hey there I'm Tyler and welcome to the
channel today I'm going to show you
everything you need to know to install
hardwood flooring in case you wanted to
know a little bit more about this
particular hardwood floor this is - in
the quarter inches wide are you on there
yeah be quiet this is two and a quarter
inches wide 3/4 of an inch thick it is a
wire brushed matte finish in dark sugar
you don't actually need any specialized
tools to do hardwood flooring but having
a flooring nailer will make it go a lot
quicker if you don't have one you can
use a finish or a framing nailer but
you'll have to go slower and be much
more careful what you do need is some
underlayment you can use roofing felt or
tar paper I've used that with great
success or you can purchase something
like this that is a little bit thicker
and will help your hardwood floor be a
little bit quieter you will need a
stapler to put your underlayment in if
you have unevenness in the subfloor
you'll want a belt sander with a super
low grit belt to even all of that out we
are in pretty good shape here you will
need something to cut that hardwood to
length a miter saw makes quick work but
you can use a circular saw and an
oscillating multi-tool that makes easy
work of some finicky inside corners like
over a register you will need a nailer
of some sort whether it's a finish or
framing nailer or like this is a
specialized Florrie nailer just makes it
go way way faster ask your friends you
might be surprised then you'll need some
random things like tape measure pencils
obviously and a chalk line might help
obviously you need some hardwood floor
and you will want it activated to the
room that you're going to put it in
you'll want it with the boxes open or at
least the ends off for 10 to 14 days you
do want to make sure you get all staples
up and out of the way and the tack
strips off against the wall and all
nails pulled so that those foreign
objects don't transfer through your
underlayment and through your hardwood
floor
you do want to make sure that the
staples are well embedded in the
material so that they don't cause a sort
of hump and the hardwood floor isn't
down as firmly as it could be a like tap
with the hammer make sure those are well
better now that it only happens with
this type of stapler if you have a
camping stapler where you pin and it
puts a staple in at the same time you
shouldn't have that issue go ahead and
tap Maul anything
your first row of what is most critical
because that is going to set up the
entire rest of the room you saw us
measure from the opposite wall and
strike the line on this side not a very
good one because the underlayment is a
little bit wavy when there's no weight
on it
but it gives us the general idea of
where we need to lay this first piece to
align up squarely with the other one now
we can divide that gap between the
either side of the room and we want to
make sure that we have plenty of
expansion and contraction on either side
so you want about a half an inch all the
way around your room and this will be
covered by the trim later you don't want
too much more than that because as the
wood might contract it might leave a
little bit of gap on the sides now we
obviously can't get our specialized
flooring nailer in here
so I'm going to start off the first row
with my 18 gauge finish nailer you can
try to tuck these nails up underneath
the trim as well and then we will shoot
a line on the tongue just like the
specialized nailer would be but again
you got to be a little bit slower and a
little bit more careful with this guy
if you ever have nails that don't make
it all the way in take the time just use
a punch and get them in so that you can
drive your next piece of wood in nice
and snug and reduce any gaps you saw us
measure across the room to get square on
this side with reference to the other
wall you do also need to make sure the
orientation of your joists compared to
the way you're going to lay down the
hardwood floor now looking at the strip
that we've laid down right here the the
joists are running towards you and I so
I'm spanning that with the three-quarter
inch hickory and that'll provide a more
stable for it you don't have to do it
this way but it is recommended hardwood
floors are one of those great
experiences where you can never measure
and cut once
so we have a piece we need to put right
here I'm going to make sure the tongue
of this board is firmly inserted there
and then we have a heat register here
and I'm going to mark that out right
here making sure I indicate to myself
which side of that line I want the blade
on
we can go ahead and make that cut and
look at that perfect with no measuring
so here we are at the end of the row
obviously we want our groove up against
the tongue and here is the tongue of our
board that needs to go insert it into
here so my never measure cut once option
is to rotate this board so that the
tongue is against the wall and then mark
your line here with about a quarter inch
again making sure you indicate which
side of the line you want your blade on
and then when you rotate this back over
the quarter inch of the tongue here and
the quarter inch you gave over here will
give you a nice half-inch gap against
the walls will allow for expansion would
you look at that perfect now the little
trick is you can turn a tap I mean kind
of pulling the board toward you to close
up this groove right here so we know the
hardwood has a tongue and groove on all
four sides
we got the tongue on that side and we
got the groove on this side started
everything with the tongue up against
the wall and the tongue out so now
everything inserts together like so and
I am using its specialized flooring
nailer which actually uses cleats as we
can see right here those bad boys get
put in right at an angle in the same
place every time consistently as long as
you're careful that the alignment here
is correct and you don't accidentally
get the toe up on top there which can
happen so you just want to be careful
one of the most important things you
want to pay attention to when laying out
the floor is that you don't have any
joints that are this close you want a
few more inches than that like you see
here so you don't have any potential for
puckering so in this case I would grab a
short piece like this and it starts that
one out instead and as you can see it's
going to offset everything very nicely
down here and again reduce that chance
of pucker you want to put pleats along
the board about every eight to ten
inches probably now if you have a board
that you need to force together like it
might be a little bit warped you won't
put more pleats in but you'll see that
as you go one of the nice things about
this flooring manner and the angle that
it shoots the cleat in on is if you
don't have this board perfectly tight to
begin with you can whack it harder on
the end right there and it will pull
that together right here is a great
example
I got a staple in on that end and this
end is but a tight right here and as you
can see this board is a little bit
warped so there is a gap but as I move
along with the nailer I will tap lightly
over here and the nailer will pull that
in nice and snug
bird
you can use a jigsaw in a less
aggressive setting to cut out the
pockets for your registers you don't
actually really need to measure anything
as long as you have a board where you
know the opening is and then you can
just run your blade up along the edge
and cut them out this is a nice tight
joint here on top of the hardwood floor
I remove this piece of trim to paint it
but I did not remove the frame of the
door and the way I got that nice and
snug is before your hardwood floor is in
place underlayment is down take a scrap
piece of wood and lay it up against your
doorframe or your trim and use an
oscillating tool either with a blade
like this or a round one to glide along
the top of that scrap board and cut that
out and that will give you a perfectly
snug fit like you see right here once
you get your final pieces of part of
wood flooring the last pieces aren't
probably the most difficult to make sure
you get tight once you get that all done
go ahead and slap your trim up to cover
that half inch gap that's all the way
around the room and if you're a person
that likes the bead molding along the
bottom go ahead and install that and
then caulk and paint everything for a
beautiful finished room like you see
right here that is the benefit of a
prefinished floor because you can put it
down and you are all done no having to
sand or apply finish later on well that
is a wrap
on this floor and I hope you guys are
prepared and confident to take something
like this on on your very own hope you
guys enjoyed this video and you got
something from it however that thumbs up
button if you did because it helps us
out I'm DIY Tyler and you guys have a
good one