How to Lay a Hardwood Floor
- 1). Place the flooring in the room you are going to use it in for four to seven days before you start to install it. This will give it time to acclimate to the humidity and temperature of the room. Remove old flooring and baseboard and check the subfloor for thickness and any damage. You will need a 3/4-inch plywood on the floor. Walk around and see whether there are any squeaks in the floor. If so, nail in a long flat head nail directly over the squeak.
- 2). Lay the vapor barrier. You can use a polyethylene film or roofing felt, either will work fine. Overlap the strips by about 4 inches. Use a pneumatic stapler to fasten into place.
- 3). Install the flooring. Snap a chalk line 1/2 inch from the longest wall, making sure it is straight. This will give the flooring room to expand in the heat of the summer. You want to lay the flooring the opposite way of your joists. You can tell this by the way the subfloor is nailed. Then try to nail the part of the flooring into the joist to give it a good hold. Lay out your first row of flooring against the line with the grooves facing the wall. Keep your board lengths random and face nail the first row into place. You can pre-drill a hole and sink the nail or you can attach a face nailing shoe onto the floor nailer. You can come back when you're done and putty in the holes with a matching putty color.
- 4). Line up your second row of flooring, making sure that none of the seam lines match up with the first row. Tap in the groove around the tongue of the first piece with a rubber mallet and face nail it into place. You may have to face nail about three rows before the nailer will fit to blind nail. You can lay out a few rows at a time to make it go faster. This way you don't have to stop and figure out what size board should go next.
- 5). Once you can fit the nailer, line it up to blind nail right over the tongue and into the floor. Then tap on the next piece. Repeat until the floor is finished. Occasionally you will have to cut a board to fit at the end of the line. Measure and cut leaving 1/2 inch between the board and the wall.
- 6). Install the last row. You will have to go back to face nailing the last couple of rows. The last row will most likely have to be ripped. Make sure to cut the tongue side and leave a 1/2-inch gap. You may have to use a pry bar to push in the last piece or two when you can no longer tap with the mallet. The raw edge and gap will be covered by the baseboard. When you are finished you can go back and fill the face nail holes with a matching wood putty. Allow it to dry and buff it in and you will never notice it.
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