Should I install a wood floor myself? On the fence...

wifehatescar

wifehatescar

My L5-S1 is killing me!
I know what the good tools are and have read up on how to install but I'm still on the fence if I should try it on my own...it would save me $2400 in labor.



I'm planning on 3/4" toungue and groove, staple down to plywood, pre-finished maple 3" planks. I have 800 sqft to do over 5 rooms (basically going from front to back of the house).



I have 3 concerns:



1. If the walls are not parallel (they are not but are within 1" from what I can tell) I am unsure which room to start in to minimize any off parallel conditions.

2. Floor prep, and will I be able to level out the subfloor good enough. (This is a new house btw but still has some areas to address)

3. Do not want to install 75% of it and then find out I screwed it up!



Any first hand DIYers or professional advice?
 
Its pretty simple, but a pro will do it better, like everytihng else right.



The best way to install a wood floor is to take off the base boards, then put them back on when done.



When you get to the edges(the long way), and If your walls are out of square, simply measure from the left side, say you have 2 inches, then measure to the right side for the length of board, say you have 3 inches.



You will need to do a 2" to 3" rip. Make sure you dont cut it backwards.



Use the 3,4,5 to see how square your walls and what not are.



You are going to need to create a reference line that you know is perfectly straight. I would use the exterior wall for that.



Put felt paper under the floor.



Use a chop saw, nothing else will work.



You shouldnt need any floor leveler, especially on a new house.



Here is a decent guide:



http://www.hammerzone.com/archives/flooring/hardwood/wh_oak1/stapled.htm
 
I've seen many people do it themselves, but they were all carpentors is one way or another, just not by trade. If you don't consider yourself somewhat saavy with woodworking, I'd let the pros do it. I'm sure you spent some serious change on your new house, so don't skimp when it comes to something as noticeable as your flooring. My fiance and I are putting off moving into our new house, that we just bought a few weeks ago, for a good hardwood floor, and I KNOW I can't do it myself, lol.
 
Nice link, thanks!



I have watched a few install video's and read some articles and while I'm sure it's not easy, it does look manageable...



Now I'm looking at prefinished bamboo flooring, it installs the same way, seems to have comperable quality if you go with a good brand, and costs 30% less than wood. On with the research...... :)
 
If you decide to go with the bamboo, be sure to look at a house with it installed already. My neighbor just had it installed in his newly renovated home because it's the "in" thing and didn't go look at it anywhere, and he now hates it. It doesn't have that "hard wood" look, but instead, more of a lamenated flooring look. Granted, this is pure opinion. My fiance loved it, but I didn't really care for it.
 
It is manageable, areas like going from one room to another you might want to lay out "dry" to see how it will work. Adjust accordingly so that you dont have any "sliver" pieces of wood when you enter the next room, you want a nice full piece of wood along the edge of the room that is next to the other room. All smaller pieces go along the exterior walls.



Make sure you have around 8" spacing between the joints.



Put small 2' pieces on the outside edge, not in the middle of the floor.



I think the wood comes in 8' lengths, so you should cut some down to 6', start with the 8' ones, then a 6' one, then start with a 2' one, repeat.



If you have an opening that butts up to carpet, then you want longer pieces from that point, and if need be cut something in the middle to make enough room for at least a 2' piece at the end.



Anything smaller than 2' looks like crap.



You see in the link how he makes sure he has a nice straight edge on the opening, until you get the hang of it, cut them 1/4" long, and tap them tight, mark the exact edge, and re cut it.



Unless you have used a saw before learning how to "save the line" will take a couple tries.



If you have no experience in anything with wood, you might want to hire someone, and watch, i dont know what stuff you will have to go around in your house/
 
Pre finnished wood floors have come along way. They are quite easy to install if like has been said before that you have good carpentry skills. Very few rooms I have ever done were square to start with. I either start along the wall with the largest focal point, or I start in the middle with a spline that lets me go in opposite directions at the same time. Removing the base boards is not required, but cutting down the door frame is. use a scrap piece of flooring as a guide and a thin piece of cardboard as a shim. With a japaneese saw or jam saw cut the door casing and frame away so that the floor will tuck under the casing for a finnished look. Floors can be leveled with compounds or a hand planer, or maybe some thin 1/4 inch ply. The best advice I can give you is to get a friend who knows what he is doing to help get you started. Once you are started you can learn on the job.
 
I have been having trouble finding anyone that has done it before, that was my first thought :) I'm not an expert carpenter but I'm an engineer and an Autopian so that counts for something ;)



Thanks for the advice so far, I think I will post a pic of my floor layout in a bit to see what you guys think. If it was only 1 square room, it would be cake, but it's about 5 rooms or so in total.
 
ok, here's the first floor of my new place:



http://www.appelhomes.com/KensingtonII.html



I will be covering the dining room, living room, kitchen, nook, 1/2 bath and foyer with wood. Where's the best place to start? From one end of the house or more in the middle? I know for a fact the two walls for the nook are 1" off from parallel. I HOPE the rear exterior wall is parallel with the front exterior wall.



Also, will it be easier to keep everything straight if I have a perpendicular border seperating room like the foyer to living room and kitchen to dining room? This would seperate it into individual smaller sections instead of the wood flowing everywhichway. :hairpull It might look nicer that way but having a row of planks be 30' long in some areas does not sound like the best plan. :nixweiss
 
Do not cont on any room being parallel or square. Just keep the large visual areas straight. I would start with your longest run the Kitchen, Nook, Family room area. It looks like the grage wall and nook wall are not in line with each other and that sucks. That area seems to be your focal point and a good starting point. Make everything line up alond those walls and you can adjust at the end. You could run the other rooms at a different direction. This is a very difficult install by the looks of the floor plan. $2500 is not an unacceptable amount to charge for such a large area. Especially if you need to rent all the tools and spend some vacation time doing it. This would take you 3 to 5 weekends to do.
 
You mean the kitchen-nook-dining room run? I am actually NOT doing what is called the family room there (the largest room). Basically I'm doing the whole 1st floor except the family room and laundry room.

I want to run all the floor the same direction so it is perpendicular to the joists.

I plan to take a week off to do it. It will be a couple hundred in tools to buy that I get to keep when I'm done and then $100 to rent the stapler for a week, I already own an air compressor.
 
Heh heh, I'd pay somebody to do it and hold them to a very high standard. That's what we did when we had hardwood flooring put in our place and there's no way I could've done it to my satisfaction. We used a very highly regarded flooring contractor, and I still had them redo a fair number of spots.



Don't worry about the long areas. The pieces won't be that long and they should be staggered to make it look OK. We have some areas that flow through 4-5 rooms that are *long* (maybe ~30 paces) and even before we put down the rugs and furniture it looked fine.



I would consider rethinking having wood floors in the kitchen and 1/2 bath though, for both aesthetic and a practical reasons. Cleaning certain types of messes, and dealing with water-related issues, can be problematic with hardwood. We put down tile for areas like that, but having a very hard floor in the kitchen has drawbacks too ;) Not sure just how you'd break it up given your floorplan, but I'd at least give it a little thought.
 
Yea, i wouoldnt do HW in the BR or in the kitchen.



Pre finished floors have a little groove in them, and crap gets stuck in there.



That is a complex floor install though, i would hire a pro.



We had a very nice HW floor up North, and the guy did an almost perfect job. I used to love to sit in my chair and stare at it.



I would pounce on anything that looked like a piece of sand ...too bad Florida is mostly tile..or purgo<----yuck.
 
Got a new proposal from the boss (wife) today...



13x13 or 18x18 tile in the kitchen, nook, 1/2 bath and foyer...wood in the FR, LR, DR and den. What do you think? This would make the wood floor even easier since it would be broken up into smaller sections. I have never tiled either but I think it should be easier than the wood at any rate.



Too much to decide on! All we know that the cabinets we are getting these kitchen cabinets:



http://www.merillat.com/products/classic/Portrait-Maple-SQ.aspx



And then for the wood areas get this floor:



http://www.hardwoodinstaller.com/hardwoodinstaller/greenwood-solid-horizontal-natural-48.htm



The floor does not go too great with the cabinets so that is kinda pushing us towards tile for the kitchen as well. Cabinets are already ordered.
 
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