How to Install Prefinished Hardwood Floors – the Basics

Specific instructions for installing prefinished wood flooring are supplied by each manufacturer. If you’d like an idea of what’s involved, the following general directions apply to any installation of prefinished wood flooring: 1. Remove all the base shoe molding on the walls.
2. Clean the subfloor with a shop vacuum and crevice tool for removing dust and debris.
3. If you plan to nail the flooring in place, first cover the subfloor with builder's paper, sometimes called red rosin paper. This helps prevent future squeaks and retards the passage of moisture from below, a source of warping.
4. Position the first strip of flooring 3/4 inch from the wall with the groove side of the strip toward the starter wall. The 3/4-inch space, which will be hidden by base trim, allows the wood flooring to expand without buckling. Lay the flooring in the direction of the length of the room.
5. Make a mark along the edge of the tongue at both ends of the room, and then use a chalk line to make a continuous mark that extends the length of the room.
6. Nail the first row of flooring so that the tongue edge of the flooring aligns with the chalk line.
7. “Face nail” the groove side of the flooring in place. Drive the nails through the face of the flooring board to face nail.
8. Blind nail the rest of the flooring in place. Blind nailing doesn't you close your eyes; it means that you drive the nails through the tongue on the front side of the flooring strip. The nails are then hidden by the next strip of flooring. To blind nail, position the nail at a 45-degree angle on the corner at the top of the tongue. Use 7d hardened (spiral-shank) nails. Don't drive the nail home so hard that the hammer damages the edge or face of the flooring. When the nail is almost home, raise the hammer handle so that the hammer face strikes both the head of the nail and the tongue of the flooring. Then lay another nail flat, with its head over the head of the driven nail, and strike the horizontal nail head to sink the driven nail. You can also use a nail set to drive nails the last little bit into the tongue.

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