Installing Your Own Hardwood Floors

Install floor transitions or thresholds.

Installing your own hardwood floors.

Nail down nails fasten the wood to the subfloor. For instance solid hardwood flooring is typically nailed down during installation while tongue and groove engineered flooring is usually clicked together or completely glued down. Installing your own hardwood flooring may sometimes seem like a formidable task to handle for the typical do it yourself project but arming yourself with the proper knowledge and a little research can help you obtain that beautiful hardwood floor you always wanted and help make the installation process go a lot smoother. Measure the amount of overlap between the boards excluding the tongue and use this number plus 1 4 inch for expansion to find your compass distance.

Methods of installing hardwood flooring. Most diyers can complete laminate floor installation in one day. Using the pneumatic nail gun place the gun lip over the edge of the board and strike firmly with the mallet driving the staple into the tongue of the hardwood plank. Apply a vapor barrier down before installing the wood planks.

Some types like lyptus flooring even lock together without fasteners similar to a laminate floor. These technological advances have made many types of hardwood floors easier to install. Talk to your hardwood flooring retailer and let them know what types of transitions you need. If you re installing over concrete you ll need to drill pilot holes through the wood and into the concrete to set the nails.

There are four ways to attach and install your hardwood floors. In fact most hardwood floor suppliers can work with customers to find out just how much work they really want to do on their own. Solid hardwood flooring is the most difficult of all to install. These may be additional items you need to purchase as part of your flooring order.

It consists of a thin veneer of hardwood glued to a substrate made of wood plies much like plywood. Tips for making your own plank flooring using 1 x 12 lumber. In fact laminate flooring can be installed in almost every room in your home including kitchens since it doesn t have to be glued down and doesn t involve grout or mortar. Nailing works best with thin wood flooring.

Any type of wood will work. It is available prefinished and can be nailed or glued down. Fir and pine are very soft wood so it ll get marks and dings easier than a hardwood such as oak. Come back later after the floor has been installed and use a circular saw to cut across for a precise cut.

For instance you can order wood floors that are pre finished so there is no need to finish or seal the floor before or. When installing up to a threshold it is not critical to make cuts exact. Buy your wood from a local lumber store. Lastly install any transition or threshold pieces.