Hi everyone and thanks in advance for your help.

I have removed some laminate flooring from my basement that got damaged. Now I am thinking I will redo the entire area. The laminate was removed easily, and the underlay was (is) in great shape. It is a vapour barrier underlay, on top of concrete.

I am going to replace it with engineered wood. At Home Depot they have one lot of engineered hickory that was a mis-order and they need to get rid of it for $1.50/sf - regularly $8. For the same price as cheap laminate, I figure I can't go wrong.

I have worked with click-together floors before, but this one will be glued tongue and groove to float it, so that will be a little different. I have watched several videos, and it does not look really all that different. Same measurements, same considerations about where the joints are, etc.

One thing I am wondering about is this: at the flooring store, the installer explained that I will need to clamp as I go along. I do not own clamps for that. On youtube however, many videos show simply using strong painter's tape when you finish 2 or 3 rows - every few inches - to hold the wood together and have it set properly. I figured maybe I will supplement that with some weight (bricks or something).

Has anyone done that? Any advice? I am not trying for perfection :) I just found an amazing price on some engineered wood, and thought this would be a really cool way to finish the basement.

Come to think of it, one other question I have is this: what is a good type of transition to use? I do need to transition back to laminate at the end of a hallway. I have to decrease the floor height by about 5mm.

Any advice would be great. Thanks a lot - I really appreciate it.

Dave