Tips For Installing A Wood Floor Yourself

You may have been thinking about installing hardwood flooring in your home but have held back because you’re concerned about how difficult it will be to install. Good news! There’s a new type of flooring on the market called “floating hardwood floor” that is designed to be simple to install. It works exactly the way it says. With no glue or nails to secure it to the sub-floor, it basically floats. To add to its benefits, you can install it right on top of your existing hardwood floors, so you don’t have the work and mess of tearing out the old floor.

Initially you’ll want to determine if your sub-flooring is level and make sure it’s clean. If you find areas that aren’t level, you can use a joint compound that has been specially-formulated to take care of the problem. You also need to make the decision about which direction you want to lay your hardwood planks.

Another reason that floating flooring is so easy to use is that the boards interlock using a system of tongue-and-groove. In order to permanently secure the boards together, however, you will also need to apply glue between the planks. Use the glue sparingly, and wipe off any that comes through the cracks between the boards immediately. It you allow globs of glue to dry on the flooring, it will necessitate your spending time removing them later.

The most critical part of laying a hardwood floor is getting the first three rows of planks perfectly straight and fitting them together tightly. If these three rows aren’t laid correctly, it will cause you problems in installing the entire floor. By using clamps or straps, you can make sure that these rows will stay snugly in place until the glue dries. After the first three rows have dried in place, it should be relatively easy to add the rest of the boards and complete the floor.

You will need to leave about a half inch gap around the edges of the flooring where it meets the walls. The gap is necessary, because of expansion and contraction inherent in wood flooring as seasons and temperatures change. Each flooring is different, however, so you’ll want to consult the manufacturer’s instructions that were included with the flooring to find out the size of gap they recommend. After the floor is finished you will cover the gaps with base molding, so it won’t show.

Once all of the boards have been glued in place, you’ll need to let the glue dry for the amount of time specified in your instructions. When the floor is dry, you’ll be able to sand it with an electric sander and then finish it with whatever stains and urethane coatings you choose. This is the one step in the process that many people opt to hire a professional to handle for them, but you can do it yourself very successfully if you take your time.