I am going to be building a new home in the near future. We are going to use in floor radiant heat. I am going to install unfinished engineered wood because I do not like bevelled edges, or seeing every board as you do with prefinished products. My preference would be to float the floor and then finish it. Is this possible with a drum sander or orbital pad sander? [b]OR would it be better to glue the entire floor down, then sand?
Thanks
maggio

What brand of unfinished engineered wood recommends a floating installation? The only type I recall would be an unfinished longstrip type floor. A drum sander wouldn't be needed on a well-fitting engineered floor that's been floated. Maybe only a buffer and hardplate plus sceening. The BEST type of unfinished engineered floor is the OWEN's Plank Floor.
http://www.hardwoodinstaller.com/hardwo ... -plank.htm
Looks like solid and performs like an engineered. Unfinished so it can be finished with the system you prefer. But I'm pretty sure it needs to be stapled or glued; not floated.

Owens Plank absolutely!!! Barely any mill chatter, very clean, minimal sanding/prep work before finish application. If youare able to rent a sander that resembles the Trio by Laagler Hummel you should be in good shape with a single pass and a very thorough use of 80 grit or 100 grit. (unless you got some super hard species)

I recommend Chemrex adhesive for the install. Yes, you will find a ton of debate on this forum on radiant heat ... TRUST the Chemrex evon on the gypcrete and NO (inspite of what certain "floorguys" might think) you won't need to encapsulate or use sealer on it before you start. I've even sanded high spots from the gypcrete (don't recommend with equipment you intend to keep...) and yes the dust was insane! But I was happy with the result. Heating company did a sorry job with their crete. You'll find flooring strap clamps very usefull and you will need to have some very heavy objects (full paint buckets etc.) available to place on flooring while adhesive cures. Don't be in a rush ... 250ft./day tops if your alone but don't be bummed if you only get 150ft./day. Let the adhesive do its job before you take on too much at a time. Bosticks BST does NOT recommend thier product on RH floors. Chemrex will warranty.

Have had many successfull projects with the owens plank. In fact we just handscraped one of thier hickory floors last week. Yes, they do make a distressed or footworn unfinished product as well but this client has seen our perticular style of scraping and preferred it over the pre scraped selections. We had never done it to an engineered product before but the Owens Plank worked out beautifully ... Just an FYI

Hope this helps.....
William

PS Hi Gary ... we're still goin at it up here ....

like the rest of the guys owens plank is one of the best on the market.i installed 4000 ft in phoenix and all we did was buff it stain it and seal it .the people wanted it a little rustic thats why we didnt sand but it still came out awsome.

Welcome aboard Tanner ....