Wood Floor Installation

[HeffsRah]

Anyone here install their own wood floors? DF and I are considering it in our hopefully soon to be new place and are completely new to the process .... do you really save THAT much money on it if you install it yourself?

[roz]

DH will be doing it in our living room, office and dining room after he finishes rebuilding our deck (which is almost done!). He will be gutting and rebuilding our living room, dining room, office and downstairs bathroom.

The labor cost is a significant factor. But you have to have the right tools and know what you're doing!

[Chi829]

Bill and I did our living room and hall back in 2006. I didnt do much, well actually I did nail some of the wood down. He had never done it before and neither had I. He read some books and did a lot of research beofre attempting it. We got our wood from Lumbar Liquidators and saved significantly. We also just finished Liams nursery with wood floors. He did it in 2 days. 1 day to prep and 1 day to lay the wood. We will eventually do all the bedroom, we just have to do it in stages. I really wasnt that bad at all. Oh and as far as the tools, we rented a compressor and the nail gun that was needed since we didnt own any of it and I dont remember it being expensive to rent.

[roz]

I know our local shop rents a nail gun for $35 for the day or weekend. Fortunately, we borrowed one from a friend for the deck as this has been a long project! We have a compressor and just about any other tool that could possibly be needed!!!!!!

[HeffsRah]

We actually do have a nail gun...thats all I know...he looked it up and said we have the tools, but the way he described the process to me sounded pretty hard. Just making sure we're not delving into something that is beyond our competancy.

Sounds like it shouldn't be that bad once you get the hang of it I guess?

Our other problem is whether or not we'll be allowed to nail new wood down -- we haven't received the HOA rule book yet...so we'll see. If not, I guess we could always go for laminate flooring but we would both much rather hard wood.

Roz, maybe I should hire your husband! He sounds pretty handy!! DF is great with mechanical things, he fixes all of our cars, has rebuilt engines, built a computer, etc, etc...but as far as carpentry goes, I've never seen him do much so hopefully his mechanical skills will be able to spill over...otherwise, I might be begging for help when the time comes! lol

[roz]

There really isn't anything to nail down. The boards fit into each other.

See what I mean?

Lock&Fold Installation Technology: DIY Hardwood Installation

Yes, DH is very handy indeed! He does plumbing, electrical work, drywall, masonry, engine repair (both cars and motorcycles), creates leaded glass windows and more!

[HeffsRah]

Oh, neat!! We were thinking of going to a demolition sale and getting some old wood--which is why I was thinking we'd have to nail it down. Maybe we should just look into that lock and fold thing. That looks really great! Thanks Roz.

Wow. You guys have probably saved lots of money having those skills at hand.

[roz]

It's already stained. The only thing you have to do is cut it to fit! And, you will have to stain your woodwork. But for installation, it is a breeze.

All you have to do is set it and forget it. Oh wait, that's for my rotisserie chickens!

[Chi829]

since we live on a subfloor with a crawlspace underneath, we did have a tongue and groove hardwood that had to be nailed down to the subfloor, it was still pretty easy.

[HeffsRah]

Ok gotcha.

We checked out lumber liquidators online and they seemed to have pretty reasonable prices...I do really like that wood that Roz linked to also, easy to pick up at home depot or lowes.

Do you know what the prices were Roz?