The Secret to Preparing to Install Your New Hardwood Flooring Yourself

The only way to keep up with the latest about preparing to install hardwood flooring yourself is to constantly stay on the lookout for new information. If you read everything you find about preparing to install hardwood flooring yourself, it won't take long for you to become an influential authority.

I have read that many homeowners believe that since hardwood floors are a fairly expensive material, they should never attempt to install them themselves and thus require the services of professionals to lay the hardwood floors. This is actually far from the truth. A handy person with the proper tools ( especially a good miter saw ), the proper type of hardwood, and the proper instructions should not have much difficulty in doing the flooring with a look that would rival the pros

Therefore, it should be soothing to know that with the right tools and the right kind of hardwood, it can be very much a do it yourself project. You will find that prefinished hardwood floor planks are already available in the big box home improvement stores like Home Depot and Lowes, at many of the local lumber yards, and of course many of your local flooring stores. There may even be some local flooring stores that specialize in hardwood flooring so you will definitely want to do your homework and shop for the best price. The instructional manuals for hardwood flooring can be found all over the internet at places like Amazon & the place you purchase the flooring should also have some manuals and helpful tip sheets. Therefore you shouldn't be too concerned if you want to attempt this project yourself.

Ok so now that you have convinced yourself you can do this where do you start.? I would suggest that you get a piece of graph paper and draw a sketch of the area where you are laying the hardwood flooring. It would be to your benefit to draw the sketch to scale. Since graph paper is normally 1 / 4 " squares this is very easy to do. If you want to use 1 " = 1' you simply make a mark and count 4 squares for every foot. So for 10' you draw a line from the mark out for forty squares. If you are doing a large area you will need a big piece of graph paper or will have to use a smaller scale. For instance at 1 / 2 " = 1' you would only count out two squares for every foot. Once you've drawn the line just write down the measurement next to the line.

Now that you have the sketch it should be easy to determine how much flooring you will require. Although if math was not your strong subject the flooring supplier would be more then happy to calculate it for you from your sketch. Once you know how much lumber the project will take it will be much easier determining the cost of the materials. Just keep in mind in arriving at the total number of feet that you should allow a little room for error and short scrap pieces. Like a lot of things wood comes in different grades & types and the cost can vary substantially. To me there's not much sense in choosing the type of wood first and then finding out that the cost doesn't fit into your budget. Plus by knowing the amount you will also be able to determine if it will be more cost effective to buy pre - finished wood flooring or to due the staining yourself.

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So now that you know how much wood flooring you will need it would be time to decide what tools the project is going to require. Of course there's the obvious like hammers, squares, and tape measures but the job would go much faster with a good screw or nail gun. If it's a large job tools that run off an air compressor would be best, but on smaller ones many of the new durable battery operated ones would be fine. As I mentioned earlier you will definitely want a good miter saw for that truly professional look and a you will probably also need a rip saw to cut the end boards narrower to fit. If you are going to do your own finishing you would also need some good sanding equipment. Lastly if your subflooring is going into concrete a good hammer drill and tapcon set will save you hours of work. Once you have your list of tools you can determine which ones you can borrow from family or friends and which ones you will need to rent. Some of these tools can be expensive, so unless this flooring job is the beginning of a new career for you there isn't any reason to go out and buy them new but you can probably find some good deals in the classifieds, at the flea markets, or pawn shops. Unfortunately the construction industry has hit some hard times, but the tremendous slow down has flooded the market with cheap tools so there are some very good bargains out there if you take the time to look.

By now you should know how much to subtract from your budget for tools and how much you have left for materials. Therefore you should have enough information to chose the best type of wood for your hardwood flooring project that can be purchased with the balance of your available funds. There are a variety of woods to chose from like oak, cherry, maple, or rustic ash. Although oak will be the most expensive hardwood, it is reputably the studiest and the best to use. However, if your budget doesn't have enough room for oak you will find that with proper maintenance and care that rustic ash or maple should last just as long. In addition you can ask your hardwood supplier for their recommendation of which one is best suited for the climate conditions in your area. Once you picked out the type of wood it's just a matter of deciding if you will be picking it up yourself or if a supplier delivery is in order. If they offer free delivery go for it and let them do the hard part of the work.

Once you have the wood on site it will be very tempting to jump right in and start cutting wood. However before you start cutting you should sit down and thoroughly read the instruction manuals and review the tips and manuals that you have already read one last time. It would also be a good idea to look over your sketch again to determine the best place to start. Its a good idea to start in the area that will be using the longest pieces first and work out form there. This way you can use up the cutoffs as you go and will save tremendously on waste.