Hardwood Floors Days 9 and 10

On the second weekend of the hardwood installation we installed the flooring in the hallway and living room area. On Saturday Donald had to work and after four hours of laying floor and seeming to be getting no where I decided to call in for reinforcements. Two hours later my father was here and ready to work.

  It felt like we were making good progress until my father realized he has been here for four hours! It only felt like one hour and both of us wished with went this fast. By the time Dad left we had the living room finished. The next day a few more rows in the hallway for laid. Sorry no pictures of it.

Thanks Dad for your help! 

Hardwood Floors - Day 3

On the third day of flooring we used the floor nailer in the third bedroom. The other two were already done, at least where the nailer can be used. Plank after plank, cut after cut we placed the boards and secure them in place. There was a little too often that I would accidentally step on the edge of an unsecured board and crack the groove off of it, but we just replaced it and carried on. After one long weekend we had three rooms floored. Here is how it looks:

Before installation began.

During

After

Hardwood Floors - Day 1

In order to start this project I decided to use a PTO day on Friday and work on the project over the long weekend. The plan was to start with flooring one room to see how it turned out. That quickly changed, thankfully, and the demo started in all three bedrooms on the upper level at the same time. By the end of day one we had all the furniture moved to the basement, carpet ripped up, trim taken off and two rooms had the squeaks in the floor resolved with screws. We rented a floor nailer for two days that evening to make the next days more smooth. Here are some images after day 1:

Room 1 ready for the hardwood

Room 2 clear of carpet

Room 3 ready to cut wood

Anyone that is exposing the subfloor I highly recommend reinforcing it with screws to avoid and elimate squeaks. There have been many nights I have kept up because of the squeaks from the roommates walking upstairs. Not anymore!!! Hahahaha :-)

We also vacuumed around the edges of the room since this is most likely the only time the trim will be removed for a long time. If you have pets or funny smells in your house it is a good idea to mop the plywood with warm vinegar water until any smells are gone. Make sure to let it dry!