How to Lay Hardwood Floors

Laying a hardwood floor isn’t the most complicated process you will encounter as far as home improvement projects are concerned. The major requirements for laying a good hardwood floor include a good eye, good judgment, and a fairly decent sense of balance. Add these traits to fairly basic carpentry skills and you are off to a good start. You can find most, if not all of the tools necessary to lay a hardwood floor for rent at most tool rental companies in your area.

Before you begin laying your hardwood floors there are a few details to which you should take note. You will want the line of your floors to flow parallel to the longest wall in the room in order to maximize the appearance of space in the room. However, this is simply a suggestion and most rules are made to be broken. Everything in your home will ultimately come down to a matter of taste.

You should then remove all baseboards around the room. Be careful when doing this if you aren’t planning to replace them during this process so that they aren’t damaged. If you plan to install vapor barriers you will want to do this now, before you actually begin laying your floors. Make sure you overlap the barriers by about four to six inches and that they are glued into place with mastic. Be sure that you also insert spacers throughout the room so that your hardwood floors have plenty of room in which to expand and contract.

It is a good idea to being your project by laying pieces in doorways. Begin with longer pieces then work with smaller pieces later in the process. If the boards you are working with are random in length try alternating longer and shorter boards. If you made the wise decision to work with interlocking pieces of flooring you can actually have them cut in order to properly fit.

A chalk line is an excellent tool especially when it comes to making absolute certain that the first line is straight. You should also make sure that you are using nails that are long enough to penetrate the sub floor by at least one inch while positioning the nail so that it will be hidden by the baseboard.

If you are looking for a great way to save time during this process a pneumatic nailer might be an excellent choice for you though most find that simply tapping the boards into proper position will do the trick while also achieving a very natural look.

Once you’ve finished with the actual laying of the floor go around and check for any nails that may be sticking up. You should check again after a few days of regular use on your floors as it sometimes takes a while for them to settle and work their way through. If you find one, be sure to work it deeper into the floor in order to avoid potential injuries.

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