Hardwood flooring installation

Robar Hardwood Flooring provides hardwood flooring installation services for clients in Toronto, Mississauga and GTA.

Before any hardwood flooring installation, or laying any hardwood floor it is recommended to let the material become acclimated to the conditions of the house. Ideally the hardwood flooring should be ordered a few days in advance before the installation and spread in the room in which it is to be laid.

Hardwood floor is laid over a level, clean board or plywood sub-floor. The sub-floor needs to be well inspected. Any dips should be repaired by shimming between the floor joists and the sub-floor. Loose boards should be nailed or replaced, raised edges should be levelled and any openings filled. Over a sub-floor a layer of building paper is laid to make the floor draft-tight. This layer can also help exclude moisture from below and smooth out slight irregularities in the sub-flooring. A plank hardwood floor should not be laid directly on top of a concrete slab. For this kind of hardwood flooring installation a layer of plywood needs to be installed first.

Plank Floor

Hardwood strips are laid perpendicular to the floor joists or wood sleepers. If an existing board sub-floor has been laid perpendicular to the joist the planks need to be laid across the grain of the strips.

Since hardwood expands and contracts with changes in humidity, a 1/2” gap is left between the hardwood flooring and the wall around the perimeter of the room. This gap is more critical parallel to the floor boards since wood will expand and contract more across its grain or across the width of the strips.

The first hardwood strip is placed 1/2” from the wall with the grove edge facing the wall. It is face nailed close enough to the grooved edge so that the nails can be concealed by the base and the quarter-round. All other nails go through the tongue at 45 degree angle every 10 to 12 inches. As the floor is laid, the lengths of planks are selected so that end joints are well staggered and at least 6” apart from each other. The last strip is face nailed just like the first strip. The expansion gap is covered by baseboard and quarter-round (see diagrams).

Most hardwood flooring installations require transition and finishing trims:

Reducer

Hardwood Flooring Reducer

 

Hardwood flooring reducer used as a transition from a wood floor to a thinner floor, such as vinyl. Also works to trim out the edge of fireplace or to camouflage a sliding door track. The edge that leads to the lower floor may be either square or rounded. The edge that faces into the room may either overlay the floor or flush with it. (see diagrams).

T-Cap Reducer This type of reducer is a transition between floors of different heights. One side cover the wood floor, the other covers ceramic tile, laminate wood or other flooring. See diagram.
Stair Nosing Stairs, though not necessary with prefabricated treads. It is also good for trimming the edges of a floor that sits slightly above another floor.
Threshold Is used where floors end in doorways.

 

Other Samples of Hardwood Flooring Instalation:

Parquet Floor		Parquet Floor		Engineered Floor
Engineered Floor		Floating or Laminated Floor		Baseboard and 1/4-round