I'm redoing all the flooring in our home. My wife selected the flooring that she wants, and it is now sitting in our house waiting to be laid out. Our subfloor is 1/2" plywood throughout. Most of the flooring she purchased is 3/8" or 1/2" engineered hardwood by Armstrong. Because they are hickory and maple, it is advised per the manufacturer not to staple (nailing is already out of the question because of the thickness). My question is this: can we free float the floor or should we use the glue down method? Obviously free floating would make installation much easier, but if its going to sacrifice the longevity/integrity of the floor then I would rather do it the right way. This will be going in our family room, living room, hallway, kitchen, first floor bathroom, and two bedrooms. The flooring is already purchased, so therefore there are no returns and no turning back. I will be putting the underlayment recommended by Armstrong which seems to be a felt/sponge like material. Thanks for the help.

Can it be floated?  As in does it have a click lock mechanism?  Any chance u could post a link to the exact floor u bought?

Im not all that familiar w armstrong products but i do this for a living.  I have a flooring business.  I have nail down engineered wood in my home and i love it.  If it doesnt have a click system u will have to glue it down unless theres another method suggested by armstrong.  If gluing, u cant use any sort of felt.  

Do u have radiant heat?

The instructions are not specific to the flooring we purchased which makes it rather difficult to figure out what method to do. I don't really see any sort of locking mechanism. It appears to just be your standard tongue and groove setup. I don't have access to the flooring at the moment since we are not living there, but I can hopefully get you a model number tomorrow. I do know it it Armstrong Bruce American Scraped Hickory 5" width and 3/8" thickness. No radiant heat. Just forced air.

It will more than likely need to be glued down w an engineered hardwood adhesive.  You may be able to glue the tongue n grove part and float it, according to armstrongs website some can be floated.  

Keep me posted and i will do my best to help.

The flooring I'm looking to install is Armstrong Engineered Maple Hardwood Flooring 0.5" thickness with a width of 5". Model number ERH5305. I called Armstrong and they said the floor can either be floated, glued, mechanically fastened. I believe the subfloor is 1/2" plywood if not a bit thicker. The home was built in the 1990s. What would be the most durable option of the three listed for installation?

If your home was built in the 90s, I can't believe for a second the sub-floor is 1/2".  They are almost certainly 3/4.        
 

I staple down most engineered flooring using a Spot Nails flooring stapler and nylon coated staples. I've never glued down anything as it seems pretty messy, and once you stick it you're pretty much screwed if you need to move a misaligned piece.

Well my attempt at doing the flooring was a wash. Everyone I talked to gave me a different story as to the right method and said what I wanted to do was completely wrong. Here's my plan: lay out rosin paper after leveling the subfloor then simply staple the flooring down with a flooring stapler. Is anything wrong with this method? If anyone does this for a living, I would greatly appreciate some feedback. The floors are basically what is holding us back from moving out of the in-law's house and finally into our own. Time is of the essence. If we were doing one room, I wouldn't have an issue, but doing almost 2,000 square feet, this has to be right.

To the above poster, you may be right in regards to 3/4" ply. I will check when I go today.

You have your answer. Pick a method that is easier for you. I would not use glue.

Rosin paper and staple it. Cleat nails almost always blow out the tongue with this type of flooring. You asked for pro advice and pro's have given it.

I certainly agree. The only thing that made me hesitant with stapling the 3/8" thick engineered hardwood (the majority of the flooring in the house) is that I cannot seem to find a nailer/stapler that goes this thin. All seem to need 1/2" thickness.

As a side note, the subfloor is 3/4" plywood as an above poster suggested. My mistake.

The Spot Nails and the Bostich stapler does.

Staple it.  



3/8 thick wood?  Ive never seen it below 1/2".  Home depot product?

From a flooring store out here called Bastian One. It's made by Armstrong in the USA. Not that it says much, but it seemed to be the best bang for our buck that met our budget.