Hi Lorraine, sorry I missed your question. I only bought this house a few months back and the glue has deteriorated anyway so I used the steam mop to test it out before I get new flooring. Because many animals lived in this house I was hoping the steam would help kill germs. I've read so many opinions on the use of steam on both vinyl and laminate so I'm at a bit of a loss now. One of my joeys has laminate and has been using a steam mop on it for 12 years now with no ill effects at all, despite that supposedly being a big no-no, but she found it so quick and efficient when the kids were toddlers particularly and the floor needed doing almost daily. I just have to wonder these days how much manufacturers are protecting themselves and not giving consumers honest information. How often do you buy an item of cotton clothing and then find the label says "dry clean only". This does not mean the item can't be washed, it is to protect the manufacturer from someone doing something like washing in boiling water. We need more transparency in care instructions, only then can consumers make informed decisions on the right product for them. If steam is going to affect the glue, then it follows water will too so then it comes down to just how do you clean your floors. Manufacturers' special products that are always ridiculously expensive are not the answer and having access to these products is not always possible for country people either. I believe there are two types of vinyl planks too - one type are glued down, the others are a floating floor which would not require glue, but I was told in the event of damage, a glued plank is much easier to replace than one in a floating floor. There are so many glues on the market now too, there must be one that could be used to reglue a plank that has come adrift.

Way late to the party here, but another reason NOT fill dents/holes/gouges in your floorboads with putty, is to avoid my current nightmare. My 100+ year old baltic pine floorboards badly need re-sanding as there are lots of large grey patches where the finish has worn completely away which looks terrible and it‘s really hard to keep even half clean. Being a tad short of cash atm Im looking at doing it myself, so the other day I got down on my hands and knees and had a really good look at the patches that were worn, and it turns out that underneath 90% of them isn’t wood at all - its $#*&ing putty, and theres so much of it, in high traffic areas some boards are almost more putty than wood! its basically dirt magnet that’s really ugly yet really hard to remove, making the job of refinishing sooo much harder than it needs to be. If you plan on staying in your home for a while, chances are one day you’ll need to redo the floors, so to the question of putty? Just say no!

it was very common years ago to have floorboards on front porches. the boards were always run from front to back to allow water to run off each board individually. there needs to be adequate fall on the subfloor to ensure water does not sit on the timber if it wet. the timber itself is fine to use outside, it would be a good idea to cut off the tongue and groove then it really is not too different to decking. I would suggest leaving it outside to acclimatise for a few weeks before installing and depending on the width of the board, the gaps must be suitable for the species.

there are many ideas on line to overcome this dilemma but my most successful solution was to install short lengths of 5x2cm pine along the sides of the joists pushing up against the floor and gluing and nailing to the underneath of the floor boards and the joists...keeping in mind that you need access under the floor and older house are likely to have asbestos dust etc so breathing, eye and skin protection is necessary and i found that precutting, drilling and nailing the strips of timber and preparing several applicators with liquid nails before crawling under the floor made it a little easier ... it's a tedious dirty job but well worth the effort to eliminate the annoying squeaks and took about a week to do the whole floor of a small house but hope there are some other suggestions for you to try