Can I Glue Glueless Laminate Flooring?

Many laminate flooring planks are glueless, which means that the planks don't require any adhesive for attachment. Instead, the planks provide built-in tongue-and-groove locking features. Though the glueless flooring doesn't necessitate the use of adhesive, you can generally glue glueless laminate if you would like to secure the laminate planks to each other.

The installation process for glueless laminate flooring may have slight variations, depending upon the product's manufacturer, but the general procedure remains the same. Glueless flooring installs over a subfloor in rows, with the planks sitting end to end. Each row of planks laid attaches to the row of planks that came before, using the tongue-and-groove features along the plank edges. When installed without glue, the flooring simply sits on top of the subfloor surface. This is known as a floating floor.

The gluing of laminate flooring takes place with each individual plank that you add to the flooring surface. When you lay the first row of flooring planks end to end, you can spread glue between the planks with a putty knife to secure those planks together. When laying the following row, squeeze a line of glue into the groove of the first plank in the first row and then slide the tongue of the first plank of the second row into the groove. Wipe up any glue that squeezes out around the edges of the planks.

When installing glueless laminate flooring, the flooring manufacturer generally advises the use of foam, cork or another soft underlay. This underlay is especially important if you choose to glue the flooring to prevent the glue from getting on the subfloor surface. Foam underlays have a simple installation process that involves rolling out strips of the foam to stretch across the room and sealing the seams of the foam strips together with tape.

Read the directions provided by the manufacturer before gluing glueless laminate flooring. If the manufacturer of the laminate flooring recommends a type of adhesive, use that adhesive to glue the flooring planks together. If the manufacturer makes no recommendations, the flooring planks may generally be glued together with standard wood glue. If the manufacturer's instructions specifically state not to use adhesive with the planks and you choose to do so anyway, you do so at your own risk will more than likely void the warranty for your flooring.