Parquet in new constructions and more and more questions

I have already asked the question elsewhere but unfortunately received no answer: We want to lay engineered wood flooring in the bedroom, office, and both guest rooms (we are undecided between Meister and Haro) and initially I assumed that because of the underfloor heating I would have to glue it down permanently. Recently, however, a tennis friend told me that this is no longer necessarily required. And he knows something about construction. Floating installation is also possible, provided you use the appropriate impact sound insulation. It was done that way for his daughter as well and that would not impair the function of the underfloor heating. This was also confirmed to me by several parquet dealers. The only disadvantage is that you have to use transition strips. There are also opinions that say the floor must be glued down. Impact sound insulation only plays a minor role for us. Nobody wears street shoes in our house anyway, at least not in the bedrooms and guest rooms. The possibility of sanding later on is also not a criterion. In the meantime, I also read that someone used 15 mm thick solid wood planks. They were, of course, glued down. Does anyone have experience?

We have both floating parquet and self-glued parquet here. I would prefer to glue it down; it simply feels much better when walking on it, the floating parquet sometimes creaks, for example. The heat also passes better through glued parquet with underfloor heating, although it can certainly be installed floating as well. Gluing down parquet is not rocket science and can be done by yourself with the appropriate information.

Best regards
Sabine

Hi,
floating installation of parquet is indeed not a big deal, even with underfloor heating. The important thing is the right impact sound insulation; with that white foam foil stuff, you won’t make any friends.
Thermal conduction is also not an issue with floating installation, we used the Haro Silent Pro DS. That stuff is very heavy, insulates impact sound very well, and has no significant thermal insulation.
But you have to be aware that floating parquet will always move more than glued parquet, meaning it can creak when walked on. In our case, the creaking in the upstairs hallway is somewhat borderline because there are no furniture pieces to weigh down the parquet. You really notice the creaking when walking on it. Creaks like an old building...

Best regards,

Andreas

Thank you andimann, that corresponds to what I was also told. The most important aspect for me was the one concerning heat transfer, and in this regard I was also informed that special impact sound insulation is needed. Since these rooms are ones where not much walking around will happen anyway, it is not so serious if there is an occasional creak.

to be honest, floating installation of a click floor is one of the easiest things in the whole house and can easily be done by yourself. with hardly any other trade can you mess up so little so badly. while with plumbing you can flood the house, with floating installed flooring at worst the groove will come up again and you will have edges in the floor. then you just do it again and that's that. sure, you can do a lot wrong. but if you have the approval after the drying of the screed, put a proper foil underneath (heat-conductive for underfloor heating and evens out small bumps), you can lay laminate, PVC, click parquet, etc. completely without problems. the tools for cutting are no rocket science either. the nice thing about the flooring is that imperfect execution is not a big deal and unlike, for example, electrical or plumbing work, you can simply try again in a few years during renovation. our laminate in the bedroom is not so nice in 1-2 spots. so what? it doesn't bother now and in 5-6 years when renovating the room we will simply replace the flooring with a carpet. cost? for 1 room about 4 meters wide and just over 4 meters long, about 4x4.5m= 18 sqm * carpet price per sqm. very manageable

Exactly payday. And then there is the argument that floating parquet cannot be sanded. Sanding oiled parquet is not optimal anyway, and sanding almost costs more than laying new parquet. Not to mention the mess that sanding causes.