Cee's Home Improvement Blog

Archive for the ‘Floors’ Category

Home is really a worth place to be with and many home owners are spending lots of time and money in thinking for best look for it. There are many people who are aware about designing home and making it fabulous for us to stay with. Aside from considering the home motif, we also need to make sure that we are using the right colors or styles of flooring or even ceiling to use. When it comes to popular line of flooring for home, oak flooring is just perfect for you to consider.

Oak flooring is fabulous and giving our home an elegant approach. There are many people who are longing to place a good looking flooring and they choose between natural oak flooring, colored oak flooring like red one or even white oak flooring. The choice is up to you and it is a good idea to match the flooring color to the motif of your place.

If ever you want to use red oak flooring, you can make it possible and choose from different style or furnish for your home. There are lots of reasons why we need to manage choosing colors or style for our home flooring. If you want to blend your home with style, you can even ask expert’s opinion about best home designs.

Starting to furnish your home with great flooring that adds delight and life into your home can be expensive. Well, the overall cost of building a home is not just cents that you need to think about. You are able to spend not only hundreds but even millions of your money in order to make all out complete and fully furnished. But you know what? All your money is worth if your desire home look and designing is implemented or became in real. If you are planning to finish your flooring at home, many options are available to look forward. You can choose from different tiles or even hardwood flooring. If you are up to native and yet elegant home design, do not hesitate to use pre-finished hardwood flooring. Using BR111 flooring can add life and a pleasant look into your place. There is nothing to worry at all in making comparisons for available designs because all are out to take on your hand. You can match your hardwood flooring on your wall colors as well as on the window blinds and furniture that you will furnish. Being artistic and creative in choosing the things and decorations for your home is helpful and aside from handling all decisions, you can also ask for opinions or advices from the experts.

Installing hardwood flooring is very much like putting a puzzle together. There are three main installation methods. These are nail-down installation, glue-down installation, and floating installation. It is assumed that you have a level subfloor that is wood for nail-down installation. Glue-down and floating installations can usually be done on both wood and concrete subfloors, but it must be level also.

Nail-down installation

1. Remove any baseboards or shoe moldings. Baseboard is used to hide the gap that you must leave for expansion and contraction of wood. So, you will want to make sure your subfloor is clear to the walls in order to have a place to come back and install the base and shoe molding later. The standard gap between the flooring and the walls is 3/16″ to 3/4″ depending on your manufacturer and style of flooring.

2. Screw down any loose or squeaky boards and undercut any door jambs to allow for the wood to be installed underneath. A helpful tip is to use the backside of one of your boards to determine the height needed to be cut off of your door jambs.

3. Start laying out the first row. Try to run the boards perpendicular to your floor joists if possible. You will need to either pop a chalk line or stretch a line parallel to your first wall. Make sure and account at this point for any out of square issues in your room. Once you start running boards they will appear as straight as the first board. You usually would measure from one side of the wall to the other and adjust any discrepancies with this first row. Make sure and predrill your first row or two for nails and face nail them into joists if possible.

4. Dry fit the next 3 feet or so. Make sure you are pulling your strips or planks from three separate boxes randomly so that the natural graining of the wood will vary slightly. This way your installed floor will have a more uniform look. Now you can layout all your boards for 3 feet or so and make your length cuts accordingly.

5. Nail down the next rows. Use a flooring nailer to nail through the tongue of the board. These are usually available for rent at most tool rental outlets. Using a rubber mallet to shoot the nail through the tongue. Make sure you adjust the nailer so that it countersinks the boards. Keep alternating nailing and dry-fitting boards to assure a proper fit.

6. Nail around any obstacles in the floor such as cabinets or pipes/fixtures that come out of the subfloor. Make sure you leave the appropriate gap around any of these obstacles.

7. Face nail the last few rows when you come to the edge of the room.

8. Next install your transitions and base moldings. Make sure you allow for a gap inside your transition. Also, make sure that you do not nail down the transition or moldings to the wood floor. You will need to nail the base moldings into the wall and the transitions into the floor in a place where it will not come into contact with the wood. Sometimes it is helpful to add some construction adhesive to the bottom of the transitions as these are usually high traffic areas. Over time this will prevent squeaking.

Glue-down installation

1. Remove any baseboards or shoe moldings. Baseboard is used to hide the gap that you must leave for expansion and contraction of wood. So, you will want to make sure your subfloor is clear to the walls in order to have a place to come back and install the base and shoe molding later. The standard gap between the flooring and the walls is 3/16″ to 3/4″ depending on your manufacturer and style of flooring.

2. If installing over a wood subfloor, screw down any loose or squeaky boards, Undercut any door jambs to allow for the wood to be installed underneath. A helpful tip is to use the backside of one of your boards to determine the height needed to be cut off of your door jambs.

3. Start laying out the first row. Try to run the boards perpendicular to your floor joists if possible. You will need to either pop a chalk line or stretch a line parallel to your first wall. Make sure and account at this point for any out of square issues in your room. Once you start running boards they will appear as straight as the first board. You usually would measure from one side of the wall to the other and adjust any discrepancies with this first row. Glue down this first row.

4. Dry fit the next 3 feet or so. Make sure you are pulling your strips or planks from three separate boxes randomly so that the natural graining of the wood will vary slightly. This way your installed floor will have a more uniform look. Now you can layout all your boards for 3 feet or so and make your length cuts accordingly.

5. Apply glue a foot or so out from the board and glue down the next few rows. Keep in mind the larger the room the less area away from your board you will be able to glue at a time. Make sure and keep some cleanup rags to try and keep the glue off the wood. Most manufacturers sell these as accessories. You can also use Acetone on a cotton or cheesecloth rag.

6. Glue around any obstacles in the floor such as cabinets or pipes/fixtures that come out of the subfloor. Make sure you leave the appropriate gap around any of these obstacles.

7. Glue down the last few rows when you come to the edge of the room.

8. Next install your transitions and base moldings. Make sure you allow for a gap inside your transition. Also, make sure that you do not glue down the transition or moldings to the wood floor. You will need to nail the base moldings into the wall and glue the transitions into the floor in a place where it will not come into contact with the wood using some construction adhesive to the bottom of the transitions.