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Q: One visitor asked, "We have a 16x20 cement front room floor. It is uneven in spots, mostly toward the outer edge like a slant. We have carpet on it but live in red clay area and can't keep it clean. We want to put down hardwood or parquet. How can we do this? Can we lay plywood over the cement and put the wood on it? I've had back surgery and the vacuuming and shampooing is hurting me real bad. Would love to get rid of the carpet and go with something I can dust mop."

A: Well, you could glue down a top quality pre finished engineered floor. The best I have worked with is Mirage engineered, which, while only 3/8 thick, offers a top wood wear layer comparable to a 3/4 thick solid plank. The floor would have to be level where it slants with a fast set cement patch. Or, you could, as you say, use tap con screws or Hilti/Ramset to secure plywood, and then nail down solid 3/4 flooring. I still prefer the unfinished to factory finished, since you have an unlimited choice of colours and the entire floor has a finish coat over it, compared to the factory finished version which has individual boards finished and the possibility of grit and spills seeping between the boards. With polyurethane finishes, as tough as they may be, still requires you to try and keep the surface as free as possible of grit and dust, which will act as abrasives to the polyurethane finish. An alternative could be a nice tile of some sort. Perhaps a clay tile?





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