Tips On How To Install Hardwood Floors
This article presents tips on how to install hardwood floors, which are usually desirable for certain parts of the house, such as the dining room, living room and family room. Water is a natural enemy of wood because wet wood can expand and rot. Thus, many people do not consider hardwood as flooring for their bathrooms. In reality, wood can provide a beautiful and warm flooring for bathrooms if it is provided with a durable protective finish and is regularly maintained. It should be noted that the process used to install hardwood flooring is similar whether it is solid hardwood or engineered hardwood flooring. There is also a broad range of wood types to choose from, such as walnut, oak, maple and beech. After making your selection, it is time to ensure that you know how to install hardwood floors.
Before we proceed with the steps on how to install hardwood floors, it should be noted that some flooring manufacturers have developed the locking hardwood floor to simplify the procedure for installing wood floors. The installation of this kind of hardwood floor is much easier and faster compared to conventional hardwood so that your room could become more beautiful in just a few hours of work.
It is important to keep the hardwood planks indoors for a number of days to enable the wood to attain its normal size based on your home's humidity level. This is to make sure that the planks would not expand and then possibly crack if its previous moisture is less compared to what its moisture would be when inside your home. On the other hand, if the humidity in your home is less compared to the previous humidity that the wood had been exposed to, the wood would shrink after it has been installed so that there would be gaps between planks.
The hardwood planks should be installed perpendicular to the floor joists. You will then mark the locations of the floor joists along the wall so that this will function as your reference. Place asphalt felt on the sub-floor because this will absorb some of the moisture while also reducing squeaks. Locate and draw a line on the centerline of the room so that this will guide you in laying down the planks.
An important guideline when learning how to install hardwood floors, is to lay out a number of rows of the hardwood planks and make sure that they are installed in a staggered manner so that the end joint is at least six inches away from the end joint in the adjacent rows. You may need to cut smaller pieces that should not be less than eight inches long and place them at the end of every row. Make sure that when you are blind-nailing not to drive the nails flush because this will produce visible indentations. Instead, let the nail head project by approximately 1/8 inch and then put a nail set sideways above it and tap the nail set with the hammer to drive the nail home.
