Proper Way To Lay A Hardwood Floor

Make sure you ve got the right amount of flooring for your space.

Proper way to lay a hardwood floor.

Before going with a standard vertical pattern consider the shape and size of your room. The direction in which the flooring runs may not be a top consideration but it is essential to plan this aspect carefully. If the sub floor above is more than 1 inch thick this rule can be bent in many. Updating a home s flooring is one of the best ways to increase its value.

Stay away from turning your wood flooring in different directions in different rooms in an attempt to create interest. When possible begin installation from the straightest longest wall and install the flooring perpendicular to the floor joists. Installing hardwood floors with a few careful preparations elbow grease and a weekend you can have beautiful new floors. Jeff hosking a flooring consultant for this old house first began laying floors 35 years ago back then 90 percent of his work was installing solid wood strips with nails.

Apart from a few exceptions like sagging joists this is the preferred direction to lay wood floors because it provides the best result aesthetically. It makes a house look chopped up and it costs more money to install particularly so in smaller and in open plan homes. Laying a solid hardwood strip floor is easier and faster if you choose a prefinished product to avoid the extra work of sanding staining and finishing. When you lay a hardwood floor in your home some of the first things that come to mind are color choices and the type of wood.

Even though design trends are always changing you can never go wrong with a solid hardwood floor. While personal preference is a factor the direction in which you run hardwood flooring boards is governed by visual and structural guidelines. Installing your floor this way is a general rule and common practice in installations. As a rule of thumb the floor boards you install should cross perpendicular to the joists under the sub floor.

When learning how to install hardwood flooring there are a few tips to keep in mind. Fortunately installing solid hardwood flooring isn t a difficult job as long as you have the right tools knowledge and patience. It should be level and free from rot and other major defects. Check your sub floor condition.

The most common way to lay install hardwood flooring is by aligning the planks parallel to the longest wall or run in the installation.