Hiring a Professional To Install Hardwood Floors

If you are one of those handy housemen who doubt your ability to drive a thumbtack in a cardboard box then you may need to seriously consider hiring a professional for hardwood floor installation rather than relying upon sheer luck and expectations to complete the task.

Do not even trouble yourself with visiting the neighborhood hardware store to get some kit that guarantees to teach any novice hard wood floor installer the art of this craft. Installing hardwood floors needs some basic skills, however equally requires knowledge and experience in the craft. If you have never used a basic handsaw, then it is advisable that you contact a hardwood floor installation expert.

Frequently, when men or even some women try to do things like installing ceramic tiles or hardwood floors, they rarely take into consideration the post hardwood floor installation requirements. You want to ensure that your floor is level before installing hardwood floors because an uneven floor may cause unwanted problems.

Have you ever remove a carpet and found concrete under it instead of wood? Sub flooring requires installing a layer of wood above the concrete to be able to level out the floor before actually installing your new wood floor. That concrete is actually the primary slab that is often referred to as the foundation, but not all foundations are level. Without proper leveling of the foundation, the entire floor could possibly bulge downward.

The majority of older homes experience this problem, so if your home is pushing 30 to 40 years of living then it is recommended that you seek professional help with installing a hardwood floor. If you have been living in your home for over thirty years, there is a strong possibility you are pushing sixty years old yourself which is even more of a reason to hire an expert to install your hardwood floor.

To put it briefly, a professional hardwood floor installation requires skilled and well-trained craftsmen particularly if the only form of manual labor you have experienced is moving furniture. Furthermore, keep in mind that there are other options besides a hardwood floor.

Consider installing carpet or ceramic tiles if a hardwood floor is out of the question. Installing linoleum floors is considered to be lot easy over sub flooring and some say installing ceramic tiles is quite simple on level foundation. 

Take some time and think again what you may be undertaking. Seriously consider hiring a professional hardwood floor installer instead of wasting your time and money on a craft you have no experience in. It will definitely be worth your while. Visit your favorite search engine online, and a professional hardwood floor installer will be on his way in no time.

If you want to know more about floor installation, visit us in Wood Floor Planet NJ.

DIY Installation for Cork Flooring

Cork flooring is an excellent alternative if you want to go for an eco-friendly choice that is comfortable, cuts your time and efforts by being an excellent insulator and looks fabulous. Cork flooring installation is a fairly easy job and comes in two types. You can choose the glue-down or the floating floor installation. Here is a quick summary of both, before we go into the general steps involved in installing your cork floor:

Gluing Down Your Cork Floor

A good way to install a cork floor is to glue it down with adhesive. This must be done over a clean sub-floor like hardwood. The material cost remains low but the expense of installation costs a lot. The drawback with this is that if a tile gets broken and must be repaired, it is very difficult.

Installing A Floating Floor

Floating floors are very popular because they are much simpler to install. Here the cork planks are ready to interlock with one another. They are also easy to install on an existing floor like vinyl, wood or ceramic. The sub floor where a floating cork floor is installed must be even and dry.

Steps in Cork Floor Installation

Cork floor tiles often come as 12-inch squares. The surface on which these tiles should be installed must be prepared in advance. This surface needs to be cleaned, dried and absolutely even.

If the sub floor is concrete it is advisable to repair any gaps, cracks and damages. You will need to make sure the concrete is dry. The doorframe must be cut to size to ensure the cork tiles fit under them. Check if the concrete is dry and level to make sure that the cork tiles look smooth right after it is fixed. If it is glue down installation, the concrete should have a layer of primer and dried before the glue is applied.

If the installation is on wood, uneven areas need to be leveled. The base has to be dry. For sub floors that are over the crawlspace, a waterproof sheet must be applied to cover the ground under it. After adjusting the size of the doorframes, the cork tiles can now be installed. If there are issues on the floor, they will show up on the cork surface, so the sub floor must be completely smooth and level.

Before you decide to fix the cork tiles, they must go through a process of acclimatization for at least a couple of days, where they are exposed to the normal room temperature.

Cork tiles come with different types of design and shade. So when you get the tiles, after acclimatizing them, choose the ones that look the most attractive to you. The adhesive must be applied carefully and allowed to dry, according to manufacturer's instructions. As each cork tile is fixed, enough pressure must be applied over the tile so that when you are done fixing all the tiles, it must look totally level and smooth. Before the sealer is applied, the floor must be rolled. Based on where you live, the floor could take a day in order for it to dry. After the installation is finished, polyurethane cleaner is used to clean the floor.

Things to Consider When Installing Hardwood Floors

If you are going to use standard hardwood flooring, you should put down a sub-floor first to protect the hardwood flooring. This will enable you to have hardwood floor installation over things like hard floors (which mean concrete slabs) or over pre-existing floors and will also provide a layer of insulation against moisture. If you do not want that kind of work, you can choose an alternate type of flooring that will allow you to lay the floor down directly on those substances.

When you are trying to install hardwood floor in an area that has a lot of moisture, you must really avoid solid hardwood flooring and use one of the alternatives. If the area does not have a lot of moisture, you can install wood floors, but you have to use an engineered floor instead of a solid floor. This can endure to relatively low levels of moisture without being damaged.

If your hardwood floor installation will most likely be in an area such as the bathroom or kitchen that is vulnerable to a lot of spills, even the engineered floor may not be a good option. If you are putting your flooring down in this area, you may want to consider using something that can deal with water on a regular basis. Your choice for this would be laminate hardwood flooring. Even though it is not really a wooden floor, but it will give you the appearance and durability that you need.

With regards to installing hardwood floors, if you are going to do it yourself, there are some things that you will need to ensure you. The first is the actual detailed work which is involved once you finish putting the floor down. It all starts with sanding down the floor to get rid of the rough spots from the wood filler that may be used to cover the nails and to also soften the entire floor.

After that, you are going to possibly stain and finish the floor. This can be a very tedious task; however is also a time that the floor itself is unusable. For those who have children or pets, you may want to get them out of the house until the finish dries to make sure that they do not mess it up.

Hardwood floor installation is a task that you can do yourself, but may be something that you want to consider contracting out. If you are going to take on the task yourself, be sure you are educated on the installation process and that you can handle all of the tasks at hand in order for you to not ruin the pieces.

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