Installing Your Own Hardwood Floors

It used to be that you had to hire someone to put in your
wood floors. Now, there are many different products that
come pre-finished from the factory and can be laid out by a
do it yourselfer. This saves time in sanding and sealing
the floor. In addition, the newer tongue-and-groove
products are much easier to install than older types of
hardwood flooring products.

You will want to tear out all the old flooring and make
sure the room is level. After cleaning and removing debris,
lay out a 15-pound asphalt felt on the subfloor. You will
need to overlap seams by 3 inches. Staple it to the floor.
This will be where you will lay out the chalk lines to for
straight edges.

Any flooring that you receive will need to be bought into
the room and allowed to sit for a few days. This will allow
the product to acclimate itself to the humidity in the
room. Wood has a way of expanding and contracting in
accordance with humidity levels.

The first three rows will be nailed in manually, but after
that you can take advantage of modern technology by using a
flooring nailer. These you can rent at any home improvement
store and return once the job is done. You will also need a
rubber mallet to strike the plunger and drive the nails
through the groove into the floor below.

Continue laying out your flooring, perpendicular to the
floor joists, leaving ½ inch space around the perimeter of
the room for further wood expansion or contraction. Stagger
the boards so that they the end joint on each subsequent
board is at least 6 inches away from the next board. The
space around the perimeter of the room will be covered with
the addition of base shoe or baseboard molding. In the
event that you have a transition from one room to another,
you may need to add a transition strip between the two
floors to make them level.

While laying wooden floors is simpler now than ever before,
it still requires some experience cutting the baseboards
and planks. Many do it yourselfers are already familiar
with using a radial arm saw or a power miter saw. If you
are not, you will want to practice first before attempting
to use these cutting tools with your floorboards.

There is a bit of skill and persistence to putting down a
wood floor that you can be proud to say you did yourself.
If you follow the guidelines given by the manufacturer,
odds are you can do a good job. Try to avoid getting the
floors wet while you are working and afterwards too.
Moisture is something that can easily damage a wood floor.
Make sure that buy more planks than you need so that you
don't run out and have trouble getting more. When you are
done, you will still need to maintain the wood floor to
keep it in top shape for years to come.


----------------------------------------------------
For help with home organization products, visit Get
Organized at http://www.shopgetorganized.com