Installation · 8 min · Updated August 2026
Nail-down vs glue-down vs floating hardwood
Which hardwood fastening system belongs on a wood joist house, a condo slab, and a radiant floor in Ontario.
The system is the floor
Homeowners shop species. Failed floors are usually a fastening mistake. Nail-down, glue-down, and floating are three different assemblies. Green Hardwood specifies the system from the subfloor up, then picks the oak.
Nail-down
The default on a dry, wood-framed Toronto house. Solid 3/4-inch oak or maple, hidden cleats or staples into the subfloor, expansion left at the walls. It sounds like a floor. It refinishes like a floor. It is the wrong call over concrete.
Glue-down
The default on a condo slab, a radiant slab, and most engineered installs below grade. The adhesive is part of the warranty. The wrong glue voids the mill and telegraphs every ridge in the concrete. We moisture-test the slab and flatten before a trowel comes out.
Floating
A click-engineered floor that rides on an underlayment. Faster. Quieter only if the underlayment is specified. Weaker at stair nosings and doorways if the installer treats it like laminate. Green Hardwood will float a floor when the mill requires it. We will not float a cheap click plank and call it architecture.
Want the number for your house?
Estimator first. Site moisture reading second. That is the only honest sequence.
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