Which is Easiest? DIY Hardwood Floors

Folks if you're looking at hardwood floors, consider a professional for the work. However, for those that are determined, we've summarized the different types of installations, their difficulty factor and what aching parts of the body you're likely to encounter. For all types expect a sore back.

Hardest Types- 2 1/4" Solid Strip Hardwood

The hardest or the most physical type would be 3/4" x 2 1/4" solid strip nail or staple installations. As an example, narrower boards of 2 1/4" will take more time installing than a 5" plank. Work load is doubled. If you follow the proper specifications for naildowns (also called staple) and fasten every 6-8" on each board it's obvious the skinnier boards will take longer. Thanks goodness we now have pneumatic fasteners for hardwood floors. If you're contemplating on which tool to buy or rent, manual or pneumatic, take our advice and go for the pneumatic and don't look back.

The days I spent in this business of manually nailing hardwood floors with a Powernailer or similar tool are behind me and all I can say is good riddens. Manual nailers require an immense about of physical exertion.

Hey, don't get me wrong, if you want to lose some weight on that 1,000 square foot installation, by all means go for it.  If you're not in good shape, expect many sore muscles you never knew you had. Another thing about manual nailers is some people don't have the strength to get that that flooring nail home in one whack. Instead it gets stuck halfway into the tongue and has to be removed. This is especially true with many of the harder species out there. Pneumatic systems do all the work. Simply tap the plunger (shown right) with the mallet and that's it.

I can't say it's all preaches and cream once you have the right tools. Depending on the quality of the product, some boards may need persuasion (crooked, twisted, bowed) to get into place before fastening. What may have been the best price in town or on the web may become an installation nightmare. This is where the soft white or black rubber part of the mallet comes into play. In most cases the Stanley Bostich stapler shown above will drive boards tight once the fastener is engaged; others may require constant pounding with the rubber mallet.

Poorly milled hardwoods will be more labor intensive. Crooked boards do not fit as well as a straight ones and requires constant alignment with the rubber side of the mallet shown above.

Not So Hard But High On The List Of Failures - Glue Downs

Across many pages on our site you will notice we do not recommend gluedown installations for folks wanting to do the work themselves. Consider a professional with the experience on this one. There's a lot of hands and knees work. Gluedowns can also get extremely messy with some of the adhesives being used today. Consider it this way; when urethane based adhesives first came into play in the mid 90's my first job was a mess...umm...well I made a mess. Thank goodness it wasn't a prefinished hardwood floor! It was a specialty unfinished gluedown that would be sanded and finished once the installation was completed. The sanding machines took care of the excess glue.

Having been more familiar with the other adhesives (which are now banned by the EPA) that weren't as gooey, I had the stuff everywhere and considered myself a pretty clean worker. At that time, few if any of us, knew how difficult urethane adhesives were to remove once cured on the surface of the floor. Often a warning comes with these types, clearly visible on the top of each container. With prefinished floors that are not thoroughly cleaned at the end of each day the cleanup chore can be another nightmare. I've even heard of a few cases where cleanup was next to impossible. Replacement of the brand new floor was the only option.

Expect aching knees and fingers with gluedowns. Once again, if the product is not milled well, you're likely to be fighting it all day long. Hence the reason for sore fingers trying to pull the planks together. We have many tips on keeping that installation tight on our gluedown tips pages.

Easiest DIY Product - Lock and Fold

It is as simple as it sounds! I really don't think it can get any easier. The lock and fold idea simply goes as easy as placing a board on the subfloor, grabbing another piece, engage the tongue and groove and move  to the next board. The locking takes place when additional boards are in reality folded over the other. Check the lock and fold video Mirage Hardwood Floors has on YouTube. 

Floating Floors -  Glued

Floating glued type hardwood floors will require more time than lock and fold if they're wide plank. You'll be on your hands and knees all day long and always reaching in dozens of different positions for that hammer and tapping block. With a glued type floating floor you'll probably do just as I do and leave the glue bottle and cleanup rag more than an arms reach away. Good exercise yes, but this type goes much quicker than naildowns or direct gluedowns.

At one time manufacturers rarely had products under seven inches in width designated for floating. The DIY explosion and competition seemingly forced many into allowing more common three and five inch boards to be installed via the glue and tap method. Why the sudden switch when these same products would not be warranted previously with the glue method is beyond anyone's guess. 

Now that many common three inch engineered planks can be floated, time involved will increase dramatically opposed to the wide plank. The fundamental reason is you'll be dealing with random sized lengths, and in some cases product lines that have many shorter pieces. Older style floating types are still around but often utilize much longer set lengths; some up to 96 inches.

Look for more lock and fold variations to be used in coming years.

Floating Floors -  Click

Click type floating floors were advertised as a breeze, but we feel otherwise. Sure the advertising makes it sound simple, but the thicker the product the harder it becomes to actually make it click. Easy click floors can be found with thinner laminate floors. Click hardwood installations require more effort and do require tapping blocks. Advantages to click include a no glue, no mess installation and many offer the older longer lengths.

Other Types Of Hardwood Floors

Parquet

Although it has fallen out of favor considerably over the last 15 years parquet still remains a favorite amongst those that buy from the big home centers. Price being the determining factor of choice, these types are still prone to the high failure rate as other more common gluedowns. However the ease of installation ranks below floating floors. Several major manufacturers have discontinued the production of parquet over the years due to their declining popularity. On the other hand, high end parquet patterns are popular with the more discriminating buyers.

Herringbone

Another favorite amongst the more discriminating buyer crowd. These installations can be intimidating in that layout and alignment is critical and should only be considered by experienced professionals. Herringbone is often glued direct, but some are installed by the nail or staple method to wood subfloors.

Other Things To Consider

What does the layout look like? If you have only a couple of square rooms the installation is straight forward. However, if the flooring runs into other areas such as hallways, other rooms, and closets more time is needed for proper layout to insure everything stays square and remains square. There's nothing worse than looking at a great installation only to find it's crooked in all the other rooms, or there are moldings everywhere.

Speaking of moldings. The more preferred appearance is one with the fewest amount of t-moldings or other unnecessary trim pieces. Laminate flooring has exaggerated the use of these products and aren't necessary for most hardwood installations, with floating floors being the exception in large layouts. The preference is to have the flooring flow from one area to another.