Directions for Hardwood Floor Installation
- 1). Open the boxes of floorboards and set them in stacks around the room where they're going to be installed. Let them sit for at least a week, to acclimate the wood to the environment.
- 2). Roll out the paper underlayment in rows, stapling them down with a standard staple gun and covering the entire floor.
- 3). Start flooring alongside one wall (generally, the longest wall in the room), with the grooved side of the boards facing the wall. Keep the first course of boards 1/2 inch from the walls, leaving a space that will allow the wood to move with environmental changes. Connect the boards end to end by their tongue-and-groove milling. Cut the pieces at the end on your miter saw.
- 4). Shoot pairs of nails through the face of the first course of boards, with your nail gun, to secure them to the subfloor. Put the pairs of nails about every foot. Install the next two courses in the same manner, connecting the edges of the boards by their tongue-and-groove milling.
- 5). Bring in the pneumatic floor stapler when enough flooring has been laid for the stapler to sit on it (generally, three or four courses). Set your next course of boards in place and install them with the stapler. Use the stapler by sitting it on the previously laid floorboards, hooking the front nozzle over the front edge of the new board, and hitting the firing pad of the stapler with a mallet.
- 6). Install the remaining flooring in the same way, until you can't swing the mallet because you're gotten too close to the opposite wall. Switch back to the nail gun to install the final few courses.
- 7). Cut the last boards along their lengths on a table saw, to the size that will leave a 1/2-inch gap by the wall. Install floor trim to cover the gap, using a hammer and nails.