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Douglas Fir Flooring Installation Tips

May 10, 2011 by | Jennifer | There have been 0 comments

Good things take time. Like growing a beautiful garden or painting a great picture, installing a Douglas fir floor is not a snap process. But when it’s done well, a Douglas fir floor is something that will add beauty and value to your home for generations to come. Here are some tips from an expert to help you through the wood flooring installation process.

First, get the tools you need. Andy Burley, owner of Mr. Sandman Hardwood Floorsin Portland, recommends the following:

Be sure to use a tape measure.

  1. A rubber mallet, for gently pounding boards into place without damaging them
  2. A carpentry pencil for marking boards
  3. A tape measure
  4. A floor level, for making sure the sub-floor is even
  5. A chalk line, to make sure you’re installing the boards in a straight line
  6. A miter saw with a finishing blade, for cutting the boards to the right length
  7. A pneumatic nailer or stapler, for quickly fastening boards into place
  8. A smaller hand-held finish nailer for fastening down the rows of boards around the edges of the room
  9. A moisture barrier, such as Kraft paper or roofing felt, to lay down between the subfloor and the flooring
  10. Small pieces of wood called shims to hold the flooring in place

Once you’ve gathered everything you need, take things one step at a time.

1. When your Douglas fir flooring is delivered, give it time to acclimate to the climate and moisture level in the room where it will be installed. This can take up to a week. This prevents the wood from swelling or shrinking, post-installation, and will allow for the truest fit. “Douglas fir is quite porous, but it dries and acclimates very well,” Burley says. Make sure you’ve ordered enough wood to cover your whole room, as well as extra to account for waste.

2. Prepare the subfloor. Use your level to make sure it’s even. If there are major ridges or bumps, sand them down. Walk around and feel for any spongy areas—nail them down to prevent squeaking later. Make sure you know which direction the support joists underneath the flooring run. You want to install your flooring perpendicular to the joists, for better structural stability. Lay down your chosen moisture barrier.

3. Starting at an outside wall, use the chalk line to create a straight edge to line up your first row of flooring. “Usually an outside wall is the straightest in the house, but especially in an older house, you can’t assume everything’s going to be straight,” Burley says. Don’t put the first row of flooring (each complete row of boards is called a “course”) flush up against the wall—you want to leave a quarter-inch to half-inch gap on all sides to allow for natural expansion and contraction of the wood. “People forget that just because the tree has been cut down, it doesn’t mean the wood isn’t still alive. It’s porous, and it will expand,” Burley says. Use shims between the wall and the flooring to keep the flooring where you want it. Eventually, baseboards will cover the gap.

Installed Douglas fir floor

4. Cut your boards using a miter saw with a finishing blade, not a ripping blade. “The finer the blade you use, the less likely the wood is to splinter,” Burley says. If your flooring is end-matched, then there will be tongue-and-groove pieces at the end of the boards to fit together. If it’s not, use your saw to create flat butt joints that sit flush against each other. Make sure you’re not cutting each board to the exact same length. You don’t want the ends of boards in adjacent courses to be lined up with each other—as you’re laying down the boards, try to visualize the way the finished floor will appear, and keep the lengths varied.

5. For your first few courses, use a finish nailer to fasten down the boards—this is less powerful than a pneumatic nailer, and won’t jar the boards out of the straight line you’ve laid down. As you lay down subsequent courses, and you’re a few rows out from the wall, you can switch to a pneumatic nailer or stapler.

6. After you’ve gone partway across the room, snap out another chalk line and make sure your courses are still straight. If you need to fit the boards together a little more tightly to make them square, use your mallet to drive the courses together tighter. If you need a little more give, don’t pound the following rows so tightly. “It’s amazing how just a little bit of space adds up when you’re going all the way across a room,” Burley says.

7. Once you’ve done the entire room, it needs to sit before it’s finished. Burley recommends allowing at least three days for the wood to relax before the final staining and finishing process.

Burley says the entire hardwood floor installation process can take more than a week, by the time you count in acclimatizing, installation, letting the floor rest, sanding, and staining. If you are in the market for radiant heated subfloors, more time is needed to finish the process. That’s a long time for impatient home-owners. But a perfect Douglas fir floor can’t be created overnight. If you take your time and take the process step by step, you’ll be rewarded with a stable, gorgeous floor underfoot.

- Jennifer Rouse


This post was posted in All Entries, Douglas Fir Flooring, Care & Maintenance and was tagged with Douglas fir flooring, douglas fir floors, flooring installation, wood flooring installation

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