Pre-Finished Hardwood Floors 101

[Hank]

A backsaw is an excellent utility tool to have. By guiding the blade (such as in a miter box, or with a block of wood or any other straight edge, or sometimes even with your off-hand's thumb) you can achieve very precise, small kerf, straight cuts.

[MarkV]

Guess I'll jump in here and say my little piece. I've had a hardwood flooring company for the last 20 years and may have it figured out by the time I retire. Like most anything there is more than "one way to skin a cat" so I am only offering the way that has paid my mortgage and feed the family, not necessarily the only way. Like most tradesman, I can most likely do this better than many of you because I have already made most of the mistakes, at least once, and have figure out how not to do the same mistake again.

Steve is using a ¾ solid wood prefinished flooring material and I think that is great. As mentioned the laminates that are glue down have a small amount of oak and will not take but one sanding, by an experienced sander, if they need refinishing. They do have there place when concrete is the sub-floor and other limitation, such as unchangeable doors, limit you from putting in a plywood subfloor. Our work is all unfinished wood that is sanded after installation. In the Atlanta area this will run roughly $6.00 a square foot for a #1 grade wood and many of the better prefinished floor materials run about the same. That is one of the primary reasons that builders use an unfinished wood to be sanded at the end of the building process.

For Steve's project this is how I would go at it. We have discussed whether the base should be removed or not. Because he is planning on a repaint and has small base I can see removing the baseboard. I would also still put oak shoe molding, stained to match, because it is traditional to wood floors and offers some other advantages. Of course this is a personal taste thing as long as an adequate amount of expansion joint is left if shoe is not used. We have talked about the door casings and I would always undercut them with a jamb saw to set the wood under them. To me a jamb saw is not the same as a back saw, though similar. Like a jamb saw, a backsaw has very little offset to the teeth. A jamb saw is smaller and has an off set handle to make it easier to use against the floor. To under cut the casings you use a scrape of flooring as a height guide and saw through the casing. This will put the flooring flush with the sheetrock to eliminate any gaps. Now this is the important part. You can not run the entire wall flush with the sheetrock. You must leave an expansion gap of at least 3/8 of an inch. Many of the manufactures of hardwood flooring recommend up to ¾ of an inch of expansion gap and again, this is an argument for shoe mold to give you extra space to work.

To get started remove the existing carpet, pad, tack strip, flatten all the staples and in this case, remove the baseboard. If any of the subfloor is loose and squeaks or has any damage, this is the time to deal with it, use screws. Most hardwood floor squeaks are the subfloor rather than the hardwood flooring. Put a layer of 15# roofing felt down on the floor. (some call this tar paper) Now is the time to look at any exterior doors to see if they have enough clearance for the new flooring. Next, undercut the door casings with a jamb saw or back saw and a block of scrap flooring.

The subfloor should now be prepared to install the new flooring. As a general rule the floor should be installed perpendicular to the direction of the joist framing. As I look at a room and consider where to start, I look at several things. Generally the longest exterior wall is the straightest and will give you the best starting point. There are some exceptions, such as a fireplace, large exterior doors or joining an existing wood/ tile floor that could change where I would start. Steve, if you give a description of your room I will make a recommendation if you would like.

For the sake of this discussion let us say we have an exterior wall without doors to start on. The first course of wood is set along this wall and held out about ½ inch from the wall. I use my finger as a spacer. The first course needs to be face nailed. If you are not using a pneumatic finish nailer I would pre drill holes one bit size smaller than the nails. (1 ¾ - 2 inch nails) The next course is hand nailed at a 45 degree angle through the tongue of the flooring. Again, pre drill if you are using a hammer and sink the nail with a punch. After that the flooring nailer, whether pneumatic or manual should fit until you reach the other side of the room. It works best to lay out a section 2-3 feet wide of flooring at a time, staggering the end joints by a minimum of 4" and cutting the last boards to length before nailing. (Note: The cut off ends can be used as starters for the next 2-3 foot layout) Nail this section putting nails every foot with at least 2 nails per board. Continue until you reach the opposite wall where you will not be able to nail the last 5 boards with the flooring nailer. (this is for the normal 2 ¼ flooring board, Steve is using 3 ¼ so the number will differ) The first board the nailer will not work on is nailed through the tongue like the second course you started with and the others are face nailed. Set them all in place, except for the last one if a narrower board is required, and use a pry bar to pull them tight for nailing. You can now measure and decide what size ripped board will be required to fill the remaining space. Remember to leave about ½ inch for expansion.

Naturally there are many details that will differ depending on the given space. For those of you that are still awake, I'll save that for specific questions to given situations. Two common situations that are worth note I will mention now. If the flooring is running perpendicular to a door opening it is customary to run a header, a board parallel to the opening, for the flooring to kill to. If a fireplace is in the room and has a hearth flush with the floor it is framed with mitered corners for the flooring to kill to.

Well Steve, you asked for flooring 101 and there it is. Did I win the prize for the longest post on the new forum? Good luck on the project and ask any questions I forgot to address.

MarkV

[Argee]

Hank,
The offset saw that's being referred to has the set on the topside only. You can also use it for cutting plugs or dowels without marring a finished surface. I own a couple of them, they are excellent saws.

[Gatorboy]

Mark,

That was a very impressive post. I sure learned something today.

Thanks. [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[DUMBDOG]

<font color="blue">Blue is used for Markup Because it is New Holland Blue. </font color>

[Gatorboy]

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
Blue is used for Markup Because it is New Holland Blue

[/ QUOTE ]

Actually I believe this is the proper use for quoting. But I think it wastes too much space.

[hazmat]

<font color="blue"> Did I win the prize for the longest post on the new forum? </font color>

Maybe, but you definetly win a prize for the longest post full of usable content! Thanks for the advice. It is much appreciated.

Ripped up the baseboards in one room tonight. They are only 5" tall so I didn't want them any shorter as Hank suggested. I'll see what the wife thinks about the shoe molding -- as we all know she is the general contractor, I'm just the worker bee.

[Hank]

Excellent class Mark!! I've learned a lot. I've never laid a floor in my life; my trade experience was in actually milling the stuff.

<font color="purple"> oak shoe molding </font color>

I've seen the sanitary shoe at HD. Is the old-time oak shoe still available, the one with the ogee working?

<font color="purple"> pre drill holes one bit size smaller than the nails </font color>

One trick we used in the shop for predrilling hardwoods was to clip the head off of a finish nail and use the nail itself as the drill bit. This makes a perfect sized hole, and when you nail with the full nail, the head provides just enough extra "uumph" to pull things down. The downside to this is that the "bit" doesn't last too long.

<font color="purple"> For those of you that are still awake </font color>

[img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img] Wide awake! Thanks for a very informative post.

[Hank]

<font color="purple"> The offset saw that's being referred to has the set on the topside only. You can also use it for cutting plugs or dowels without marring a finished surface. </font color>

OK, that sucker is on my list. Where did you get yours, one of the woodworker's supply places, or HD?

[Hank]

<font color="purple"> Blue is used for Markup Because it is New Holland Blue. </font color>

I see Muhammad has provided red, green, and orange, too [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

I guess I'll have to stick to purple until my CUT becomes a reality early next year. Right now, I'm leaning to blue [img]/forums/images/icons/wink.gif[/img]