Tarkett Genesis Harvest finish engineered hardwood flooring and would highly recommend it to others. More importantly, so is my wife!