Installing Hardwood Floors on your own?

[HeatherC]

We are considering ripping out all our carpeting upstairs and installing hardwood sometime this fall or winter and wonder how hard it is to do it ourselves? We would most likely use prefinished hardwoods. Any advice or suggestions are much appreciated.

 

[melk]

I don’t really have any advice but we did it a few summers ago. My husband went one bedroom at a time (he did four bedrooms, the hallway and the stairs). He got all the necessary tools, set up the saw in the garage and just took his time. He also used the prefinished hardwood. He recruited our daughters to help and they came out great. It wasn‘t horrible, he always says he would do it again.

 

[_19disnA]

Have installed flooring in the past and hardwood isn't that difficult if you have some home-handyman type skills. Over a wood subfloor, you will nail down the new flooring. On a concrete slab (i.e. main floor of a house without a basement), you would have to glue it instead. Wood pieces usually come in random lengths and you mix those around to avoid all of the short/long pieces being next to each other. Usually there are instructions provided with the product. While wood floors are trendy and featured on all of those TV design shows, good to know that wood flooring scratches VERY easily and is virtually impossible to repair once damaged. In lower traffic rooms like a bedroom, you can probably get away with it. But if you have pets, their nails can easily scratch the flooring along with regular foot traffic. Many companies are now starting to make various types of ceramic tile that LOOKS like wood due to the wear/tear issues, even if they don't advertise it as such.

Basic tools like some sort of table saw and perhaps a pneumatic nailer (which you can rent) will make the job go faster and provide a better result. Some engineered floors are also the 'floating' type where you only need to fasten around the perimeter of the room. Have no experience with those to know if there are any issues with how solid the finished result is. The only unfinished flooring I am aware of would be solid hardwood, that tends to be the most expensive and has basically been replaced by other more cost effective products. The finish a factory can consistently produce with a controlled/dust-free environment is far superior to what anyone would be able to do themselves at home.

 

[mousefan73]

We have only done the floating type where each panel was pre-made like a long tile.. (individual pieces were already set together in these... ) like pergo floors, I believe... My DH figured out how to do our daughters room.. but a smaller square room.. Our living room is oddly shaped, large and we have individual wood pieces.. that we had installed.... for us worth the money...

I'd say if your base flooring underneath is in good shape and level try it... Youtube makes everything possible.

 

[MamaLema]

My DH did our last year with zero experience and only YouTube as a guide. He did great but he said it takes time and patience to do the stairs.

 

[tvguy]

My parents over 10 years built their house and put the hardwood in themselves. They said they would never do it again, and never have hardwood again due to the upkeep. They bought another house (new) and it had hardwood, they put wall to wall carpet over it. 53 years later after they both had passed I sold the house. The new owners ripped out the carpet, found the hardwood, ripped it out, and put laminate in.

 

[HeatherC]

My parents over 10 years built their house and put the hardwood in themselves. They said they would never do it again, and never have hardwood again due to the upkeep. They bought another house (new) and it had hardwood, they put wall to wall carpet over it. 53 years later after they both had passed I sold the house. The new owners ripped out the carpet, found the hardwood, ripped it out, and put laminate in.

We actually have beautiful hardwoods (Santos Mahogany) on our main floor. Installed 20 years ago when we built the house and it looks as good as new today after raising three kids and a couple dogs. Quality hardwoods will last a lifetime. Problem is nowadays the quality is harder to find.

 

[tvguy]

We actually have beautiful hardwoods (Santos Mahogany) on our main floor. Installed 20 years ago when we built the house and it looks as good as new today after raising three kids and a couple dogs. Quality hardwoods will last a lifetime. Problem is nowadays the quality is harder to find.

Well, my parents first house was built in 1950 and the second in 1960, so likely top quality since my dad was a lumber salesman. I was 3 in 1960 so I can't say for sure, but watching today's HGTV home remodeling shows, hardwood always needs refinishing, or replacement.

 

[HeatherC]

Well, my parents first house was built in 1950 and the second in 1960, so likely top quality since my dad was a lumber salesman. I was 3 in 1960 so I can't say for sure, but watching today's HGTV home remodeling shows, hardwood always needs refinishing, or replacement.

I would say hardwood holds up much better than carpet. Like I said, after 20 years mine look as good as new. The carpeting however, will never last that long and still look good.

 

[Boopuff]

youtube is your friend. DH and I replaced his office floor. It's a great exercise in marriage togetherness!

 

[tvguy]

I would say hardwood holds up much better than carpet. Like I said, after 20 years mine look as good as new. The carpeting however, will never last that long and still look good.

LOL. Sold my parents house with the same 53 year old nylon loop carpet that they put in. Some how I managed not to destroy it, nor did the dog we had. Looked as good as new after 53 years.

 

[godisney14]

Whether you do it yourself or you hire someone to do it, the most important thing is prep. That means making sure the subfloor is “leveled.” I put that word in quotes because nothing will be perfect. But, you do need to make sure there are not any 8 to 10 feet runs that are uneven by more than 3/8” to 1/4”. If you do find any, it’s probably easier to just hire someone to fix those uneven subfloors.
It’s easy to conceal these imperfections with carpet, but they become noticeable when you lay hard floor down.
Once that part checks out, screw down any loose areas of the subfloor that causes squeaking. The original builder likely nailed them down. It’s better to go over any places of concern and use screws.

Then it’s just a matter of laying out the the planks so that you can have really long runs and not have patterns going across the planks (making it look as random as possible).

 

[ramee]

We are in the middle of installing floating click lock engineered bamboo throughout the first floor. It has turned out to be more of a project than we first thought. It’s been a month now trying to complete this in between working. Our living room and dining area are finished minus installing the baseboard (which I’m on a second return of because I didn’t like what my husband picked out the first time and then also didn’t end up liking what we ordered online for our 2nd attempt).

I would suggest borrowing the tools needed. But we have purchased a bit more than expected and hope to utilize in the future.

So we ripped out the carpeting. Padding. Tack strips. Hammered down or pulled out staples. Our subfloor, fortunately was in good condition. Removed the baseboard and baseboard heaters. Undercut the door trims. Laid cork underlayment.

The instructions said to leave a half in gap around the perimeter or any fixed structure for expansion due to humidity during season changes. We started on the longest wall going perpendicular to the floor joists. We had to rip the first row with the table saw. And then you just put the next row at a 30 degree angle and click down, repeat. We ended up having to take down door trim for the boards to lay under that and not have a gap.

We found out install was a bit more challenging with the floor we chose because the planks are 3 different widths. So a bit more planning than start second row with last piece cut from first row. (There are a couple rows that end with more than a half in gap. I didn’t want to place quarter round, so ordered 5/8in thick baseboard so there won’t be gaps). Stagger the seams! Measure twice and cut. We probably have more than the 10% estimated waste.

Cutting the planks to fit around the stairs and closet was a pain. The jigsaw kept splintering the wood so I had to use the saw I used to undercut the door trim to cut out a square in the plank. It did the job. Then I found I have a gap between the floor and the trim on one side of the stairs, which I will try to cover with plinth block moulding.

We also found out during install there was more than an 1/8 inch dip in the subfloor of about 6 inches wide running along the stairs. I ended up sliding a strip of underlayment under the hardwood to level it out.

For the dining area, we cut into 1/2 inch thick of 2 layers of plywood with a circular saw down to the subfloor. Hammered in too many rows of staples. Fortunately, you won’t have to plan to contain the saw dust from doing that. We still need to do the kitchen.

Sorry for the long post. It’s been challenging. Definitely a learning curve. Overall I’m happy with the results. But I’m not looking forward to finishing the project.

Here’s a pic prefinished.



Good luck with your flooring!

 

[Hook326]

We are considering ripping out all our carpeting upstairs and installing hardwood sometime this fall or winter and wonder how hard it is to do it ourselves? We would most likely use prefinished hardwoods. Any advice or suggestions are much appreciated.

We are DIY home remodelers for everything inside our house and we love hardwood (first house had it) but our current didn’t so we’ve been doing the install. We’ve done our family room, living room, dining room and master bedroom so far over the 6 years we’ve lived here.

First tip is pick the right wood. We picked a solid pre-finished hardwood with a high janka rating so it wouldn’t be as susceptible to dents and scratches. Accidents happen though so have some matching stain around to fix up a scratch. I don’t recommend engineered hardwood. Scratches and dents super easy imo.

Second is get the right tools. With solid hardwood, my hustand hand nailed the first and last three rows but we bought a pneumatic nailer that plugged into an air compressor. It nails the board into the floor from the side.

Third, get into a rhythm and work together. My husband cut and nailed but I was the “runner”. I would measure the board size range needed next and find the next board while he nailed the one I laid previously.

We are always really patient with our projects and don’t kill ourselves to get them done in short time frames since we both work and have kids and want stay married We are getting close to being finished with our master bedroom (pulled up carpet, painted, wood floor, trim, just quarter round left) but it’s taken since early April. We call it “shawshanking”. Takes a long time but worth it in the end (especially the money saving!).

Good luck!

 

[HeatherC]

Thanks for all the replies everyone.

 

[HeatherC]

We are DIY home remodelers for everything inside our house and we love hardwood (first house had it) but our current didn’t so we’ve been doing the install. We’ve done our family room, living room, dining room and master bedroom so far over the 6 years we’ve lived here.

First tip is pick the right wood. We picked a solid pre-finished hardwood with a high janka rating so it wouldn’t be as susceptible to dents and scratches. Accidents happen though so have some matching stain around to fix up a scratch. I don’t recommend engineered hardwood. Scratches and dents super easy imo.

Second is get the right tools. With solid hardwood, my hustand hand nailed the first and last three rows but we bought a pneumatic nailer that plugged into an air compressor. It nails the board into the floor from the side.

Third, get into a rhythm and work together. My husband cut and nailed but I was the “runner”. I would measure the board size range needed next and find the next board while he nailed the one I laid previously.

We are always really patient with our projects and don’t kill ourselves to get them done in short time frames since we both work and have kids and want stay married We are getting close to being finished with our master bedroom (pulled up carpet, painted, wood floor, trim, just quarter round left) but it’s taken since early April. We call it “shawshanking”. Takes a long time but worth it in the end (especially the money saving!).

Good luck!

That is awesome. I bet it turned out beautiful!

 

[HeatherC]

We are in the middle of installing floating click lock engineered bamboo throughout the first floor. It has turned out to be more of a project than we first thought. It’s been a month now trying to complete this in between working. Our living room and dining area are finished minus installing the baseboard (which I’m on a second return of because I didn’t like what my husband picked out the first time and then also didn’t end up liking what we ordered online for our 2nd attempt).

I would suggest borrowing the tools needed. But we have purchased a bit more than expected and hope to utilize in the future.

So we ripped out the carpeting. Padding. Tack strips. Hammered down or pulled out staples. Our subfloor, fortunately was in good condition. Removed the baseboard and baseboard heaters. Undercut the door trims. Laid cork underlayment.

The instructions said to leave a half in gap around the perimeter or any fixed structure for expansion due to humidity during season changes. We started on the longest wall going perpendicular to the floor joists. We had to rip the first row with the table saw. And then you just put the next row at a 30 degree angle and click down, repeat. We ended up having to take down door trim for the boards to lay under that and not have a gap.

We found out install was a bit more challenging with the floor we chose because the planks are 3 different widths. So a bit more planning than start second row with last piece cut from first row. (There are a couple rows that end with more than a half in gap. I didn’t want to place quarter round, so ordered 5/8in thick baseboard so there won’t be gaps). Stagger the seams! Measure twice and cut. We probably have more than the 10% estimated waste.

Cutting the planks to fit around the stairs and closet was a pain. The jigsaw kept splintering the wood so I had to use the saw I used to undercut the door trim to cut out a square in the plank. It did the job. Then I found I have a gap between the floor and the trim on one side of the stairs, which I will try to cover with plinth block moulding.

We also found out during install there was more than an 1/8 inch dip in the subfloor of about 6 inches wide running along the stairs. I ended up sliding a strip of underlayment under the hardwood to level it out.

For the dining area, we cut into 1/2 inch thick of 2 layers of plywood with a circular saw down to the subfloor. Hammered in too many rows of staples. Fortunately, you won’t have to plan to contain the saw dust from doing that. We still need to do the kitchen.

Sorry for the long post. It’s been challenging. Definitely a learning curve. Overall I’m happy with the results. But I’m not looking forward to finishing the project.

Here’s a pic prefinished.

View attachment 512530

Good luck with your flooring!

That looks beautiful! Thank you for taking the time to tell me some of the details on how installing it yourselves has been. Sounds like a big undertaking, but the results are going to be so worth it!

 

[ramee]

We are DIY home remodelers for everything inside our house and we love hardwood (first house had it) but our current didn’t so we’ve been doing the install. We’ve done our family room, living room, dining room and master bedroom so far over the 6 years we’ve lived here.

First tip is pick the right wood. We picked a solid pre-finished hardwood with a high janka rating so it wouldn’t be as susceptible to dents and scratches. Accidents happen though so have some matching stain around to fix up a scratch. I don’t recommend engineered hardwood. Scratches and dents super easy imo.

Second is get the right tools. With solid hardwood, my hustand hand nailed the first and last three rows but we bought a pneumatic nailer that plugged into an air compressor. It nails the board into the floor from the side.

Third, get into a rhythm and work together. My husband cut and nailed but I was the “runner”. I would measure the board size range needed next and find the next board while he nailed the one I laid previously.

We are always really patient with our projects and don’t kill ourselves to get them done in short time frames since we both work and have kids and want stay married We are getting close to being finished with our master bedroom (pulled up carpet, painted, wood floor, trim, just quarter round left) but it’s taken since early April. We call it “shawshanking”. Takes a long time but worth it in the end (especially the money saving!).

Good luck!

That’s good advice. I remember noting the janka rating for the engineered bamboo was higher than the solid we compared it to. We’ll find out how well it holds up against scratches.

Also, OP, decide what you’re willing to spend. It looked like the average wood flooring costs between $3-$5 per sqft. For us, this is our starter home and plan to move in a couple years, so we kept the budget below $3 per sqft.

 

[DisneyOma]

Have installed flooring in the past and hardwood isn't that difficult if you have some home-handyman type skills. Over a wood subfloor, you will nail down the new flooring. On a concrete slab (i.e. main floor of a house without a basement), you would have to glue it instead. Wood pieces usually come in random lengths and you mix those around to avoid all of the short/long pieces being next to each other. Usually there are instructions provided with the product. While wood floors are trendy and featured on all of those TV design shows, good to know that wood flooring scratches VERY easily and is virtually impossible to repair once damaged. In lower traffic rooms like a bedroom, you can probably get away with it. But if you have pets, their nails can easily scratch the flooring along with regular foot traffic. Many companies are now starting to make various types of ceramic tile that LOOKS like wood due to the wear/tear issues, even if they don't advertise it as such.

Are you talking about real wood floors or the laminate crap out there? Our real, solid hardwood floors are fine, although it's time, after 28 years, to sand and seal the living room (woodstove and burn marks on the floor). The white ceramic tiles in the kitchen are dreadful though, scratched and pitted and cracked. The wall to wall upstairs is the worst, so that's the first thing coming out, and we'll put real hardwood flooring up there.

I've seen lots of that fake-wood ceramic in Florida. It's fine for down there, where it's hot, but in the north, it's too cold for tile floors everywhere, IMO.

 

[_19disnA]

^^ All of them. There are really only 3 types of 'wood' flooring. Solid hardwood, engineered hardwood and laminate. Laminate isn't really wood but a composite material made to look like wood. Engineered hardwood is a type of plywood where the top layer is the desired finish/type of wood and the other thinner base materials are there for dimensional stability. The better quality engineered floors will have a thicker top layer so refinishing in the future is possible. A lot depends on your budget, since solid hardwood is way more expensive then any other option. Water will damage the finish on any type of wood product if left there for long enough.