Energy Efficiency

How to Lay Real Wood Flooring

Real wood flooring is a popular choice for homeowners throughout the world. The solid wood floor choice provides a stunning visual appeal to the home, creates a beautiful space and can help increase the value of the property, should you ever decide to sell.

The good news is that real wood flooring is low maintenance and very high quality. Another advantage is that it can be an enjoyable and fast DIY project, where you can transform the design of your room, updating the finish and creating a spectacular space within a day.

It is important when buying real wood flooring that you allow the wood to acclimate in the room you are installing it in. Speak to your supplier to identify how long you have to allow it to acclimate and whether you need to keep it wrapped in the packaging or whether you should remove it from the packaging. In most instances you can start your installation within twenty four hours of leaving the floor to acclimate to the room.

Real wood flooring can move, it’s expands and contracts and can move over time. This means it’s imperative that you fix it to the ground below. This can be done either to concrete flooring or existing timber floors, though there are certain factors to take into consideration before you begin.

If your floor below is concrete, the preferred method is to ensure the floor is completely level and screw a sub floor into place. This enables you to nail the new real wood flooring to the sub floor. If you have an existing timber floor, you can nail it straight to the existing floor at a ninety degree angle.

Laying a real wood floor is relatively easy, especially with most flooring options being tongue and groove these days. Start by removing all the skirting from around the base of the wall. This gives you plenty of room to work and ensure the skirting covers the edge of the real wood flooring once laid.

Clean your sub floor. This is an important step. You can vacuum the space and give it a wipe down to ensure all dust and dirt is removed. From here you will want to position your spacers.

Choose your starting position and fit your first row in place. If you are using tongue and groove, ensure the groove is facing the wall. Start in one corner and work your way all the way along the wall until your first row is down. Nail or glue it in place. In most cases you can use both to ensure the flooring doesn’t move over time.

Once in place, you can start with the second row, clipping the groove into the tongue and then nailing it into place as you go. As you get a rhythm going you will find the process is relatively quick and before you know it you will be on the final row. Ideally you should make use of a nail gun, which can speed up the process considerably.

The final row you may find you have to cut the length of the real wood flooring to fit in place. Remember to fit it up to the wall, so the skirting can cover it. Measure the final space with care and ensure that the tongue side is the side you discard.

The final step once your final row is glued and nailed into place is to replace the skirting around the room. From here give the floor a polish or vacuum to remove any dust, throw down your rug and place your furniture.