Click system or Tongue and Groove?
Normally there are two kinds of floor joints they are Click System and Tongue & Groove.
Tongue and Groove is a traditional joint way for floor installation. One side and one end of the plank have a groove, the other side and end have a tongue. The tongue and groove fit snugly together, thus joining or aligning the planks, and are not visible once joined. Tongue-and-groove flooring can be installed by glue-down (both engineered and solid), floating (mostly engineered only), or nail-down (not recommended for most engineered).
It is very simple by putting the tongue inside the groove. But T&G is not good enough to avoid the floor moving, expanding. only with T&G, gaps will be there after several month. So if you are going to use a floor with Tongue and Groove, you need to have some adhesive(On the back or inside the T&G)
a. If you use adhesive on the back, the way of installation called: Glue Down.
b. If you only use adhesive on the T&G, it is called: Floating Installation.
Click System is a special style by click two pcs of floor like a lock, So it is also called lock system. There are a number of patented “click” systems that now exist. These click systems are either “unilin” or “fiboloc” A “click” floor is similar to tongue-and-groove, but instead of fitting directly into the groove, the board must be angled or “tapped” in to make the curved or barbed tongue fit into the modified groove. No adhesive is used when installing a “click” floor, making board replacement easier. This system not only exists for engineered wood floors but also engineered bamboo and a small number of solid floors (such as “parador solido click”) and is designed to be used for floating installations. It is beneficial for the Do-It-Yourself market.
Cost of the floor when order from China:
Click System is normally US$1.5/m2 expensive than T&G floor, that is because of 2 reasons:
a. The click system floor waste more material during production.
b. We need to give the unilink or vallinge company patent charges when we produce the floor.
Re-use:
Click system floor can be uninstalled and re-use the in other sites. Since you do not have to nail it to the sub-floor or glue down. You will only waste a little bit starting boards which you have to cut to short.
For the T&G floor, you have to nail it or glue it. So you are not able to take them down. what you can do is only to sand them smooth and re-coating on the same unit.
