need, advice for my solid wood flooring,
been told to get this green underlay called barrier,
and use pva glue for the joints on the flooring
in which the underlay floats on the concrete floor, and the wood floor
floats on top of the underlay

so i went to a flooring place to check prices, but instead they say
to use this type of Ul, in which it floats on the concrete floor, and you don't use glue to stick the joints as the ul, has a sticky/adhesive surface and you stick the wood floor on that

so the wood and ul, becomes 1, and it floats on the cc floor

can someone give me some unbiased advice?

We used a silver-foil faced underlay, which had self adhesive strips along the edges, so that you could piece sections togther to make the whole floor. The underside (onto the concrete floor) was a foam like material of about 3-4mm IIRC

Our wooden floor simply sits on the foil section now, which worked absolutely brilliantly. So much easier to work with and position correctly. I think the foil faced stuff also has some serious heat retaining properties too, as our downstairs is now noticably warmer than when we had carpet.

We got the underlay in giant packs from homebase. The whole lot has been down over two years now with no problems at all.

I think the idea of a floating floor is exactly that, if the UL and floor are stuck together, I'd think you'd have all sorts of issues with expansion..?

We're no experts by any means:) Hope you get it sorted:)

so your adhesive parts are only on the edges?

the first rec. i had was wood float on barrier green plus underlay which floats on floor http://www.kydan.co.uk/assets/images/GB1_1.jpg

then the other one wanted to flog me a premier underlay for around £60 a piece which one side is foam (floats on concrete) the other side is completely adhesive, which i have to carefully place the wood on
which the adhesive bit is the whole

so your adhesive parts are only on the edges?

the first rec. i had was wood float on barrier green plus underlay which floats on floor http://www.kydan.co.uk/assets/images/GB1_1.jpg (http://www.kydan.co.uk/assets/images/GB1_1.jpg)

then the other one wanted to flog me a premier underlay for around £60 a piece which one side is foam (floats on concrete) the other side is completely adhesive, which i have to carefully place the wood on
which the adhesive bit is the whole

Yes, the adhesive is only on the edges, that way you can build the strips up (about 12"x50") to coat the whole floor.

I'm not too convinced about sticking the wood to the floor with that adhesive stuff you mention, seems very odd. Not sure how it would be a true floating floor in that case - and also, if you wanted to replace a small section (kids, high heel damage or whatever) it might be a bit problematic...

I'll see if I can dig out any pics:)

Here's the stuff we used (or was very similar)

http://www.homebase.co.uk/wcsstore/homebase/images/0901354HBO222222M.jpg (http://www.homebase.co.uk/wcsstore/homebase/images/0901354HBO222222M.jpg)

From Homebase , link: Order Combilay. for home delivery at homebase.co.uk (http://www.homebase.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=20001&langId=-1&catalogId=1500000751&productId=1500066283&Trail=C$cip=1500006954>C$cip=1500007226&categoryId=1500007226)

As you can see it's sectional so it can be layed just like the flooring. It's like a foam/polystyrene back and foil surface, completely configurable too, so you can get around corners, under door frames etc.

And with the top surface being foil like, it made the positioning of the floor well easy, as we were able to slide the wood around to get the best fits.

Hope that helps:)