I know I've already shown pictures of the finished floor, but I thought I'd go back and show the process. Installing flooring isn't technically difficult, but it's physically demanding. It also is a little tedious around the edges, because the floor nailer is too big to get close to the walls.
Step one was to drag huge heavy boxes of wood up the basement stairs, since the wood had been living in the garage.
Opening up the boxes of wood was pretty exciting. It's pre-finished floor, which I would without question choose again for a DIY floor project. The wood we chose was a natural Hickory with a clear finish. Hickory has a lot of variation in the color of each board. I think makes the floor look homey and rustic, which suits our style perfectly. The colors in the wood are gorgeous too, really rich and not too yellow. We used 3 insh wide planks, 3/4" thick. Thats pretty standard for hardwood floors these days.
Pre-finished flooring has a tiny bevel on all the edges. It's there so that any minute variations in the thickness of the planks will be hidden, but it does mean the floor doesn't have that glassy, prefectly smooth finish that sanded-on-site floors have. I don't mind the little micro-bevel, but I know some people don't like it. If you're choosing between the two, keep that in mind. I have not had any problem with dirt being caught in the beveled areas, because they are so shallow that the vacuum sucks everything right out.
I started laying floor in the area under the range. I figured if I was going to screw it up, I should do it in a place where it would be invisible. It was a little scary, because the entire floor on the whole first level of the house would be set off of this area. I measured and re-measured (and triple re-measured!) before I laid the first plank to make sure the wood was still going to be running parallel to the walls when I finally reached the other side of the house. No going back now!
We were really happy with how the floor held up under the range, even after we had to slide the range in and out a couple of times. No scratches on the floor!
To install the floor close to walls or cabinets, I had to predrill then hand nail every board. I put nails into the planks about every 6-8" because i wanted to make sure the planks were securely held. Much later, I learned a better way to do this, but that's a story for another time.
Woo, looking like real floor!! At this point I think i rolled around on the floor to properly appreciate my handiwork ;) Both of us were really excited with how great the floor looked at this point. The hardest thing was actually choosing which board should go where. I was aiming for that intentionally patternless look. Plus, I was cherry-picking all the nice boards for visible areas and using boards with marks or knots for hidden areas.
The boards have to be laid pretty much all in one long row. You can see here how I got a stepped pattern because of the way I was laying the boards. This is how the pros often do it, but it's actually better to avoid this pattern if possible. You will end up with a stronger floor if it doesn't have this stepped pattern. After I realized it, I avoided doing this when possible. Some areas of the floor it just couldn't be avoided.
So that's part one! This much work took me a whole weekend. It's a tough job for a single person to work on because all the supplies are heavy but, once the basics are in place, it's easy to fly across the middle section of the room.
Stay tuned for part 2!
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