It’s not hard: how to install hardwood floors

Installing a hardwood floor may seem like a daunting task, but with the right tools, materials and know how, you’ll have a beautiful new hardwood floors in no time.

• Hammer
• Mitre saw
• Finishing nails
• Floor boards
• Vapour barrier
• Pneumatic nailer
• Level
• Chalk for marking on the floor
• Sharp pencil for marking wood boards and cut points

It’s important to take the time to research and take a look at the wood flooring that suits your room best.

• Consider wood that will look right in the space you are working in.
• Make sure to choose the proper board widths for your installation.

• Measure the length and width of the room.
• When ordering boards, take into account cutting mistakes and irregular boards and give yourself 15 per cent or more extra allowance.
• It’s always better to have a bit more to work with when installing a hardwood floor, just in case you need it.

• Strip down old floor to sub-floor and remove nails and tacks to ensure best results. The floor must be clean, dry, flat and structurally sound.
• Use a long, straight board or a level to look for any dips or rises.
• Fill dips in floor with levelling compound and reset any nails that protrude.
• You'll also need to remove doors and baseboard mouldings.

• Roll out vapour barrier, allowing a four-inch overlap.
• Staple to the sub-floor, ensuring that it is secure.
• With a pencil or chalk, along the baseboards, mark where your joists are.

• Have the wood boards acclimatize at room temperature in the room where it will be laid (not in the garage or patio or where anything might artificially alter humidity) for a week or two.

The first floor boards you lay down must be laid perfectly across the room to prevent it looking like your floor is crooked.

• Start with the straightest, longest, unobstructed wall, using the longest, straightest boards.
• Face the tongue of the first row away from the wall.
• Stagger the boards six inches from row to row to prevent end joints from matching up.
• The first row will be face nailed (by hand).
• You can blind nail (by hand, with an air nailer, or a manual version of the pneumatic nailer) the rest of the boards until you reach the opposite wall, where you will have to face the nail again.
• Blind nailing is much faster with a pneumatic nailer. You may need to rip-cut lengths of flooring to fit the last row.
• If the last row is an inch wide, you will have to glue it in place.

• Re-install mouldings and doors, and you have completed your hardwood floor installation.

Knowing how to install a hardwood floor can save you a lot of time and money.

Deciding which flooring is right for your room should take into account the traffic it gets. Installing a new hardwood floor will improve the look and feel of your room.