Contributor Hardwood Floor Installation Process: Steps To Install Hardwood Floors

Hardwood Floor Installation Process: Steps To Install Hardwood Floors

 

Where Do We Start On Our Hardwood Flooring Installation?

 

Once you have made the decision to install hardwood floors in your home or office, you might be wondering about the next steps in the process! When you are familiar with what to expect throughout the installation, you can feel more confident about your purchase and understand how to properly care for your new hardwood floor. Installing your new hardwood flooring is not that difficult. If you met a few of us flooring professionals in person you would realize how low that bar is! Anyone can install hardwood flooring. All that is needed are a few saws plus a few specialized tools like a hardwood nailer and a smaller finish nailer. Oh, and the willingness to complete all of the steps necessary to finish your project correctly. 

1. Check The Moisture Content in The Subfloor and The Hardwood Floors

This is your first opportunity to do the extra work required to nail down a perfect wood flooring project. When we read the instructions that are included in each box (you did the instructions, right?) one of the points that a flooring manufacturer likes to pound us with is acclimating your hardwood floor. While acclimating can be important it is not always necessary. In fact, sometimes acclimating can be the worst thing that you can do. Instead, first use a moisture meter that you can rent when you get your floor nailer to measure the moisture levels throughout the area where you will be installing your wood floor. Take a reading for each 100 sq ft of floor space, and write your results down. I like to draw a rough sketch of the house and put the numbers in the corresponding section of my drawing. It doesn't have to be a great drawing; just something that allows you to see if anything jumps out at you later. Maybe one part of the house has high moisture reading and the rest doesn't?

 

What we want to learn is a) are the moisture levels in your home all within tolerances. We would like to see everything at 12% or less. Sometimes moisture is trapped in a basement and will cause the moisture levels to exceed this. In this case you should consider placing a fan or two and a dehumidifier in the wet area and allow your subfloor to dry out before you begin installation.

 

Hardwood lumber is kiln-dried before being milled into wood flooring. At the time of milling the moisture content of that flooring would be around 6-7%. We do not want to install a hardwood floor unless it is withing 5% of the moisture content of the subfloor. The reason for this is that wood expands when it gains moisture. Because your floor will be nailed down, any expansion will become a problem, and cause your floor to buckle or cup. We don't want that! That is why we seldom recommend acclimating. If the moisture in the subfloor of your house is too high, your flooring will take on additional moisture during the acclimation process. This will cause the flooring to swell. Then later, after installation, you will turn the HVAC on, the relative humidity in the house will drop and you will have cracks between all of your boards. We don't want that either!

 

The solution is to get the moisture levels right in your house. Within 5% for Red Oak and White Oak if the boards are 4" wide or less. For Hickory and wide plank solid wood flooring the difference should be no more than 3%.

 

Once these conditions are met you are ready to move forward with your installation project.

2. Initial Preparation: Clear and Clean Your Space

This sounds like a no-brainer, but getting everything cleared from your rooms will make this install go much easier. We don't want to be tripping over stuff we could have carried into another room. 

 

Before you begin to sweep the floor, use a putty trowel to scrape up and residue from the painters or drywallers. Those are the messiest guys on the jobsite, and you will learn to despise them if you start doing many wood installations.

 

Installing Begins With Sweeping The Room

Sweep the floor well, as pieces of wood or gravel will do one of two things: cause a board to not line up correctly, or find the most tender part of your knee and make it hurt badly. Trust me. We don't want that!

 

You will be running your flooring across the floor joists. This is imperative, whether you like it or not. Running flooring parallel with the joists can cause problems like crowning later as your joists and subfloor will move a little.

 

Beginning Your Hardwood Flooring Installation

Now you will begin by laying out a row of long boards along the longest wall in your room. We start on the longest wall so that if the room is out of square a little it will be much less noticeable if you finish at a shorter wall.

 

After your floor is spotless, roll out the 15 lb roofing felt that will go under your flooring. This will help to prevent squeaks in the future.

 

Place your boxes of flooring end to end across the room where you intend to start. Make sure you work out of as many boxes at one time as possible, as there can be differences between the wood in the boxes, and you don't want that to affect your install.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. During the Hardwood Floor Installation

wood planks being measured

Place a mark in front of your wall. The distance should reflect the width of your hardwood flooring, plus 1/2 of an inch, so a 3 1/4" floor would require a mark 3 and a quarter inches from the face of the drywall. Make another mark on the other end of the wall and use a chalk box to make a line between the 2 marks.

You will use this line as a guide to face nail the first 2 rows of flooring. Make sure the tongue points away from the wall. 

After you get those 2 rows nailed down you are ready to motor. I recommend that you rack out each row of flooring before nailing it, as that will allow you to carefully inspect each board, as well as to be certain that your end joints are not within 6 inches of the joint on the previous row.

 When you get close to the other wall you will need to start using the finish nailer to nail your flooring or you will hit your drywall with that big hammer. We don't want that! 

Installing The Last Few Rows

Your last rows of full boards will get face nailed, as will the row of flooring against the wall that you rip on the table saw. Make sure you leave 1/4 inch expansion at the wall. And use putty to fill the holes made by the nails.

Your Floor Isn't Done Until the Baseboards Are Run!

 

Lastly you will run your trim. This will include baseboards, quarter round, and transition pieces. After these are installed you are ready to gloat over your amazing flooring job you have added to your home. Congratulations!

 

4. Immediately After the Installation

Once your floor has been installed, you can place your furniture back into the room. However, use felt pads on the bottom of all furniture items to minimize dents and scratches. You should also put throw rugs at all of the entrances, but avoid rugs with rubber backs as they can discolor the floor. Note that variations in the hardwood floor boards are normal and no two boards will be identical.

5. Years After the Installation

woman sweeping hardwood floor

While the installation of your hardwood floors is the big step, you can keep them looking new for years to come with proper maintenance! We recommend using a cleaning product that is specifically recommended for hardwood floors rather than vinyl or tile cleaning products. When you clean the floors in your home you can just sweep with a soft bristle broom or dust with a dry microfiber mop. If your floor has beveled edges, vacuum with the beater bar turned off to remove dust from between the individual boards.

Now that you are familiar with the process of hardwood floor installation, check out the flooring products from ReallyCheapFloors.com to find the perfect hardwood floor for your home or office! We look forward to doing business with you!