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Want to do the living room and hallway for sure possibly the 3 bedrooms right away as well depending on price.. living room and hallway are just under 400 sq ft... I buy the materials you do the work... It's just one thing im not comfortable doing and I want it to look perfect when done... Anybody feel like doing a side job? Or know any good leads?
Oh and I will remove all the carpet and nails before hand.
Thanks,Mike.
I want to say CPonyGo does flooring?
I think he only does carpet, but not sure?
Contact Tony Schellinger 262-707-0115. He made my custom coffee tables. I know he does floors and cabinetry as well.
Look into doing it yourself. I found that anyone that charged less than $4/sqft to install did shit work. The hard part is when you have to deal with stairs or stitching into old flooring. Anything else is cake. It goes way more quickly if you have a router and table to re-tongue and re-groove planks that need to be narrowed. It also goes more quickly if you're using a proper flooring nailer. They're expensive to buy and not bad to rent. I've done a lot of floors with a normal finishing nailer.
I've put in pre-finished and un-finished. I prefer bare wood and finishing it later. Mostly because it seals the floor so you can do bad things like mop and use steam brooms. Pre-finished is easier of course so if I do another person's I try to persuade them to go that route. Most of the UV-cured pre-finished ones are very durable.
After removing the carpet, don't forget to go around and screw the subfloor to the joists if it's only nailed. Otherwise you'll probably be irritated by squeaks later. If you have OSB instead of plywood and have access to the underside, consider screwing blocking to the seams of the plywood from above.
If you do it yourself, I prefer using lightweight (15lb) roofing felt/tarpaper under hardwood floors. That is what the old timers use... I tried heavyweight once and I didn't like it. Rosin paper is pointless. Aquabar does work if you're bad and want to put wood floors where they shouldn't be (below grade).
If you don't air condition your house and/or gets dry in the winter, consider pre-gapping the floor if you're going the un-finished route. I put a .010" shim every 8th row or so. No one ever notices and it helps prevent buckling.
If it's pre-finished, let it acclimate for about 10 days wherever you're going to install it. If it's un-finished then it's probably safe in about 4 days.
Since it'd be finishing and not refinishing the el-cheapo 4 pad dual-action sander from Home Depot for $40/day works good enough. You can do the edges with an electric or air dual-action sander. 120 for both is sufficient.
If you decide to finish it yourself, I found a decent 3" oil brush (Purdy is my favorite) and a deck staining pad mounted to a Mr LongArm painting pole works good. Clean using microfiber towels and sand between the 3 coats with 3M 220 wet/dry mounted to a drywall sanding pad on the painting pole.
I have found "Minwax super fast-drying polyurethane for floors" to work quite well. It is oil-based and dries fast, can walk and put furniture on it in a day. Takes about a month to fully cure (roll chairs on it). Bona makes finishes that are second to none but they cost about four times as much as Minwax. It will probably last four times as long though.
Here is a picture of my floor where I stitched in. According to Princess Failure claims I'm an idiot so if I can do it then you can also.
Not going to use this thread to bash.. but a properly installed wood floor at the right moisture content doesn't need to be shimmed to prevent buckling. If you maintain half the thickness of the wood around the perimeter of the room there is nothing for it to expand into and cause said buckling. Not like I know anything considering I installed wood flooring for 6 years. If you're reading the home depot handbook it sounds prefect. If you pull the base board and use actual quarter round you never see it and you never have to use shims. As far as nailing the floor down goes to each there own. Some prefer power cleats over a floor stapler. People need to realize that wood floors are like a living creature. You need to maintain a constant humidity level in the house and let the wood acclimate before installing it. The floor should sit in the room or rooms it is being installed in for at least 7 days in the strapped bundles it came in. If you unstrap it, it will warp. Then both the wood being installed should be tested and the sub-floor its going to be installed on should be tested for moisture content.
If you have any questions please feel free to pm me.
Quote:
Originally Posted by That_Guy
Quote:
Originally Posted by That_Guy
The floor will have excessive gapping in a large room (say 16'+) if you're actually nailing it down like you mean it and the house has large humidity swings. This is especially true if you purchased freshly kiln-dried wood and install in a house in the winter that doesn't have a humidifier. Around August it's very humid and floors will start to stress.Quote:
Originally Posted by wrath
There is no reason to maintain more than a 1/2" gap around a floor. Anything more than that is sloppy craftsmanship. Quarter round/shoe moulding is used to hide things. The only reason they put it on houses a century ago was to prevent chairs from hitting the moulding and to hide drooping floors.
If you are concerned about seasonal effects on a hardwood floor, try an engineered floor.
Engineered flooring, such as Bellawood, is dimensionally stable beyond any natural floor. It is also easier to install due to the way the boards lock together.
You will need a chop saw and a nail/staple gun for this project.
In regards to finishing, it is not required. The aluminum oxide-impregnated finish is superior to just about everything else out there.
Overall, engineered flooring is the way to go. The boards might cost more initially, but the project will cost less in the end. Also, you really can't mess this one up.
BTW- I will be installing an engineered floor for my mother in two weeks.
All good info. Al I just may look into that.
i have been installing floors for ten years now and would never "shim" a floor every couple of boards regardless of humidity/temperature. the floor needs a few days to acclimate to its surroundings and be properly gapped around the perimeter and you will never have a problem, I haven't had to ever go back on a job because of buckling/heaving on a naildown. Gluedown 3/4 is where problems occur. PM/call me if you still need someone,
Ryan
4143643687
qft.. somebody can't put down his home depot handbook.Quote:
Originally Posted by eltness350