Installing and
meeting up with hardwood floors around
stairs, or other large areas can be a
daunting task even for professionals. Strip
nail down floors will be the most difficult
because of their narrow width. In other
words, there will be more play between every
single board that meets on one side to
another side.
You may think the boards are tight and match
up on the other end, but let’s use an
example of twelve feet. In that span 64
boards that are 2 ¼ inches wide will fit.
Let’s also assume you’re a weekend warrior
type and you’ve carefully installed the
right side of the staircase and left the
other to be done later.
You finally decide, hey I’m ready to handle
the other side but I’m a little tired. I
just want to get it done. You’re also not
even thinking about it not meeting up
with the other side of the stairwell. It’s
basic math you think. You’re refreshed and
ready to have at it. Oopps, you forgot about
acclimating the other bundles that are
sitting in the garage. What harm will it do
you’re asking yourself, my wife wants it
done and that’s all there is to it.
In one months time that hardwood sitting in
the garage could have more moisture content
than the installed floor because the home
has not been exposed to the same conditions.
You are actually installing boards that are
wider! It may not look like it on the tape
measure unless you had a micrometer. Each
individual board may have expanded by 1/124
th of one inch. Its doesn’t sound like much
does it?
It doesn’t until you reach the other side.
Now you’ve met up with the hardwood from the
right side, but yikes there’s a difference
of almost ½ inch. What the devil do I do
now? There are two ways to balance it out,
besides removing and starting over. The most
simple method is to settle with a threshold
or saddle that will hide the mismatch. The
other is rip cutting and installing a ½ inch
wide board on the right side so it meets up
with the left.
The Correct Method
As shown in our
illustration installing around a staircase,
control lines must be used. These are chalk
lines that have been used from the
start when squaring up the layout. Work from
both sides and measure from the last board
installed to the control line every six or
eight boards (just a number). If one one
measurement is off a little, spacers can be
used to offset the difference.
Spacers can be anything that can be removed
easily after nailing. Some installers use
washers, or the plastic wraps from cardboard
boxes. Do not use anything that cannot be
removed or easily ripped; it may become a
permanent fixture to your floor. Spacers
should not be removed until you move further
ahead as adjacent nailing or stapling can
close up the gaps if they’re removed too
soon.
Another time your layout may run off is
having two people nail from two different
sides at the same time. With pneumatic
staplers or nailers this rarely happens
because the actual force used to fasten is
the same, providing the air pressure is set
at the same level. Conversely using manual
nailers/staplers, the strength of one over
the other may be different. The guy doing
the right may be getting the boards tighter
than the guy on the other side. Switch off
every five or six rows so it becomes
balanced.
Keep Your Rows
Straight
Nailed or stapled
floors are more susceptible to running out
of alignment than others. Thinner strip
floors will
be more noticeable due to their narrow width
if the alignment runs out of square. You'll
notice this when it comes to the last board
at the opposing parallel wall if you haven't
kept an eye on it. Use a string or chalk
line and check row straightness of the
installation from time to time.
Glue Down Floors
Glue down floors can
also run out of line. Often what may happen
is you've started and stopped the
installation several times, taken a break,
left it go for two weeks etc. Maybe an area
was walked on too soon, boards separate and
the adhesive cures; gaps open up.
Floating Floors
Keeping floating
floors aligned while having a control line
is not as easy. Don't cover any lines until
you reach the areas with
underlayment. It's necessary to keep the
alignment square. Older style floating
floors will be easier to keep
straight
because they are milled tightly and much
wider, providing the first 3 or four rows
are dead on straight. Put another way, they
do not have much room for error. Boards have
to go in perfect or additional boards
installed will show gaps as you progress
further into the job. They are not as
flexible or forgiving as random length
hardwoods.
When starting a
floating installation it is sometimes
difficult to keep the floor from not moving.
Once more rows are in place the overall
weight of the floor will keep it from
shifting, but get those wedges (against base
or drywall) in place and make sure they stay
there.
More About Spacers
Spacers are more
difficult to use with engineered floors as
the boards are more fragile before the
installation. They should not be used with
thinner prefinished engineered flooring
unless you are extremely careful. Often when
they are removed, some of the board edges
get chipped. For solid hardwoods, spacers
should only be placed above the tongue and
groove area. If they are wedged below you
are likely to have permanent spacers. |
