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Installation Instructions for 3/4" Solid Hardwood Flooring
BEFORE INSTALLING HARDWOOD FLOORING Inspect the Job Site. The condition of the job site is a critical part of a successful hardwood flooring installation. Hardwood flooring should be one of the last items installed in a home.
All work involving water or moisture should be completed prior to wood flooring being installed. Be sure the flooring will not be exposed to excessive periods of high humidity or moisture. Basements and crawl spaces must be dry and well ventilated. All concrete, masonry, sheetrock and framing members, etc. should be thoroughly dry before flooring is delivered to the job site. The building should be closed in with outside windows and doors in place. In winter construction, the building should be heated (60°-72°F) for a period of time that will allow the building to reach its near normal moisture state before the hardwood flooring is installed (at least one week). In summer construction, if the building will have an air-conditioning system, it should be operated prior to installing the floor. If not, the home should be well ventilated. In addition, the surface grade or slope should direct water away from the building.
Deliver the flooring. When job site conditions are satisfactory, have the flooring delivered and broken up into small lots and stored in the rooms where it will be installed. The acclimation time required will totally depend on the job site conditions. You should allow for a minimum of one week. If flooring is packaged, open or remove packaging for acclimation. Our flooring is manufactured at a moisture content of 6-9%. If the job site conditions or the geographic area is not compatible to this moisture content it is the responsibility of those who handle or install our flooring to anticipate moisture related problems before installation. From the time flooring is delivered and until occupancy, temperature and humidity should be maintained at or near occupancy levels. After occupancy, continue to control the environment. Extended times (more than 1 month) without HVAC controls can promote elevated moisture conditions, which can adversely affect flooring.
Prepare the subfloor. Recommended subfloor types are: Plywood (1/2”, 5/8” and ¾” exterior grade), ¾” Oriented Strand Board (must be marked as underlayment grade OSB), concrete slab, existing wood floors (must install new floor at 90 degrees to existing floor) and existing sheet vinyl or vinyl tile which is installed with additional subfloor over the above subfloors.
General subfloor preparation
The subfloor must be clean, dry, sound and flat. Therefore, be sure to sweep the subfloor and remove all debris. It must also be free of paint, wax, grease and other contaminants. The moisture content variation between the subfloor and of the flooring should be less than 4% with 2 ¼” and 3% with 3 ¼” products. Never install with the subfloor’s moisture content above 14%. Knowing the moisture content of the subfloor and flooring prior to installation is essential to the performance of the floor. Use a wood moisture meter to test wood subfloors. To assure a structurally sound subfloor, nail or screw down any squeaky areas. The subfloor must be flat to within 1/8” over every 6 feet. Use a straight edge to test this. To correct areas that are not flat, sand down high spots and fill low spots using a cement-type filler.
Concrete slab subfloor
Before installation, test the concrete subfloor for moisture content using one of several methods. One method is to tape down 2’x 2’ polyethylene squares around all four sides, in several places on the floor. After 24-48 hours, if condensation accumulates on the bottom of the plastic, install a moisture barrier system on top of the concrete. Keep in mind that a dry slab at the time of testing does not guarantee dryness in the future. All slabs should have a 6 mil polyethylene moisture barrier between the ground and the slab.
When installing flooring over concrete, it is necessary to create a wood subfloor first. One way this is accomplished is by building a screed system. This system uses as a nailing base flat, dry 2”x 4”screeds of Group 1 density wood (sometimes called sleepers) of random lengths from 18” to 48”. They must be preservative treated with a product suitable for interior installation. After treatment, screeds must be dried to a moisture content of 12% or less if saturation with water is involved.
Sweep the slab clean, prime with an asphalt primer and allow it to dry. Apply hot (poured) or cold (cutback) asphalt mastic and imbed the screeds. Screeds are laid on their wide face in rivers of mastic with screed runs 12” on center. Lay screeds at right angles to the direction of the finished floor. Stagger joints and lap ends at least 4” and leave ½” space between lapped edges. Be sure there is enough mastic for 100% contact between screeds and slab. Leave ¾” space between ends of screeds and walls with a continuous run of screeds at end walls.
Over the screeds, lay a 4-to-6 mil polyethylene vapor retarder with edges lapped over rows of screeds. Avoid bunching or puncturing it, especially between screeds. The hardwood flooring will be nailed to the screeds through the film. The system with screeds spaced 12” on center and a moisture retarder without a subfloor is satisfactory for all ¾” strip flooring and plank flooring less than 4” wide. If a subfloor is used over screeds it must be 5/8” or thicker plywood or ¾” OSB (underlayment grade).
Pier and Beam construction
For pier and beam foundations, year-round outside cross ventilation through vents or other openings in the foundation walls must be provided with no dead air areas. Install 6 mil polyethylene over the ground, overlapped by 6” with the seams taped, in the crawl space.
Plywood, OSB and wood subfloors
(Do not install over particle board). Subfloors should be constructed of ½”
or thicker plywood or ¾” underlayment grade OSB when installing directly over
16” on center joists. Plywood sheets should be laid with grained outer plies at
right angles to joists. Adjacent rows should be staggered four feet and nailed
every 6” along each joist using 7D or larger nails. When installing directly
over an old wood or strip floor, sand any high spots, renail the old floor to
eliminate squeaks or loose boards, and install new planks at right angles to old
floors.
Should you prefer to install new planks in the same direction as the old floor,
overlay the old floor with ½” plywood gapped by 1/8” at edges. Nail it with 7D
or larger nails every 6” at the edges and every 12” through the interior of each
sheet of plywood. The moisture content of the wood, plywood or OSB subfloor
should not exceed 14% and should not be more than 4% different from the new wood
floor’s moisture content.
Remove thresholds to allow the new flooring to run flush through doorways. Also remove doors and baseboards. Remove any existing base, shoe mold, or doorway thresholds. These items can be replaced after installation. All door casings should be notched out or undercut to avoid difficult scribe cuts and provide a better looking finished installation. Cover the subfloor with a good grade of 15lb. asphalt/building paper, lapped 2-4” along the seams. This helps keep out dust, retards moisture movement from below and helps prevent squeaks during dry seasons.
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Step 1: Find Your Starting Point. Before beginning actual installation, lay out several rows of flooring end to end in a staggered pattern with end joints at least 6” apart from the end joints of the adjoining row. Watch your pattern for even distribution of long and short pieces. Work out of several different cartons of flooring to make sure color and shade of wood is of a good mix. Flooring should be laid at right angles to floor joists.
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To
ensure that you begin with a straight line, place a mark ¾” plus the width
of the flooring plus ¼” for the width of the tongue (31/4” for 2 ¼”
flooring) on the end wall near a corner of a starting wall. Place a mark on
the opposite corner wall and insert nails into each mark. Snap a chalk line
between these nails to help align the planks (see figure 1). IMPORTANT:
Leave at least ¾” for expansion at all vertical surfaces. This space will be
covered by baseboard and shoe mold.
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Step 2: Begin Laying Your Floor. Lay the first strip along the starting chalk line with tongue out. Place it with the side groove and cut end to the walls, allowing ¾” for expansion space. Use the longest, straightest boards for this first row. Whenever nailing by hand, predrill holes into your flooring to prevent splitting. Drive 7D or 8D cut steel or screw type flooring nails into the face of the board every 12”. Nail approximately ½”-3/4” from the edge closest to the starting wall and to 2”-3” from the ends. Keep the starter strip aligned with the chalk line. Edge nail the plank after predrilling by driving the same type nails at a 45-degree angle through the tongue of the plank, spacing the nails every 8”-10” and to 2”-3” from the ends. Repeat this process for the entire first row. After the first row is completed, go back and sink the face nails with a nail punch. For the holes that will not be covered with baseboard molding, fill the holes with Step 1: Find Your Starting Point Step 2: Begin Laying Your Floor filler that blends with your prestained floor.
Upon reaching the last row to be installed, the planks should be ripped to allow ¾” expansion space. The last several rows must be fastened using face nails. |
Repeat
the edge nailing for the second row. NOTE: Do not face nail as in the
first row. The first few rows must be edge nailed by hand rather than
with a nailing machine due to the close proximity of the wall. After the
first few rows are completed, an edge nailing machine, which drives 2”
fasteners with an appropriate mallet, can be used to speed up the
nailing process. 
Install
each succeeding row of flooring by edge nailing the tongue side every
6”-10” to within 2”-3” of board ends. NOTE: Even short flooring strips
need three or more nails to eliminate soft spots. Stagger end joints on
adjacent rows by a minimum of 6” (figure 2), thus ensuring the best
possible look. In addition, avoid “H-joints” (figure 3). This is when
end joints, which are two rows apart, line up.
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Step 3: Finish The Job Install your base and/or quarter round molding. In order to allow the floor to expand as necessary, do not nail moldings into the floor but into the wall only. Install reducers and moldings to provide a professional look and long-lasting beauty. Vacuum the floor thoroughly using the soft brush attachment. |
In-use moisture content
Differences of more than 4% between the expected in-use average moisture content of flooring and the in-use average moisture content of underfloor construction are likely to cause problems, such as cupping or shrinkage. The greater the difference, the more severe the problems. For unfinished floors, finishing should proceed 1-3 weeks after installation is completed. Longer periods of exposure to job site conditions can result in future problems. Finishing immediately after installation does not allow the flooring adequate time to acclimate to its new environment.
Insulation over heating plant
For rooms directly over heating plant, use 30-lb. asphalt felt over heating plant, or install ½” insulating board between joists in both new and old buildings. Observe applicable fire codes.
Work from left to right
In laying strip flooring, you’ll find it easier to work from your left to your right. Left is determined by having your back to the wall where the starting course is laid. When necessary to cut a strip to fit to the right wall, use a strip long enough so the cut-off piece is 8” or longer and start the next course on the left wall with this piece.
Short pieces
For the best appearance, always use long flooring strips at entrances and doorways. Incorporate the short pieces randomly in the floor. Avoid grouping them in one area.
Put a “frame” around obstructions
You can give a much more professional and finished look to a strip flooring installation if you “frame” hearths and other obstructions, using mitered joints at the corners.
Reversing direction of strip flooring
Sometimes it’s necessary to reverse the direction of the flooring to extend it into a closet or hallway. To do this, join groove edge to groove edge, using a slip tongue available from flooring distributors. Glueslip tongue in place and blind nail that edge. Proceed in the opposite direction, nailing in the conventional manner.
Don’t pour concrete after flooring is installed
Concrete basement floors are sometimes poured after hardwood flooring has been installed. However, many gallons of water from drying concrete are evaporated into the house atmosphere, where it may be absorbed by hardwood flooring and other wood components. This is not a recommended building practice since excessive moisture will cause problems with wood floors and other woodwork. Wood flooring should not be installed until after all concrete and plaster work are completed and dry.