When buying a hardwood floor it is important to decide which installation system is best for your project. The two main installation systems are Tongue and Groove and Click. Which one you choose will depend upon a number of things, including: what type of flooring you want to use, what subfloor you have, and whether you want to install the floor yourself or hire a professional floor fitter.
Tongue and Groove (T&G)
Tongue and groove is the traditional method to fit flooring. The planks of flooring have one long side and one short side with a tongue (machined protruding edge) and one long side and one short side with a groove (machined rebated edge). When fitted together the tongue should fit into the groove perfectly creating smooth, gapless flooring. The floor can either be secret nailed, secret screwed or glued directly down to the subfloor, or can be floated over an underlay by gluing along the length and width of the plank and pushing them together. Tongue and groove flooring is available in both solid wood and engineered wood, so can be fitted on any subfloor that has been well prepared. The down side of tongue and groove flooring is that it can be quite challenging to install and may need a professional wooden floor fitter to ensure the floor is correctly installed and to obtain minimum wastage.
Click fitting system
A click fitting system is a simple and straight forward installation method, and is becoming more popular for DIY as less skill and equipment is needed to install the floor. The planks of flooring click in to place and lock together so there is no need for glue, screws or nails. The interlocking joints are machined onto the flooring, and provide a very tight fit, eliminating the risk of gaps between the flooring planks. The most common way to install this type of flooring is to float it over an underlay, although it can be glued directly down to the subfloor if necessary. Flooring with a click system is mainly available in engineered hardwood, bamboo flooring and laminate flooring, but not solid hardwood. One of the down sides of wooden flooring with a click fixing system is that it cannot be installed over joists; it must be fitted over a solid base.
Things to consider when deciding between T&G or Click
• Both types of flooring require a clean, flat, dry, level and well prepared subfloor
• Click system requires less skill and equipment for fitting, lending itself to DIY
• Click fixing system is not recommended as an installation method for solid hardwood flooring
• T&G can be installed over any subfloor including joists, whereas click system flooring cannot
• The click system makes it easy to replace any damage boards
• T&G is available in wider planks
For questions relating to any Ambience Hardwood Flooring products, telephone 0116 2741050 or email mail@ambiencehardwoodflooring.com. Thanks for reading.
