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The flooring of your house can affect the whole feel of the home. A carpet easily gets stained and holds in allergens. A hardwood floor can be easily cleaned and is hard to scratch. Hardwood floors can increase the value of your home by six to eleven percent. You might have questions on how to even install a hardwood floor in your house. We will explore the steps below as well as mention some of the benefits.
How To Install Hardwood Floors
The first thing to consider when installing hardwood flooring is that the wood will expand and contract. The ideal conditions to keep your house in throughout installation is 60 through 70 degrees. The humidity should be between 35 to 55 percent. The first thing you need to do is to locate the joists. One place to find floor joist is near the wall. Hammer a nail partially into the floor near the wall. Use a measuring tape to locate the rest of the joists. The joist will be around 16 to 24 inches apart.
Next, you will want to lay the underlayment. The underlayment act as a cushion between the hardwood floors and the subfloor. The cushioned layer protects the subfloor and keeps the flooring from creaking. The under-flooring fits perpendicular to the joists and should have some overlap. Use chalk to draw lines marking the joist. It will help guide nailing later. Take the wood planks and mix them up so that planks of different length will be next to each other. Drill a 1/16th-inch hole through each board. Pre-drilling the nail holes will make it easier to nail down later without the nail splitting the wood.
Lay out the first line of plank, using the lines drawn in the underlayment as a guide. There should be gaps between the wood planks and the wall around 3/4ths of an inch. The gaps allow for the wood to expand. Lay the next row with the joint ends from the previous row offset by 6 inches are so. Make sure that the planks line up tight end to end. After the next row, you should be able to use a nailer. The nailer needs about 6 inches to operate. The nailer will make putting in nails easier.
As you can see, there is a lot that goes into installing a hardwood floor. There is preplanning to make sure the planks line up right. Any difficult area, such as around a fireplace, should also be preplanned. Installing a hardwood floor also takes a lot of repetitive work, laying the planks and nailing them down. The work can be accomplished by yourself, but it might be better for the floor and yourself to hire out a specialist. To find a specialist in your area just search for a hardwood flooring installation tacoma wa.
The Benefits To Having Hard Wood Flooring
There are many reasons why you would want to install hardwood flooring in your home. The floors are durable and easy to maintain. It is hard to scratch them making them perfect for active homes. The floors do not catch dust or mites as carpets do. If you later want to change the look of your house, then the floor can be refurbished.
