Attaching Basement Flooring

As many of you know, I am not a construction guy, so I tend to have a bunch of really basic "how-to" questions. I am putting engineered hardwood (Bruce) in my studio, but since it is located in a basement, I have some concerns about gluing the panels to the bare concrete. Is this OK? The control room is a raised platform with a plywood subfloor, so I am cool there... I will just glue the flooring to the plywood. But the rest of the studio is currently bare cement. Do I put some luan board down first, and then glue the flooring to the luan? If so, do I need a vapor/moisture barrier under the luan and/or some way to raise the luan off of the floor a bit in case of a flood? The helpful (?) folks at my local home improvement store are trying to sell me this tough plastic stuff with 1/2" or so dimples that is put under the luan. This stuff is supposed to act as a vapor barrier as well as a way to get the luan up off of the floor. I am not sure if this is snake oil or not. They have a fairly big display of this stuff in rolls, but it is now marked at clearance pricing at 50% off, so I am beginning to wonder if it is just a way to get my money since nobody seems to be buying it. Obviously, it would be great if I could just glue straight to the concrete. It would save a lot of time and money, but I am such an amateur at this stuff, I want to make sure that I am doing this correctly. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

DH, assuming that your concrete does not have moisture problems - you can clean and seal it and then apply wood directly over it - BUT - you first have to contact the manufacturer to have them specify a sealer to use that is compatable with their adhesive. Otherwise they will not honor the warranty on their product. Rod

That is great, GREAT news! Saves a lot of time and money. Thanks Rod (as usual!).

Be cautious of using a concrete selant and then adhesive. 99.99% of the time we have problems with reactions. Check with Armstrong (makers of Bruce) but they will only warentee the flooring not adhesive nor how it sticks if you deviate from their products. In most cases warentee covers little but the product if not installed by an "Armstrong certified installer". Your adhesive will form a vapor barrier regardless. We like to use Bostick Best http://www.bostik-us.com/products/index ... yPageId=31 it is worth the cost and our Armstrong representitive recomends it here. Luan (Note I'm unfamiliar with the term "Luan" in Canada and I think it is a form of particle board) is only good if it is adhered to another subflooring. You shouldn't need it if you are simply glueing down to the concrete. You'll need plywood or OSB over that plastic Membrane if you go that way. The one we sell is called Delta FL. http://www.cosella-dorken.com/bvf/ca-en ... cts/FL.php There is another product called DriCore http://www.dricore.com/en/eIndex.aspx that I have at home and love it. We used an industrial epoxy floor finish on it and it looks great. I recomend these all the time for good reason. You'd not regret using them if you wanted to. If you do have water in your basement all products will get ruined and you'll be looking at an insurance claim. Sorry. The DriCore and Delta products allow for seapage, dampness, and hydrostatic pressure but will be ruined in a flood. Good luck. I'm sure it will look nice. JP