Installing Hardwood Flooring

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Surprise! It'll take 277 board feet of oak strip to cover 200 square feet.

With this in mind, don't be surprised when it takes 277 board feet of oak strip to cover 200 square feet of floor area. Remember that you already lost nearly a quarter of your stock at the mill, and you can figure on giving up at least another 10% or so for matching and cutting waste. The flooring comes in bundles sized by average lengths, so board feet per package can vary.

Your supplier should be able to convert area to board-foot requirements with a fair degree of accuracy. When measuring the length and width of a room to determine area, be sure to include spaces under cabinets that may one day be removed, as well as projections such as bay windows. Note, too, that more material is used in flooring applied diagonally than in straightrun installations. For the sake of appearance, plan on laying the flooring in the direction of the room's longest dimension. Structurally, this will place the strips at right angles to the floor joists and will also minimize the effects of seasonal swelling.

Dimensional changes, by the way, can occur even in a wellprotected floor. Newly milled material should be acclimated to the humidity of your local environment for a few weeks before it's delivered; this is the dealer's responsibility. For your part, don't pick up your flooring in rainy weather, and try to maintain the temperature (or ventilation) of the house at its normal seasonal level. When you unload the bundles, crossstack the pieces in the room you'll be working in, and give the wood three or four days to adjust to its new environment. I know that sounds ridiculous, but the lion's share of wood floor problems stems from poor preparation. If the wood is swollen with humidity when it's installed, it'll shrink within months and develop cracks between each strip.

Conversely, if it goes down dry and picks up moisture before it's sealed, the strips can expand and deform at the joints—contracting during the heating season to form equally unattractive crevices. Sanding rarely cures the cause; the only permanent solution is to replace the floor.

Lay-Down Sally

The location and alignment of the first course of flooring is critical.

Fortunately, it takes only a few tools and some common sense to start the job out right. To begin, you'll need just a 25' tape measure, a chalk line, a pencil, a claw hammer and a nail set. For trimming, use a crosscut or a circular saw. You'll also want to rent a power nailer (about $17 a day, from tool rental shops); it's a hammer-driven stapler that sets the nails at the correct angle and depth.

Get a supply of 2" fasteners for the machine (figure on two and a half nails per running foot and you should have enough), and pick up a pound or two of 8d flooring or cut nails for the handwork. If you're nailing to 3/4" plywood over a slab, use 1 3/4" fasteners so they don't come through the other side. There's probably no such thing as a square room—most are off by at least 1/2". To determine the error in yours, take measurements every few feet between the walls that run parallel to the intended flooring, ignoring the corners. Then, at the most prominent or longest wall, place a strip of flooring—groove to the wall—about 3/4" from one end of the wall, and mark the subfloor at the edge of the tongue. Repeat this at the other end of the wall, then snap a chalk line between the two marks to establish a base line (Fig. 6).

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