Thank you! I am hoping that I will be installing unfinished red oak and will have to blend with existing red oak installing about sqft and blending with another sqft or so.
Should be an interesting project! This article is very well written and I thank you for your effort! Would you please check and see if they can be fixed? Name required. Mail will not be published required. Hi, we're Ethan, Jocie, Kim and Fred. Over the last eight years we've documented hundreds of home improvement and DIY craft projects along with many tool and material reviews.
Thanks for visiting! Corey says:. January 7, at am. Fred says:. January 7, at pm. Jon McDougal says:. February 19, at pm. July 21, at am. July 26, at pm. Albert Joseph says:. November 3, at am. November 3, at pm. Chris Stickler says:. April 3, at pm. April 8, at pm. Vasan says:. April 24, at pm. Click here to cancel reply. Source: Home Depot. When installing your new hardwood floor, you will need a chalk line to help you easily and quickly mark the location of the floor joists.
These tools are used to make straight lines on flat surfaces. They are great for creating very long lines when otherwise you would be hard pressed to do that with tools and a pencil or piece of chalk.
They work because of a nylon string that is pulled taut and then snapped or plucked so that it hits the floor. This leaves behind a perfectly straight chalk line that shows you where you need to install your flooring. When you roll the line back up into the tool, it once again becomes coated with loose chalk dust so that it can continue marking as many times as you need it to.
Of course, you can easily wash or wipe away incorrect lines, which is why this tool is great for anyone getting started with DIY flooring installation. These saws are very different from other ones you can buy because the blade is horizontal and parallel to the floor. They are used specifically to remove the bottom of the door casing in the home where you are installing your new hardwood floor. They can be used for hardwood installations, but also laminate and cork. These saws remove the bottom of the casing, allowing the new flooring material to slide neatly under, creating a very cohesive and clean appearance when the work is done.
One of the main benefits of using a jamb saw for this work is that you can quickly and easily set the depth you need to have cut. This makes it easy to cut the casing around your door to the exact size so you are not trying to shove the flooring underneath or dealing with a large gap when the work is done. When using a jamb saw you will want to make sure the blade is very sharp, as one that is dull will cause the door casing to splinter, and this can be very unsightly as well as difficult to repair.
Dull blades will also heat up faster when cutting through wood, which can cause burn marks. The last thing you want to do when installing your new hardwood floor is trying to nail directly through the wood. While this may be tempting to speed the process along, it is a great way to splinter your wood and possibly run short of supplies.
Instead of running this risk, your best bet is to use a very powerful drill to pre-drill holes that you will use for the nails. You will want to make sure that if you use a cordless drill that the batteries are charged and that it is strong enough to stand up to the work you need it for, or you are likely to be very frustrated when it stops working part way through your project.
While these can be a little more difficult to maneuver, knowing that you have all of the power you need to complete the installation will allow you peace of mind and ensure that you get the job done on time.
The right drill bits will make all of the difference in the world when you are installing your new hardwood floor. Having to run to the store for new drill bits to finish your job is very frustrating and will put a damper on your enthusiasm. While they are only used to drill wood, using them on hardwoods is not preferable. The high-speed steel drill bit can stand up to heat and is great for drilling through hardwood. Source: Etsy.
This hand tool is indispensable when installing your new hardwood floor, as you will be using it to drive nails through the wood. While most hammers do have a claw on one side of the tool, this is generally not used, although you will need the use of a pry bar later during the installation.
If you are going to be the only one working on the floor or prefer not to wear gloves, make sure that the handle of the hammer is something you can comfortably hold for extended periods of time. This is a small, metal tool that looks a lot like an icepick and is used to drive finishing nails that are below or at the surface of your hardwood floor.
When installing a new hardwood floor, you want to make sure that your nails are flush or countersunk into the floor so you do not catch your socks on them or accidentally snag other items. The best way to do this is to use a nail set in conjunction with your hammer to get the nails where they need to be. Trying to drive nails without a nail set will result in damaging the surface of your new floor, as the hammer will hit the hardwood as well as the nail.
After driving the nail into the wood as far as possible without damaging the floor, you then place the tip of the nail set onto the head of the nail. Finish nails generally come with a small indent on the head for this specific purpose. Then you gently tap the nail set with the hammer to push the nail the rest of the way into the floor without damaging it.
This is a larger saw that you will need when installing your new hardwood floor. It has a circular blade that is mounted vertically so you can easily slice through boards and cut them down to size. The blade is adjustable so that you can raise or lower it, depending on the thickness of the material you are going to be cutting. This tool is indispensable when installing a hardwood floor since you will have to cut the boards down to the right size.
While some people may try to do this with a hand saw, this not only will make it more difficult but will also generally result in pieces that are damaged or mangled beyond use. A table saw makes perfectly clean and straight cuts.
Unlike a table saw that only cuts straight lines, a jigsaw can be used to cut irregular curves and lines with no problems. They are great if your wood floor is going to go through a doorway and you need to cut out the space for the door casing. Not all installations will require a jigsaw. If there are no architectural elements to cut around and no issues with the door casings then you may not need one, but most hardwood flooring installations do need these saws.
While you can use a hammer to start nailing down your hardwood floor, you will want to switch to a flooring nailer as soon as possible. They are much faster and incredibly easy to use and will make the job go by without much effort.
Make sure you have your flooring nailer set so that the nails will be driving in countersunk with the wood, or you will have to go back over all of your nails with a nail set and a hammer to get the job done. Because these tools are pneumatic, they are very powerful. Also known as a crowbar, prise bar, or even pinch-bar, these are heavy-duty pieces of metal that are curved into shape so you can pull or pry items. They are levers that are made of either titanium or medium-carbon steel.
Titanium pry bars have the benefits of being nonmagnetic as well as lighter so that they are a little easier to use. Pry bars come in many sizes and lengths, which means you can find smaller ones ideal for little jobs or larger ones that are able to handle much larger items. When you reach the last wall, you will want to carefully cut all of your final boards to fit and place them in their spots.
After this, use the pry bar with a scrap of wood to push the boards into position and get rid of any gaps. With the pry bar and a scrap of wood still in place, you can easily nail the boards into their location. There are two types of wood moisture meters: pinless and pin-style meters.
When installing flooring covering on a concrete slab, it is important to know the moisture content of the slab. Slabs with excessive moisture can cause adhesive failure, wood warping or cupping. Relative humidity RH testing that uses in situ probes is the most reliable method for testing concrete moisture conditions within the slab.
Other test methods, including calcium chloride testing or the poly-film test, often are unreliable and are being discontinued. Surface concrete meters might help determine the most likely areas for necessary RH testing, but they do not provide an in-depth picture of moisture conditions within the slab as does RH testing.
A tape measure is an inexpensive hardwood floor tool every installer should have. The cumulative effect of this kind of inaccuracy can have a great impact on your installation. Installing the wood on an uneven subfloor is another way to create the circumstances for future flooring failure. You can find them in lengths of four and six feet. A complete level will have two bubble readings at both ends, one each to measure horizontal and vertical levels.
The level edges should also be made of either metal or brass-edged wood. They come in metal or plastic. You can select either a manual or digital protractor.
Because wood either absorbs or releases moisture when relative humidity increases or decreases, it can cause hardwood flooring to expand and contract. Hand saws are great when you have a small sawing job; a hand saw will do just fine. Some hand saws you may want to purchase are:. Nail sets look like awls.
You use them to drive nail below the surface of the wood. When hand nailing tongue-and-groove flooring, use the nail set on its side to avoid damaging the corner of the flooring strip. Nailing machines help keep nailing time to a minimum and eliminate time spent reaching for nails.
They work as fast as you can position the machine. There are different styles of nailing machines. Pneumatic nailers, also known as air nailers, use compressed air to operate and require a higher degree of safety consciousness.
The ratchet-style nailers are easier for novices to use because they can operate with several strikes. Spring-loaded nailers operate on the one strike, one nail principle. The pneumatic nailers shoot fasteners into wood some are designed to nail into concrete in one of two ways.
Some require hitting it with a mallet while others require you only pull a trigger. Installers use fasteners to attach the subfloor to the concrete. They allow for wood movement in a highly efficient way.
Cleats are barbed nails with a T- or L-hooked head. Most are proprietary designs for use only with a specified type of nailer.
Their thin rectangular shape guards against nail splitting. Some nailing machines use staples rather than cleats. They, too, can be effective. Installers can also use case nails, cut nails, finish nails and screws to fasten wood flooring.
Screws can be used to fasten plank flooring. Since most wood flooring materials join together using a tongue and groove system, it helps to have a rubber mallet to give them a good whack when nailing.
If not, the gap between the boards will remain and creaks will occur. As with the mallet, buy one specifically designed for use with a wood flooring adhesive.
Some people believe the V-shaped notch design is best for wood flooring adhesives. Regardless of their shape, the notches on the trowel also come in different sizes. The quarter inch v-notch is considered best for wood flooring installations. These hardwood floor tools will help you move the wood planks tightly into place.
First, using the cut board is the easiest way to chip the installed wood plank, especially the tongue or groove you need to make the next plank fit in nicely. This is all unnecessary, especially since a specifically designed tapping block is so inexpensive. However, there are differences between them. Wood fillers are usually water-based and dry much more quickly than wood putty, which is oil-based.
Because wood putty is oil-based, it will only work with oil-based finishes. Wood fillers can be made with a variety of binders. A latex or epoxy filler works well with unfinished flooring. Polyurethane or lacquer fillers are only going to work well with pre-finished or pre-lacquered surfaces, respectively. Obviously, floors are wide spaces, so you want a walk-behind sanding machine. The two main options are a drum or orbital floor sander.
Whichever you choose, these standing sanders both come in a variety of sizes, usually to support either eight, ten, or twelve-inch pads. A drum sander is the most efficient sander, but it has some drawbacks. However, if this in a floor installation of unfinished wood, it can cause scratches and grooves. Instead, the round pad on a random orbital sander moves in an elliptical pattern but also oscillates back and forth.
This prevents the sanding pad from sanding in a fixed pattern, which is when scratches and grooves are most likely to occur. There are a number of air compressors available for job site operation of pneumatic staplers and nailers. A powerful portable shop vacuum is useful to pick up any powdery sawdust generated from sawing. Be sure to get one with sufficient amps in the motor. Low amps in small motors typically mean less power and less suction. Consider getting one with wide wheels to prevent damage or marring to the flooring.
Also, consider systems that link their vacuums directly to dust-producing tools to collect dust and debris at its source.
Last updated on October 19th, Thanks for the advice on hardwood floors and their installation.
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