Glue-down vs. stretch-in for residential living rooms - which do you swear by?

I just finished a 12x15 living room in a split level and went with glue-down because the customer had tile downstairs below. It came out flat and solid, but man, the cleanup took forever. Has anyone else had better luck with stretch-in on upper floors or do you stick with glue for good?

3 comments

3 Comments

alex_nguyen16d ago

Man, I had a buddy who went stretch-in on a second floor living room and it turned into a whole thing. It looked great for about six months, then he started noticing ripples near the sliding glass door. Turns out the humidity from the AC unit cycling was enough to loosen things up over time. He ended up having to pull it up and redo the whole room with glue down. I remember him cussing about that glue cleanup for weeks after. So yeah, for upper floors I'd still lean glue if you want it to stay put and not look wavy.

sam1716d ago

Yeah, humidity is a sneaky bastard with stretch-in. Glue is the safe bet.

hayden46615d ago

Yeah man, @alex_nguyen totally nailed it with that story. Ive seen the exact same thing happen way too many times. People think stretch in is bulletproof but humidity will absolutely wreck it eventually. Glue down might be more work upfront but you wont be kicking yourself later when the floor starts waving at you. Its just not worth the headache of redoing an entire room. Stick with glue and sleep easy.