The beauty of a classic wood floor can be yours and can be easily installed by a certified Flooring America installation expert to transform the look of your room. Hardwood strip floors always requires nailing or stapling to a wood subfloor. Other types of wood flooring, such as parquets and engineered wood floors, can actually be glued down.
The first step is to choose the flooring. A typical wood floor consists of solid strips of wood, one-half inch thick, with tongue-and-groove joints along the edges. These joints keep the surface of each board flush with the one next to it. In addition, this construction allows for the nails to be driven through the tongue portion, which is then concealed with the groove from the next strip of flooring. Oak strip flooring is the most popular choice, but other species such as maple, walnut, cherry, hickory and even bamboo can add a distinctive look to your room.
Most strip flooring is available in 2 1/4-inch or 3 1/4-inch widths, and sold in bundles of approximately 22 square feet. You can purchase it either unfinished or prefinished with stain and urethane varnish already applied. Though the cost of prefinished flooring is higher, we recommend prefinished hardwood to eliminate the time, hassle and expense of sanding and varnishing your newly installed floors.
As a general design tip, strips of wood flooring should run in the longer direction of the room because this makes the room look bigger. Furthermore, alternating the wood strips’ length offer a more natural appearance. Longer pieces of flooring will be installed near doorways and entryways, while shorter pieces will be alternately placed throughout the middle of the floor. In all cases, never end a row of flooring with a piece less than a foot long. Instead, measure for two midsize pieces to complete that particular row.
Flooring America offers a full listing of hardwood flooring options and guranateed installation services by our flooring installation experts! Contact us today to select your new flooring!
