Hello all,

Going to be doing hardwood flooring soon and want some advice on how to.

Leaning towards a solid hickory. Probably a 5 or 6 in wide plank.

After getting it delivered I know i have to let it acclimatize. I'll probably buy a moisture meter to test the subfloor and wood. What reading should it be prior to installing?

From what I hear boards this wide need to be glued and nailed. using something like liquid nails and doing some zig zags on the subfloor before placing the boards down and nailing them.

Its going to be installed over the wooden subfloor. If I remember right from when I did my kitchen tile its 5/8". Do I need to lay tar paper down or anything? its main floor and 2nd floor. One room on 2nd floor is over the garage.

Board should preferably be laid perpendicular to the joist.

First row I'd drill some pilot holes and top nail it with the glue. From their i'd layout my rows nailing in the tongue with the nailer and gluing.

3/4 in expansion gap around would be ok Or is that to much?

For my upstairs with my bed rooms. We were going to do carpet but its starting to look like that its only going to be a extra 1500 bucks plus for hardwood so i figure I might as well. When going from bedrooms to hallways would you break up the rooms with a threshold (like laying one piece perpendicular to the room? Trying to figure out how I would lay out the hall way since its a L shapped hall way with 2 bed rooms entrances on the long side and 1 on the short side.

Also with stairs. I have to redo my banisters. Thinking of keeping my hand rail and refinishing it to match the floors as close as I can and then replacing the baluster's with wrought iron ones. Would I take my railings right out and then install them over the hard wood? There is carpet now where most of my railings are.

Thats all I can think of now. Let me know if I missed anything obvious.

Thanks.

 

I see no need in gluing the floor down. Cleats or staples will hold it. I think it more important to have a vapor barrier (ie. builder's felt) under the flooring. Then you would be gluing it to felt . Are there relief grooves on the back of your flooring? this will help with cupping, which was prevalent in earlier cheaper wide flooring. You will need a finish nailer to do the first row face nailing and the second row tongue nailing. From there it is cleat nailing until you get to within 2 boards from the far wall, where you will be face nailing again.

I would leave between 1/4 and 1/2" around the perimeter so your base and shoe molding will cover it.

Yes rooms and hallways should be divided with transition strips. That will allow you to correct any deviation created by out of square rooms. You will need bullnose for the balustrade, so using stair tread materials with the bullnose on it, ripped to the needed width will allow you to set your posts above the flooring.

 

Are your stairs closed or open tread design? If open, you may have to use solid oak treads with return finished to match your flooring. Also, is important to check what kind of wood is currently used for the treads and risers. If carpet was spec'd during the build, you may not have finish grade lumber for attachment. It could be MDF treads and OSB risers.

As far as other important questions, many can be answered by the following good read: http://www.fermaflooring.com/documen...Guidelines.pdf

 

They're open on one side closed on the other.


Is the tar paper required inside on the main floor and up stairs including over the garage?

 

Stair treads not so much as the stringers are usually open. I would want it on the main floor areas to keep the migration of moisture from floor to floor, and especially from the garage.

 

Ok i hope this drawing makes sense.

So you can see On the bottom is the stairs up to the level. Directly infront is a door way into the master bed room. There is a short hall in the master bedroom where it leads to 3-4 steps down to the open room. You can see the L shaped hall way I was talking about that leads to the other bedrooms in the house.

Where the stairs come up to the bedroom level is open to the floor below being separated by a railing.

I'm thinking the planks are going to have to be laid North South. for the hallway area Even though its parallel to the joist. I've heard it looks like crap with short planks going the width of the hallway.

My question is if I lay the planks in the hallway North South, the bull nose on the edge of the stairs on either side is going to be East West. So I guess I'm going to have to use a spline to join them and probably have to cut the grove in one side of my planks to do so? Does that sound right?

Hopefully the drawing isn't confusing.