How To Lay Wood Flooring

Arrange lengths wood grain patterns and variations in board colors to create a balanced look.

How to lay wood flooring. Learn how to install wood flooring by following these six steps. Place spacers inside the expansion gap the space between the wall and floor that allows the wood to expand from heat. For your first row you ll want the straightest planks arranged with the tongue side facing the center of the room. These may be additional items you need to purchase as part of your flooring order.

Lay out several rows of loose boards along the length of the floor following your plan. Mix boards from several bundles to avoid noticeable color changes from one bundle to another. Install hardwood floors perpendicular to the floor joists parallel to the longest wall leaving a inch expansion gap around the perimeter. Before starting calculate the width the last row will be.

It s so easy to install that you can lay a beautiful yet durable hardwood floor in a weekend no messy glue and no heavy nailing. It s prefinished too so no dusty sanding and painstaking finish work. Keep the lengths random and at least 6 in length. In this article we ll show you how to prepare your floor and then lay the boards.

Put the first board up against the mason s line with the groove side facing away from the walls. Now you can install whatever baseboard or shoe moulding you choose and you are finished with this project. Lay out a box of hardwood boards ahead of the installation to visualize lengths wood grain and colors of the boards. Install the wood flooring.

Join the ends of the boards over a floor joist where possible avoiding joints that form an h. Install a hardwood floor. Here s how to install click lock engineered hardwood flooring. Keep joints that line up at least two rows apart.

When laying out the boards keep in mind to never have the ends of boards in adjacent rows line up with each other. Lastly install any transition or threshold pieces. By doing it yourself you will not only save money but have the satisfaction of looking at a floor installed by you. Use 1 2 inch spacers to assist in maintaining the 1 2 inch expansion gap between the first row of flooring planks and the wall.

Learn how to lay laminate flooring with snap together wood.