Are you thinking of DIYing an engineered hardwood flooring installation in your home? Engineered hardwood flooring is a smart choice, and is fast outpacing solid hardwood in popularity. Not only does it look and feel just like solid hardwood, but it can also be relatively simple to install yourself. With engineered hardwood flooring, you don't have to sand or finish your boards after installation. This cuts down on a lot of the hard work and disruption involved in installing new hardwood flooring yourself. However, this doesn't mean that you don't need to be careful with the installation process. There are a lot of things that can go wrong if you don't follow the right steps for installing new hardwood flooring. Fortunately, once you know the do's and don'ts of engineered hardwood flooring installation, you'll be all set to install your beautiful new floor without a hitch. Keep reading to find out how to avoid the most common errors around installing hardwood flooring.
Not Acclimating Your Boards
One of the biggest mistakes people make when installing hardwood flooring is not acclimating their boards. Acclimating boards? What does this even mean? All types of hardwood flooring absorb moisture to some extent. Engineered hardwood flooring is less prone to moisture damage, but it still contains porous areas. Because wood is porous, it absorbs and loses moisture based on the humidity levels in the air. When conditions are humid, wood absorbs moisture and expands. When conditions are dry and humidity levels drop, wood will lose moisture and contract. If your boards aren't acclimated to the average humidity levels in your home, they'll be more likely to expand or contract after you install them. This can cause a bunch of problems. When hardwood boards expand, they can warp and buckle. When they contract, this might cause gaps and cracks to appear in your flooring, which is not a good look. It can also compromise the integrity of your floor if spilled water gets into these cracks. If you acclimate your boards, there'll be less chance of these issues occurring after your engineered hardwood flooring installation. The good news is that acclimating boards is easy. All you have to do is bring them into your home, and let them sit for at least three days. If you can spare the delay, you can let them sit for a week or more.
Not Paying Enough Attention to Your Subfloor
Another common engineered hardwood flooring installation mistake people make is not paying enough attention to their subfloor. This is particularly important if you are going to glue down your flooring. A flat, even floor will ensure that all of your boards adhere in all areas. If there are irregularities in your subfloor, this will create gaps where the boards will lift and proper adhesion can't take place. The result? Echoing floors that can warp over time. To avoid this, make sure you smooth down your subfloor as much as you can. If there are protuberances, you might want to take a grinder or a sanding to them. If there are dips, you can fill these with a self-leveling screed or filler product.
Not Measuring the Moisture Level in Your Subfloor
Another important step when preparing for floor installations is to check the moisture level in your subfloor. If your subfloor is too moist, some of the moisture will wick into your boards. This can be problematic for both engineered hardwood and regular hardwood floors. Engineered hardwood is particularly vulnerable to ongoing moisture absorption from the bottom. Although it's more resistant to moisture overall, engineered hardwood isn't very good at releasing moisture that's coming from underneath. This is because engineered planks typically have a very water-resistant finish, and are often more water-resistant than solid hardwood. This stops water from entering the planks from the top, but it also stops moisture from evaporating out of the planks. If you do an engineered hardwood flooring installation over a moist subfloor, this can cause warping, buckling, crowning, cracking, cupping, and end-lifting. The most common reason why people (professional installers included) make this mistake is that they're in a rush to install flooring over a freshly poured slab. This frequently happens in new builds and full-house renovations where the contractors don't have a lot of time when preparing for floor installations. To avoid this, make sure that you let any fleshly poured slabs fully cure. Once you think the floor has fully cured, go in with a moisture meter and test them to make sure that moisture levels are in compliance with the manufacturer's guidelines for your planks.
Doing an Engineered Hardwood Flooring Installation at the Wrong Time of Year
Another way you can encounter problems is by doing an engineered hardwood flooring installation in extremely dry or humid periods during the year. The best time for installing hardwood flooring is during a time when humidity levels are average for your area. If you install your new hardwood flooring when conditions are very dry, the planks will probably expand after installation. If it's a lot more humid than normal, they'll probably shrink once conditions go back to average.
Using the Wrong Adhesive
If you're opting to adhere your planks with adhesive, look for an adhesive product that doesn't contain water. Moisture-cure urethane and silicone adhesives are two good options to consider. If you use an adhesive that contains water, it can absorb into your planks and cause some of the moisture-related issues we mentioned above.
Not Laying Out Your Planks Beforehand
Another common mistake that newbies make during engineered hardwood flooring installation is not laying out all the planks beforehand. This is called "racking". By laying out the planks ahead of time, you can avoid a lot of potential problems. Even the most high-quality engineered hardwood planks come with slight color variations. If you don't plan your plank placement, you could end up with multiple darker or lighter boards in one area. This will make your installation look patchy and unprofessional. To avoid this, try to disperse light and darker planks evenly through your floor area. Another issue that can crop up if you don't rack your boards is that your plank lines aren't perfectly parrel to the walls. Although most rooms look perfectly square, few are. Invariably, once you start to lay your planks down you'll get to a point where the long lines of the plank edges aren't parallel to the wall base. If you rack your planks, you can get an idea of how "off" your walls are, and plan which wall you want to use as your starting point. If the room is relatively square, then you might be able to hide any irregularities in the expansion joint.
Not Inspecting Each Board
If you want a flawless engineered hardwood flooring installation, you'll want to start off with flawless boards. Therefore, make a point to inspect each board as it comes out of the box. If one looks damaged, dented, or flawed in any way, you should be able to return it to the manufacturer.
Not Mixing Your Boards
Remember what we said about evenly spacing lighter and darker boards throughout your floor? One way that professional flooring installation service companies achieve this is by mixing up boards. They'll take a few boards from each box, and distribute them into the other boxes. The reason for this is that boards are produced in "runs". Most runs are largely uniform in color. However, there can be color variations between runs. If you are doing a big engineered hardwood flooring installation over a large area in your home, you probably will need multiple boxes of boards. Some of the boxes might be from different runs. Mixing up the planks makes racking quicker and easier and helps ensure that you evenly distribute different colored planks.
Not Installing Expansion Joints
When installing hardwood flooring, it's critical that you include expansion joints by leaving a gap between your plank edges and the walls. Once you go to install the baseboards, they should be able to cover and hide the expansion gap. Expansion gaps are key for allowing the floorboards to shrink and expand as moisture levels in the air change. Engineered hardwood flooring has better multidimensional stability, meaning that it typically shrinks and expands less than solid hardwood. However, this doesn't mean that you should skip including expansion gaps.
Ready to Tackle Your Engineered Hardwood Flooring Installation?
Installing an engineered hardwood floor yourself is a great way to save on costs. The secret to a seamless installation is to learn from the mistakes of others and mimic the pros. Always acclimate your planks, get your subfloor perfect, test it for moisture, rack your boards well, and don't forget the expansion joints. Also, make sure you pay attention to the type of adhesive you use and inspect all your boards before laying them. Are you ready to get started with your engineered hardwood flooring installation? If so, you've come to the right place. Here at ReallyCheapFloors.com, we stock quality flooring products at prices you can afford. Browse our wide range of engineered hardwood flooring today. If you want to learn the top 10 disadvantages of engineered flooring click here.
