What is the difference between “floating” floor and “glue-down” floor, and which option works best for me?

Floating floors sit loosely over the subfloor and are quicker/cheaper to install; glue-down floors floating floor simply refers to the way a floor is installed. This installation method can be used for solid wood, engineered, laminates or Luxury Vinyl Tile (LVT) flooring.

Floating simply means the floor is ‘loosely’ laid on your sub-floor and not stuck in place. Floating installations are fast to install, saving time and money, and comes with some extra benefits, namely if you ever wanted to change your floating floor it can be uplifted easily. If you choose to go for a floating floor you usually have to use underlay beneath your floor and choosing to go for a premium, high quality underlay will make a big difference to the comfort and noise levels in your home over the years to come.

A glue-down installation is as straight forward as it sounds. Your floor gets glued down to the subfloor (this can be concrete, poured screed etc.). A glue-down installation can be slightly more costly when it comes to installation as it will take your contractor longer to do, but it comes with some benefits of its own – namely a glue-down installation will make your floor feel extremely ‘solid’ in the sense that there will be no movement in the floor, and the noise levels will be the lowest out of all the installation options. People often associate parquet flooring with looking and feeling very solid, the reason for this is parquet flooring is almost always glued in place and as such has gained a reputation for the solid feel that comes with a glue-down installation.