Heating Hardwood adhesive

[Michaeljftsmith]

Does anyone heat up their hardwood adhesive to make it easier to spread? What do you use to heat it?

 

[highup]

What is the current temperature and has the adhesive been acclimated indoors to that temperature.
Not too many adhesives are thin and running especially wood flooring adhesives. You might look like Popeye before you're finished with the job.

 

[Michaeljftsmith]

I work in new housing tracts where there’s no heat and hardly ever electricity or running water in the houses most of the time. We get our electricity form generators on the job site supplied by the builder. When I get started at 7am these winter mornings it’s 40 degrees outside. So the adhesive is super thick and hard to spread. Yeah my arms are a little Popeye-ish by the end of a long spread lol. Some guys I work with just use those tiny $20 heaters and set them next to the bucket for about an hour. I was just wondering what creative ways guys here in the forum heat up their adhesive or if they heat it at all.

 

[highup]

Are we talking solid wood.....
....real wood floors?
You don't install real wood unless it's acclimated to living temperatures, meaning occupied home average room temperatures like 70° 24/7
The wood needs to be acclimated in the house at living temperatures for a week or two before you install it. That's just begging for a disaster. A virtually guaranteed disaster. I'd give it a 5% chance of success but then I'm not a wood floor guy.

 

[C.J.]

Acclimate schmaclimate, these houses are on a schedule! I don’t want that Highup on my job site, that guy’s not a team player!

Do you pick up the materials the night before? Bring the adhesive inside your house to warm up overnight. Otherwise a $20 heater might be your best bet. I remember having to put my air compressor over the heat register to warm it up before it would kick over on cold mornings. Those were the good old days when new construction still had power and heat.

 

[Michaeljftsmith]

Are we talking solid wood.....
....real wood floors?
You don't install real wood unless it's acclimated to living temperatures, meaning occupied home average room temperatures like 70° 24/7
The wood needs to be acclimated in the house at living temperatures for a week or two before you install it. That's just begging for a disaster. A virtually guaranteed disaster. I'd give it a 5% chance of success but then I'm not a wood floor guy.

Yes engineered pre finished hardwood. I’ve been working on these kinds of job sites for 20 years and there’s no acclimation going on here. Sometimes the material doesn’t even come in to the shop until the day before it needs to be installed. I know 3 days of acclimation is the minimum recommendation but the schedule doesn’t care about that.

 

[Incognito]

Yes engineered pre finished hardwood. I’ve been working on these kinds of job sites for 20 years and there’s no acclimation going on here. Sometimes the material doesn’t even come in to the shop until the day before it needs to be installed. I know 3 days of acclimation is the minimum recommendation but the schedule doesn’t care about that.

ONE of the many reasons I beat it the hell out of New England in the late '80s after dealing with that BS for many years. Here in SoCal t's only really cold.......into the 30s at night for a few weeks a year. I remember when I'd refuse to install without heat and the Super would get the Salamander going and shove it right up my butt.

https://www.globalindustrial.com/p/...MIh_DV0Jmb9gIVeh6tBh35BgPaEAQYBSABEgIzHvD_BwE

 

[highup]

Yes engineered pre finished hardwood. I’ve been working on these kinds of job sites for 20 years and there’s no acclimation going on here. Sometimes the material doesn’t even come in to the shop until the day before it needs to be installed. I know 3 days of acclimation is the minimum recommendation but the schedule doesn’t care about that.

I suppose if it's engineered....
but like CJ said.... I'm not a team player.
Tell the customer to never let the home to get over 50 degrees, then you'll be just fine.
It's funny when the biggest concern with wood flooring is acclimation, acclimation, acclimation, and measuring the moisture content of the substrate and the wood itself so they are within a few percent of each other.
Then someone asks if they have to brush all of the snow off of the boxes before installing it.
I'm just trying to wrap my head around what happens if the floor fails a few months after the owner moves in. There's only one person they will blame.
All that said, if that works under those conditions on a regular basis, I be done learned something today.

 

[Michaeljftsmith]

I suppose if it's engineered....
but like CJ said.... I'm not a team player.
Tell the customer to never let the home to get over 50 degrees, then you'll be just fine.
It's funny when the biggest concern with wood flooring is acclimation, acclimation, acclimation, and measuring the moisture content of the substrate and the wood itself so they are within a few percent of each other.
Then someone asks if they have to brush all of the snow off of the boxes before installing it.
I'm just trying to wrap my head around what happens if the floor fails a few months after the owner moves in. There's only one person they will blame.
All that said, if that works under those conditions on a regular basis, I be done learned something today.

I’ve worked for a few different contractors in these new tract homes and they all pretty much do things the same way. When they’re building one house right after the other and you move from one to the next to the next there’s no time for any of that. So there are a lot of corners cut of which we do not speak.

 

[highup]

 

[C.J.]

I’ve worked for a few different contractors in these new tract homes and they all pretty much do things the same way. When they’re building one house right after the other and you move from one to the next to the next there’s no time for any of that. So there are a lot of corners cut of which we do not speak.

That’s new construction for ya. It ain’t always right but somebody somewhere will put that floor in for a paycheck. I won’t bag on anyone. I did new construction for a number of years and you learn the workarounds for your given situation.

OP says he’s been doing this for 20 years. What have you done to warm up the adhesive before now? Or did you just power through but now your arm says maybe there’s a better way.

 

[Michaeljftsmith]

That’s new construction for ya. It ain’t always right but somebody somewhere will put that floor in for a paycheck. I won’t bag on anyone. I did new construction for a number of years and you learn the workarounds for your given situation.

OP says he’s been doing this for 20 years. What have you done to warm up the adhesive before now? Or did you just power through but now your arm says maybe there’s a better way.

Mostly I’ve just powered through and I just recently bought a small heater that helps a little. I’m just always looking for new ways to make my job easier and thought I’d ask around.

 

[DarisMulkin]

Mostly I’ve just powered through and I just recently bought a small heater that helps a little. I’m just always looking for new ways to make my job easier and thought I’d ask around.

The only way to make anyones job easier is let someone else do it. Took me 56 years laying rug to figure that one out.