A Bond To Last A Lifetime

You’ve taken the difficult steps in choosing the type of wood and the colour of the wood that you want to use for your flooring. The concrete slab is cleaned and awaiting you to start applying the adhesive so you can then lay your flooring. But you haven’t chosen your adhesive yet. One question you may find yourself asking is, “Should I go with the cheapest glue I can find or should I purchase one that I’ve seen around for a long time like Bostik Glue?” 

There is a simple answer to that question: Do not go for the cheapest glue just because it is the cheapest. 

When you are glueing hardwood flooring the quality of the adhesive that you use is one of the most important decisions you can make. Going with the cheapest adhesive will more than likely see you dealing with problems in the future. All of which could have been avoided by opting for the most appropriate and highest quality adhesive at the beginning.

When finding the right type of adhesive for hardwood flooring, you can choose between:

• Water Based Adhesives
• Polyurethane Adhesives

Both adhesives have their own strengths and weaknesses.

Polyurethane Adhesive

This type of adhesive is the most popular choice in today's markets for this type of application, and in general use. Bostik Glue is the leading company who specialises in glues and sealants. With their UltraSet HP being a perfect choice for any hardwood applications. And if you do end up getting some adhesive on an already laid piece of wood, you can also get Bostik's heavy duty hand cleaning towel to clean up the spill easily. Both of these products and more are available at Timberfix.

Another great choice is Bostik’s Ultraset SF, not only is this a solvent free glue removing the toxic fumes and chemicals that you get with other types of glues. It is also highly recommended by major timber manufacturers, non flammable, easy to spread, has excellent acoustic properties, and will not re-emulsify when it comes into contact with water.

Water Based Adhesive

The strengths that keep water based adhesives a top choice for some is the ease of application and the low VOC content. Water based options tend to be more forgiving when working on a DIy project. They also give the user the benefit of being easier to clean up.

The weaknesses of these types of adhesives can include:

• Slower drying than solvent based adhesives
• Can be vulnerable to freezing at low temperatures
• Some water-based glues can contain allergens
• Lower water resistance than solvent-based products

Within recent times many manufacturers have been able to develop adhesives that are able to serve more purposes than just being able to glue down hardwoods. Bostik has developed a urethane adhesive that is able to serve two additional abilities. That being sound reduction and moisture vapour protection. What this allows, or to be more precise, removes is the need to apply a moisture vapour membrane to the concrete prior to the adhesive, or applying a cork or padding underlay to dampen any sound transmission to any floors below. This not only saves you labour and time, but money too.