Take Advantage of These Hardwood Floor Installation Tips

One of the most popular types of flooring for new and existing homes is hardwood floors. Hardwood floors are both beautiful and sturdy, and last a long time. They can be made of different types of wood, and all of them are high in quality and well-made. Hardwood flooring is just one type of low-cost flooring available today. Here are some tips to keep in mind when installing this type of floor.

What to Do First

Hardwood floors come in two types: real wood and engineered. Real wood floors are thicker than engineered hardwood, and the latter looks more like a piece of plywood. You can tell the difference between the two by simply holding up the plank and looking at it. With either type, however, there are certain things to keep in mind when installing them. These include:

• Make sure you properly prepare the floors first, getting them clean, dust-free and free of any items such as nails or anything else that has fallen on them.
• After you choose the type of hardwood you like, lay down a piece of 15-pound tar paper on the floor, and staple it with a staple gun; tar paper provides an excellent barrier to moisture.
• Always start with the widest or longest planks, and tighten each plank by placing a smaller plank against the edge and hitting the smaller plank with a mallet then stapling the larger plank; this will ensure that the planks will not have openings that could cause damage later on.
• Only when you’ve completed the hardwood planks, finish the thresholds and baseboards.

These are just basic tips, of course, and one of the smartest things to do is to follow the manufacturer’s directions specifically. Some aspects of installing hardwood floors may be different, depending on the type of wood and the manufacturer’s requirements, but this is an excellent starting point.

Finding Additional Assistance

People these days want their floors to look good, but this doesn’t mean they aren’t looking for low cost flooring as well. Hardwood floors these days are very reasonably priced, particularly when you buy them on sale, and the manufacturers’ instructions generally give you all of the information you need to install your floors properly. There are also numerous websites you can visit in order to learn more about the process. Many home improvement stores are available to consult to make sure your hardwood floors look beautiful once they are installed.

My name is Sohel Ather, software engineer by profession and a content writer by passion, Technical writings, blogging etc are stuff that I do as hobby.