Installing flooring seems like a huge undertaking, I totally get it! But with a little bit of time planning, a helpful blog (check!), some tools and a can-do attitude, you can absolutely install your own hardwood floor! This blog post is going to be broken down into 4 simple steps: Planning, Materials, Installation and Finishing Touches. Bonus steps included: Navigating tricky circumstances and as always, CELEBRATE! So let’s get into it!
Planning
As you know if you’ve been following along, I am a huge proponent of the planning phase! This phase should be deliberate, intentional and take as much time as it needs! I am the first to admit I am not a patient person. I like things to be done quickly. But that often leads to getting stuck easily, unnecessary mistakes (because some mistakes are good to learn from!) and doubling back once trends have changed. So, let’s talk planning! There are a few steps to this for installing flooring:
- Figuring out what kind of flooring to purchase:
- Where will you be replacing flooring?
- If you’re replacing the flooring in one room, make sure to take into account the flooring in the adjoining rooms and know that you will need to install a transition. Do you want the floors to be cohesive in color, texture, or width? Are the adjoining rooms’ floors carpet, hardwood, engineered hardwood, tile, etc.? The answers to these questions will help you decide what color, type and style of flooring to choose
- What does your budget look like?
- Do you have the funds to choose a slim engineered floor and raise the sub-floor? Or do you need to purchase thicker boards? Can you afford to hire this out (haha, just kidding, it’s doable ourselves!)? Can you afford that beautiful special type of wood or do you need to go with something more basic?
- Once you have a general idea of what you want and what you can afford, check out the places near you to purchase wood from! We sampled wood from Home Depot and from Floor and Decor and decided on Floor and Decor for the price and the style. Don’t worry about how to install at this phase, because it can be figured out and you only need a few tools!
- Where will you be replacing flooring?
- Figuring out how much to purchase:
- Since you know your budget, you’ll know if you can replace one room, one floor or the entire house at a time! With this information, measure the rooms to know the total square footage. To replace the floor in our 3 small bedrooms and two walk-in closets, it took us 26 boxes of wood.
- The websites will often try to get you to purchase 10% extra as a buffer. As I’ve talked about in previous posts, I’m not a fan of this method. I’d rather the project take a little longer to order more than to have leftover (that often can’t be returned or is a huge hassle to return). The way I squeak by on most projects is that I always round up. If a room is 110 inches long, I round up to 10 feet. And if I need 25.4 boxes of wood to meet my needs, I round up to 26!
- Figuring out what else you need:
- This is where a ton of research is going to come in handy. This blog post is specific to my experience installing 3/4 inch thick tongue and groove hardwood in rooms that did not need a sub-floor to raise them up because the floors in the hallway were also 3/4 inch thick.
- We looked into buying engineered hardwood since it’s 1. easier to install and 2. cheaper, but the cost of the subfloor to raise the boards to meet our 3/4 inch thick boards in the hallway would eat all of the savings and then some!
- So, for this circumstance (or if you’re replacing the floor across an entire floor or the entire home), you will need a water barrier, a brad nailer with nails, a floor saw, and a floor nailer with nails. It’s also advised to have something on hand to ensure your boards are straight (in case your walls aren’t) like a framing square or a laser level, something to give you a gap between boards and the wall and something to knock end pieces into place.
- This is where a ton of research is going to come in handy. This blog post is specific to my experience installing 3/4 inch thick tongue and groove hardwood in rooms that did not need a sub-floor to raise them up because the floors in the hallway were also 3/4 inch thick.
Now that you know the wood you need, the amount you need, and the tools to complete the project, let’s get to getting those materials!
Materials
Since you did a majority of the leg work in figuring out what you need, the process is pretty simple!
- Buy samples of wood!
- Find some options you like online and order the samples to see how they look against your interiors, the feel of the texture, the grain and the color in person. Most suppliers will give you a discount on your full purchase if you’ve purchased samples. So don’t be afraid to get liberal with samples!
- Buy tools.
- I prefer to slowly order the materials over time and as early as possible. That way, while you’re figuring out what wood to purchase and as it comes in, you have the materials handy already! It’s also good to get acquainted with new tools early. This will allow you to get started once all of the materials are in!
- An important note on the tools I linked above. I linked these very specific tools based on my own experience!
- Water barrier: this is the cheapest one I could find with great reviews and has still held up in our home.
- Brad nailer: I linked this specific one because it has the best reviews and isn’t the most expensive option. I personally bought a brad nailer that needs connected to an air compressor – it’s SUCH a nightmare! Splurge on the cordless battery operated nailer, whatever you do! I was trying to save a buck, but ended up having to make multiple trips to the hardware store in one day finding the right compressor and parts. And now, it’s a huge tool we have to lug up and down the stairs when we want to use it. I am positive projects would be easier and better with the battery operated nailer, although they are a little more expensive upfront.
- Floor saw: the saw I used is actually not made anymore. But I linked the alternative from Ryobi. I really like this brand and all of our yard tools are from Ryobi, so it makes charging and swapping batteries easy! This saw, in addition to the brad nailer, is a STAPLE in my garage full of tools haha. I actually didn’t have to learn how to use a circular saw for a long time because this saw did everything I needed it to (and still does 95% of my projects), so worth the investment and very beginner-friendly!
- Floor nailer: unfortunately, no way around having to but this very specific tool. However, this is also very user friendly with an air compressor and some muscle. But not to fear, this is a hot commodity in the world of DIYers, so we were actually able to sell this + our leftover wood for a couple hundred bucks to someone renovating their tiny home!
- Buy wood!
- Now that you know everything you need materials-wise and you’ve sampled some different flooring options, go ahead and purchase the wood you want! If you have a flooring store nearby, you lucky duck. We had to have ours shipped, but the cost wasn’t too high and was worth saving the 2 hour drive to Atlanta and a uHaul rental!
- Something very important to note – real hardwood is going to need time to acclimate! Most retailers recommend about three days. We brought our wood inside from the garage where it was delivered and let it sit in our living room. It was not the nicest setup, but it was temporary! We also moved some of the boxes up to our upstairs hallway in preparation for redoing the flooring upstairs.
Now that you have all of the materials, tools, supplies wood you need, it’s time to get installing!
Installation
Installation is rather easy once you get started, so don’t let the starting discourage you!
Getting Started
There are a few things you need to do and ask yourself before you get started. The answers to these questions will help you determine where and how to start.
- What is the width of your room?
- Typically, your flooring should follow the length of the room and/or match the direction of the adjoining wood floors. With this in mind, you know how the flooring will be laid. But it’s important to know the width of your room because it’ll help you figure out if you need to trim your first board. To do this, take the width of the room and divide it by the width of the floor boards. If your answer ends in something greater than .5, you’re okay to start with a full board. If it’s going to be anything less than .5, you should consider rip cutting your first board to split the decimal point between your first and last boards. A little confusing, I know, so here’s an example:
- Your room is 124 inches wide and your boards are 3 inches wide. 124/3=41.33. So because this project will take you 41 and a third boards wide, that third is going to be harder to cut and may look a little silly at the end.
- Quick note – I chose to rip cut our final boards at around a third and thought it looked totally fine and was easy to cut. I wanted to throw the above logic at you because it’s how many experts feel. But for me, I preferred the look of the starting board to be full, but that’s just me!
- Back to the math, the last 1.3 board width needs to be split evenly between the first row and the last row (if this is the route you’re choosing to take). 1.3/2=.65 and if your boards are 3 inches wide, you’re going to rip cut your first and final rows to 1.95 inches. This logic ensures your last row isn’t teeny tiny and still meets the edge.
- Your room is 124 inches wide and your boards are 3 inches wide. 124/3=41.33. So because this project will take you 41 and a third boards wide, that third is going to be harder to cut and may look a little silly at the end.
- Is your starting wall straight?
- I chose to start from the walls with the door and work my way back into the rooms. This way, the skinnier board would be all the way at the back of the rooms. That said, I recommend using a laser level or a framing square to determine if your wall is straight. If it’s not, you’ll need to create an askew gap along the wall where you install the flooring. Make sure the gap does not get any wider than your intended quarter round (usually about 11/16 in.).
- A note on choosing quarter round – you can get either wood or PVC quarter round. The wood is nice because it looks real, but the PVC can take way more abuse without denting or showing a wood layer underneath.
- I chose to start from the walls with the door and work my way back into the rooms. This way, the skinnier board would be all the way at the back of the rooms. That said, I recommend using a laser level or a framing square to determine if your wall is straight. If it’s not, you’ll need to create an askew gap along the wall where you install the flooring. Make sure the gap does not get any wider than your intended quarter round (usually about 11/16 in.).
- Typically, your flooring should follow the length of the room and/or match the direction of the adjoining wood floors. With this in mind, you know how the flooring will be laid. But it’s important to know the width of your room because it’ll help you figure out if you need to trim your first board. To do this, take the width of the room and divide it by the width of the floor boards. If your answer ends in something greater than .5, you’re okay to start with a full board. If it’s going to be anything less than .5, you should consider rip cutting your first board to split the decimal point between your first and last boards. A little confusing, I know, so here’s an example:
So now that you know where you’ll start, how you’ll start and what your boards look like, it’s time to start!
The First Row
Before getting started on the floor, you’ll need to lay the water barrier, this will help prevent damage to the wood and prevent moisture from rotting either end of the floor. It doesn’t have to be perfectly cut or laid, as long as your boards can lay flat on top of the sheet, you can cut the excess away from the walls after the floor is completely laid.
Okay, so this is where the row will go the slowest. If you bought spacers, or made them yourself, it’s important to set these up along the length of the wall, especially if your wall isn’t straight and you need a specific distance between different parts of the wall and the boards. As an FYI, most manufacturers recommend a quarter inch between your boards and the wall. This allows your boards to expand in the summer when it’s warm out without popping up in the middle due to lack of room to expand.
If you have a straight wall you’re starting on (not angled, you don’t have to cut the boards at an angle at the end), your door frame is likely straight as well and there will be a sizeable gap between the first row you’re about to lay and the flooring on the other side of the frame. If this is the case for you, don’t fret! You can lay your first row and later cut small boards to fit in this gap (remembering to leave a small quarter inch gap). The tiny quarter inch gap that is left in the frame will be filled with transition strip or T-moulding.
I mentioned setting up your spacers before, this is going to be key because tongue and groove wood requires you knock them together to get them in locked and in place. Your spacers will ensure your gap stays even when you’re knocking the wood into the wall essentially. I used the rubber mallet we got from our floor nailer to hammer the boards in place and it worked great! You definitely need something rubber to not damage the wood, but it doesn’t have to be a whole new tool! So let’s go over the steps!
- Set up spacers
- Lay the first row
- The last board will need to be cut to fit the length of the space left between the last board + the wall + a quarter inch gap. This can be done so easily with the floor saw you bought!
- Recheck that the boards are straight using a framing square or laser level
- Lay the second and third rows
- This is my personal professional top tip! By laying two more rows, this will ensure the boards in your first row are straight! Even if the line of them are straight as compared to the wall, it is possible that one of them isn’t quite fully knocked in place and will create a ripple effect through the room, making none of the rows completely straight. By laying the extra rows with mismatched seams, this ensures your first row is straight and the rest of your rows will be as well
- This is something I learned the hard way after laying the first row TWICE, having to remove each individual nail! Take it from me and use subsequent rows as an extra gut check the first row is good to go
- A note on seams – In order for the boards to have their best chance of survival, the seams where two boards come together, need to alternate between adjoining rows. No two seams should be any closer than 6 inches. As seen below:
- This is my personal professional top tip! By laying two more rows, this will ensure the boards in your first row are straight! Even if the line of them are straight as compared to the wall, it is possible that one of them isn’t quite fully knocked in place and will create a ripple effect through the room, making none of the rows completely straight. By laying the extra rows with mismatched seams, this ensures your first row is straight and the rest of your rows will be as well
- Now that you’ve got the first few rows laid, you may notice that the floor nailer is too long to be able to nail your board in place without running into the wall. So for the first three rows, you’ll need to use the brad nailer to nail them in place.
- Pro-tip – if you set your brad nailer on a relatively high PSI (pressure), the nail will go past the surface of the board and make it really easy to fill with wood putty to cover up!
- You can either nail the boards in place from the top or angled from the side the way the floor nailer would work. Either way works, but just make sure your nails are long enough to go through the board and catch onto the sub-floor AND that they go far enough into the board to either 1. be easy to fill as a nail hole or 2. allow the next row of grooves to be able to attach to the tongue (if your nails stick out, the boards won’t be able to get past it and hook onto the tongue).
Finishing Installation
- Now comes the easy part! You can lay another row and use the floor nailer instead! Continue this process until you get to the last three rows where you’ll use the brad nailer again.
- Special note here – if you have a closet that the boards will run into long ways, you’ll need to make sure that first row going into the closet is straight and then you can work your way back and forward from there. To do this, repeat steps 2, 3 and 4! The first row that enters the closet from the main room should extend all the way to the end of the closet wall. Lay subsequent half rows before that until you hit the parallel wall. This will ensure the middle row you’re extending from the room into the closet is straight! Once that row is done, work your back into the closet and then forward to the opposite parallel wall.
- Another special note – don’t be scared of angled walls! I definitely was, but the floor saw makes it so easy! The floor saw should come with a piece that swivels to allow for angled cuts. In all of our rooms with angled walls, the angles were 45 degrees. So we just set the floor saw to a 45 degree angle and cut from there!
Now that your floor is in (congrats!), it’s time for finishing touches!
Finishing Touches
As mentioned, and as you’ll likely guess, you need quarter round to cover the gaps between the walls and the floor. If you don’t have baseboards in yet, definitely add them along with quarter round. Baseboards are like the frosting on cake, they make your room look professional and complete! You’ll also need transition strips to cover the gap between the floor boards and the adjoining floor in the doorways. This gap allows your wood to expand in the summer without popping out, so it’s an important step to follow.
The transition strip I chose was this beautiful and thin brass moulding. It’s called T-moulding because of its shape! The leg of the T goes down in the gap and the arms spread across the gap. You’ll need to cut these to length with tin sheers and then fill the gap with roofing glue before pressing the transition in place. This is all that needs done, it will not budge once it dries!
The final finishing touch is to fill your nail holes (if applicable). This can be done with matching wood putty smeared across the hole. It’s amazing how easily these fill and become virtually invisible.
CELEBRATE
Congrats, your flooring is in and done! Stand, sit, and dance on your new floor! Put some rugs down, fill the room with furniture and items that bring you joy and appreciate your hard work. Because you did this yourself and you did so much research and followed so many guides, you did it correctly, you saved a ton of money and the wood will survive the seasons and years to come! GO YOU!
