Hardwood Floor Installation report...

Art Mulder

Member
Messages
3,383
Location
London, Ontario
Hey folks,

This has been in the planning for a while, and last week we finally got busy putting 3/4" prefinished oak hardwood in our LR/DR. It was quite the job!

I have to say that my respect for Marty, with his monster hardwood installation in his shop, has shot up even more. There was a moment on the first day, when we'd been working for a few hours, and saw that we had only a 12" width of hardwood installed, that we wondered if it'd ever get done.

If you want lots of photos and stuff, find them on my web page, I've just pulled out a few here to show some of the highlights.

But here are a few...

Before:
before.jpg

Ripping out the carpet: ( Shh, don't tell my boy that people get paid for this. He thought this was just for fun...)
remove-carpet.jpg

Sanding the seams -- had some bumps there:
sand-seams.jpg

Getting started nailing:
start-nailing.jpg

The last nail, two LONG days later:
final-nail.jpg

The end result:
finished1.jpg

Ow, my back, my knees, my wallet...
 
Congrats on a great job. It's no small task, but what a difference it makes. I did the same to my house this past summer - 600 s.f. of inch and a half wide (narrow plank) unfinished white oak. It took all of 4 and a half days, including replacing and leveling about 1/3 of the subfloor and tightening up all of the subfloor to the joists to eliminate squeeks (now THAT made a difference). Driving home that last nail sure does feel great.
Going with the 3/4" solid wood means you won't be ripping it out after 15 years. Now there's some piece of mind as well.
Great job - enjoy the results.
Paul Hubbman
 
Gotta tell ya Art. the end result is mighty nice. Wallet, back, and knees notwithstanding, you gotta be happy with the end result.

Thanks, Rennie. The wallet remark was actually a bit of a joke. After all doing it yourself is cheaper! I also saved some money by going to buy the wood from a local lumber yard an hour out of town, rather than buying at a big box here in town. (I could have saved even more if I'd bought some Chinese import stuff at the Borg or Costco, but then I'd have a floor full of shorts, and with this floor I had lots of lovely long boards!)

Congrats on a great job. It's no small task, but what a difference it makes. I did the same to my house this past summer - 600 s.f. of inch and a half wide (narrow plank) unfinished white oak. It took all of 4 and a half days,

:eek::bonkers: Inch and a half boards!?!? And here I was seriously doubting that it was worth the $.39 a sqft that I saved by using 2-1/4 boards instead of 3-/14 boards. Skinny boards like you used means a whole ton more nailing. Ouch.

Thanks for the kind words, folks.
...art
 
Hi Art :wave:,
As I look back on the whole job, it wasn't so hard now was it? :rolleyes: :rofl:

It turned out beautifully! Glad you could have your son help too, a double blessing:thumb:.
Congratulations,
Shaz :)
 
Part of my kitchen/DR remodel is hard wood flooring. You hope your thoughts and plans will work out. Seeing your finished project helps justify that hard wood flooring just looks GREAT. Great job! I hope mine comes out Like yours :thumb:

Tom
 
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