How to Lay New Floorboards
- 1). Cover the floor completely in paper underlayment, laying it out in rows and stapling it down with a staple gun. The edges of the paper should overlap by an inch or two from row to row.
- 2). Set the first course of floorboards along your starting wall, groove side facing the wall. Leave 1/2 inch between the boards and the wall, measuring with a tape measure, to allow for floor expansion. This space will be covered by floor trim.
- 3). Nail the boards in place with a nail gun, through the surface, putting nails every foot or so. Connect the boards end to end, cutting the last one on your miter saw to fit against the corner.
- 4). Repeat the process for the next four courses of flooring, connecting them at the sides and nailing them through the face.
- 5). Set up the floor stapler with its pneumatic air tank. Put the next course of flooring alongside the boards you already nailed down. Sit the floor stapler on top of the installed boards, with the front edge of the stapler hooking down over the outside of the new board. Hit the firing pad of the stapler with your mallet, to drive the boards together, and shoot in a floor staple through the side.
- 6). Repeat the process, shooting in flooring staples every foot along each board in the course. Cut the end boards as needed. Continue across the floor, course by course, using the floor stapler and mallet to install the boards. Stop when you are too close to the far wall to swing the mallet.
- 7). Nail in the last few courses from the top, with your nail gun. Cut the last course on a table saw, along its length, so the boards will fit there, leaving a 1/2-inch gap.