Hey guys, I recently installed about 600 sq feet of hardwood floors in my house. I wanted to share the experience for two reasons. First I wanted to give people who are considering a similar project some pointers and second to illustrate that even projects that sound really big and tough can be fairly easy for DIYers. This project was so easy I was shocked, especially since my previous DIY experience wasn’t much more than changing light bulbs. Soup to nuts it took about 4 full days of work (1 day to rip up all carpets and prep the floors, 2 days to install in each room and hallway, 1 day to replace the stair treads and risers), however with some different tools and some more experience this time could probably have been cut drastically. My total soup to nuts cost was just over $3000 (though buying some needed tools was part of that cost).
I have to admit, I was pretty scared when I started this, as it was the biggest project I’ve ever done. I did make some mistakes (like pulling up all the carpets first and having to walk around on bare subfloor for a while) but nothing so bad it couldn’t be fixed. By the end though, things were really flying as I got more comfortable with the process. The huge benefit though is that now I’m confident that I have the skills to tackle similar big projects. If push came to shove, I could probably make a nice little business out of this as well (after seeing my house, my sister already asked me to look at a project she wants to get done in her house).
Here are the steps I took (I put them in the order that they SHOULD be done, not the order that I did them):
Lots of research online about different types of wood and install techniques. Do some extra searching for tricky corners and other obstacles such as the bottoms of stairs, door frames and fireplaces.
Measure your room and calculate square footage (length x width). My rooms were not square, so I found it easier to measure different sections then add them up(for example, measure the living room from the front wall to the closet, then the closet to the rear wall as a separate section.) This is probably a good time to pull up a small part of the carpet in a couple of areas to see what’s underneath. I was hoping that there would be hardwood that could be refinished for much cheaper but no such luck.
Shop for wood. You can choose solid hardwood (a complete board of wood can be sanded and refinished multiple times, must be nailed into the subfloor), engineered hardwood (mostly sheets of fiberboard or plywood with a top layer of prefinished hardwood, must be nailed or glued into the subfloor), click lock engineered hardwood (same as engineered but has edges that lock together and don’t need glue or nails), laminate (same as engineered but the top layer is essentially a printed photo of wood grain). There are various benefits and drawbacks to the different types, however we chose click lock engineered hardwood. Make sure you buy between 5-10% extra to account for mismeasurements and cutting mistakes.
Leave the wood in your house for a few days to acclimate. This is where the wood adjusts to your home’s temperature and humidity. If the wood is wrapped in plastic, cut open the top of each pack to let the air in. If the wood is in boxes, CAREFULLY open one box to check if it is wrapped in plastic as well. Don’t rip open all the boxes because you may need to return some.
If you have carpets, rip those bad boys up, pull out all the tack strips and carpet staples (about the same number as the population of California), hammer down any remaining staples or nails, then sweep up really thoroughly. Using a long handled scraper gets up around 75% of the staples but you’ll still need to pull some up by hand. Some places advise using a shop vac too but I found this unnecessary. If you don’t have carpet, then you may or may not need to prep your existing floor. I found various conflicting advice but the consensus seems to be that it is fine to install any type of floor directly onto existing hardwood. We lucked out because our floor was very level and didn’t need any adjustment, however you may need to shim up some parts of the sub floor to make it level. You will also want to check the level of the floor at any transitions to other flooring types (ex. Carpet or tile). Depending on your flooring and the transition, the new flooring may be slightly higher or lower. If you need to adjust the level of the subfloor up or down, now is the time to do so. You may also be able to mask this with some type of molding or other transition piece. We lucked out here as well as everything lined up perfectly.
You want the boards to be pretty uniform so measure the total length and width of your room to make sure that you’re not going to end up with really super short boards at the end. For example, if your room is 124” wide, and your boards are 10” wide, then you will probably want to cut the first row and last row to 7” wide instead of having the last row be only 4” wide.
Lay down your underlayer and start installing. If you’re not really experienced, then make sure you’re REALLY careful measuring your first few cuts. I went through a couple of boards before I got the hang of it. The click lock install was unbelievably easy to install. The guy where we bought them described the install like putting together a puzzle and he was right. There are different techniques for solid hardwood and engineered but they didn’t appear to be beyond the skill level of a beginner DIYer, though they do need different tools.
Use a finish nailer to attach your quarter round to cover your 1/4” gap (unless your molding will be sitting flush on top of your flooring.
Invite over your friends and family to show off what a great job you did and brag about how much you saved by doing it yourself. Probably a good time to crack open that bottle of 12 year aged Irish Whiskey you’ve been saving for a special occasion.
Tools that I found essential:
Table saw
Miter saw
Jig saw
Finish nail gun
Duct Tape
Drill with various bits
Long handled, metal bladed scraper (for removing carpet staples off subfloor)
Flat head screwdriver
Sturdy Hammer
Pull bar
Tapping Block
Carpet knife
Knee pads
Work gloves (for pulling up carpets without getting skewered by staples and nails)
Measuring tape
Dust mask
Painters tape
Cloth and plastic dropcloths
Caulk to match flooring
Other tools that you might need or want:
Circular saw
Small and large prybars/wrecking bars
Trowel if you are gluing down
Jamb Saw
Hand saw/coping
Spacers
Pneumatic flooring nailer if nailing down
Rubber mallet
Leveling compound
I’m sure there are Mustachians out there with way more experience who can chime in with more tips and tricks too.
