How to lay a wooden floor: Keep it Simple

Installing a wooden floor (solid or wood-engineered) as DIY-er isn’t rocket science, more a case of common sense, patience, buying the right quality, using the correct materials and making the correct preparations.

Some things are so obvious we won’t go into them in detail (like buying wood that is suitable to be installed as floor and dry enough, meaning: timber wood – 15% moist or more – isn’t suited and that the room is wind and weather proof, wet decoration work finished etc).

(Update March 2010: many, if not all, tricks of the trade now available in the "Wooden Floor Installation Manual", 160 pages!)

Correct materials and correct preparations:
Quality products might be a little bit dearer; in the end it will save you time, aggravation and possibly even regret and money.

• Make sure you have one type of underfloor and the underfloor is ready (dry, level, - remove existing floor-covering timely enough to make good any defects or unevenness in time)
• Buy the correct underlayment (with the ‘floating-method’)
• Have all the materials in house before you start, make a list of everything you need at least one week beforehand and make sure it can be delivered or collected on time (because some materials just run out of stock, you’ll know Murphy’s Law)
• Make sure all tools you need are in the house, are working, sharp and safe (if you have to hire specific tools, place a reservation on them with the hire company so you’re not going to be disappointed)
• Store the wood in the same area you plan to lay it (or in an area that has the same ‘climate-conditions’ – garages are a definite No No) 2 – 4 days before you start the installation; leave the wood in the packs (if wrapped in packaging material and according to manufacturers instructions, some do differ, most not).
• Clear all furniture out of the room beforehand, dust from sawing will get in anything!
• Remove – if needed – skirting boards, mark them when you do so you know which one to place back where to avoid mix-ups and extra cutting work when placing them back.

Preparations on the day (floating method with standard T&G fixing)

• Ban little children from the room! (And cats, dogs or other pets.)
• Check again if all materials and tools are there.
• Materials: wood, underlayment, pvac-wood glue, spacers, beading or scotia, radiator-pipe-covers, thresholds, cloth (to remove excess glue as soon as you notice) and felt pads (for underneath furniture)
• Tools: hand saw or Jig-saw, tape-measure, square, Stanley knife, pencil (at least three, they disappear in thin air), knocking block + Jemmy bar (both can be part of any DIY installation kit you buy - but are not always of the best quality), hammer, heavy duty bin bags, work bench (tool box should do fine also as bench, watch out for sawing into it).
• If needed, remove doors and undercut architrave and/or doorposts (chisel out the last bit).
• Open two packs of wood, check for any damages to the surface, tongue and groove or click-system. If any and on more boards, re-pack as best as possible and return every pack straight back to your supplier for new material or re-fund. In no circumstances open more packs to check for damages, this might render your guarantee useless.
• Check if the boards are straight by laying them with the groove side on the (level) underfloor. Also check for bowing – cupping. Slight bowing (middle doesn’t touch the ground) of long boards is normal, extreme cupping (the ends stand up and leave a gap of over 5cm if turned up side down i.e. top surface faces floor) not.

If everything is OK and in the wood-type, grade and finish you selected mix the two packs to get a natural look and colour, shade mixture (all boards differ in colour and characteristics). During the works, keep checking for surface damages before you install a board, once down and between other boards/rows it’s a pain to remove it. (Murphy’s Law: it will always end up in the middle of the room where you would notice it most - afterwards.)

Do read the fitting instructions (if any) the manufacturer supplied with the floor, some might differ on some points and not following their instructions could render your guarantee worthless. When in doubt, call your supplier.

Installation tips, READ MORE HERE.......

(image for illustration purpose only)

(Already have a wooden floor that needs restoring? See our "7 steps to repair/restore your original floor" guide)

Comments

[Neil Newson]

Hi
I plan to lay a solid wood floor in my living/dining room.The underfloor is concrete with linolium tiles glued to it.Would it be ok to lay a damp proof membrane then lay the solid wood as a floating floor.
Thanks Neil

[Wood You Like Ltd]

Hi Neil

Thank you for your question. It depends on a few things if you can install your solid floor floating, see here

But if it is and your linolium tiles are firmly stuck down, then you have to install a combi-underlayment first indeed to prevent "sweating" of the tiles getting into the wood.

Hope this helps

Kind Regards
Wood You Like Ltd
Karin Hermans

[Jack]

hi,

i've been read through all of the stories on and info on this website and many many more. basicially I have solid oak flooring of various lengths. I am laying 50 m2 on the ground floor of my house. The floor is concrete and currently has laminate down. I plan to rip this up and lay the oak on the 5mm insulation I have put down and glue the T & G as discribed in this forum and i will leave the expansion gap all the way around. the whole ting will be a floating floor. Any coment or advise you could give me. I have put this off for the last few weeks wile digest all the info

cheers

jack

[Wood You Like Ltd]

Hi Jack

Thank you for your question. Before we continue, can we ask if your random length Solid Oak boards come in a box, stating 300 - 1200mm long? If so, have you checked how many short lengths a box contains? If too many, installing this using the floating method is nor recommended, due to the many hinges you will be creating.

Your best bet then is to use Elastilon self-adhesive underlayment
or to fully bond the floor onto the (level) concrete using flexible adhesive.

If you have all long length then you can install this floor the way you intend to do, just make sure you leave sufficient gaps all around, see the "rules of thumbs" about expansion gaps.

Hope this helps

Kind Regards
Wood You Like Ltd

[jack]

hi, yes the lengths are 400mm to 1200mm, there are virtually equal amounts of the 3 different sizes. so would i still be able to do a floating floor or would have to use the elastilon, if i do where can i get it from and an approimate cost?? I live in Ripon North Yorkshire and i'm not sure they stock it.

many thanks for you swift reply

[Wood You Like Ltd]

Hi Jack

If your floor has indeed not that many short lengths and enough full lengths it can be installed floating on a suitable underlayment

Have you had a look at our
Wooden Floor Installation Manual?
Contains loads of tricks of the trade etc.

Wood You Like Ltd

[Barry Pilkington]

My daughter is going to install a solid wood floor - 150mm wide/20mm thick French Rustic Oak - in a flat (house conversion) with no soundproofing between floors. Existing floor is T&G chipboard. She has read your FAQ and she had planned to use Elastilon underlay to give her a floating floor with some soundproofing, while glueing the boards at the ends of each piece. The boards are NOT prepacked but have been purchased from a specialist hardwood flooring company and are varying lengths up to 1.8m with a good mix of medium and shorter lengths. OK that was the plan. She spoke with a guy who was laying a hardwood floor in the bar of her local tennis club and he said that she should nail the floor down and not float it. Obviously the nails would go through any soundproofing she installed and surely would render the soundproofing useless. She is now confused and still thinks here original plan is OK but would like some advice.

[Wood You Like Ltd]

Hi Barry

Thank you for your question.

The plan of your daughter is much more feasible than the plan of this guy in the sport bar. You cannot decently nail into chipboard and expect to hold it down for a long while, due to the character of the chipboard itself (there's a very good chance the nail will "explode" the chipboard especially if the nail goes through the whole board and therefore cannot establish a grip to hold down the wood floor)

Elastilon is a good product and gives a very good sound-insulation. You can tell you daughter to stick to her original plan, to read to instructions that will accompany the Elastilon thoroughly and to leave wide enough expansion gaps all around, see our article on this here: Gaps! They are there for a very good reason!

Hope this helps
Wood You Like Ltd

[Chris Morritt]

Hi,i wonder if you could advise me on a little problem im going to have when i attempt to lay my homebase solid oak 12mm flooring....my subfloor is 15mm herringbone pattern parquet,over which,i have installed 9mm ply,which is all dry,level and fixed well,sadly,i have an area of around 5ft x3ft of concrete (where an old wall had been)within this parquet flooring,(i levelled it with self levelling compound,before fixing the ply to the whole room)...i was hoping to secret nail the tounges through the ply,and in to the parquet,but i wont be able to do this in the concrete section due to the tongues only being around 4mm thick plus the ply,only allows around 13mm fixing,would i be better off gluing the whole lot down instead,or would you have a cunning plan to overcome this scenario?,i would prefer to nail the whole floor,but if you advise me differently,i will take yor help on board,thank you for any help you can give.Chris

[Karin H.]

Hi Chris

Thank you for your question.
The concrete area is in my opinion a bit too large to glue the wood there and secret nail everywhere else. So my preferred option would be to glue down everything and forget about secret nailing.

Do use flexible adhesive and a notched trowel.

Hope this helps

Wood You Like Ltd
Karin Hermans

[Pauline Woodruff]

we have solid oak flooring in our dining room and into the hall, approx 12 months ago the floor started to lift (bow) by the kitchen door, the bow seems to be creeping slowly from one end of the room to the other. The flooring does not have any under lay and the fitter screwed the panels as he fitted them, he was recommended to us. What can we do to rectify this, floorings been down 2 years.