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Pre-Finished Hardwood Flooring
I liked your discussion on flooring.
After reading the pros and cons of different flooring types I have decided
on a hardwood floor for a room in my house. However, I have heard
installing hardwood flooring is a ton of work and shouldn't be tackled by
a do it yourself-er who has a full time job. What about pre-finished real
hardwood flooring, do you have any experience with them, can they be
installed successfully by a do it yourself-er?
Thanks
Steve K.
| Read the Update
at the end of the reply. |
I've
never installed pre-finished hardwood flooring, but I've seen the end
results of similar products.
One client a few years ago installed unfinished hardwood flooring
that needed no sanding. The way the manufacturer accomplishes this is by
milling a small bevel around the edges of each piece of flooring, just
as marble floor tiles have a bevel all around. If neighboring pieces of
flooring have slightly different heights, you don't notice it because of
the bevel. This particular client finished the floor himself with plain
old Minwax polyurethane. Applying urethane is the least difficult step
in the flooring process. You just need to be meticulous about keeping
the room clean.
I don't think that installing a conventional hardwood floor is that
difficult when you are working full time, it's just that the room(s)
will need to be vacated for the duration. Two people working quickly can
probably install 200 square feet of boards in a long day. Sanding that
amount will take perhaps 6-8 hours, from my experience, and a helper can
do the edge sanding. Applying a coat of urethane will take perhaps 2
hours, but you'll need 3 coats, and a light scuff-sanding is necessary
between coats.
According to Walker's Pocket Estimator, a contractor's guide for
estimating labor costs, laying 100 square feet of 2¼" wide
hardwood flooring should take a carpenter 3.8 hours and an added 0.6
hours of labor from a helper. My experience is that it takes perhaps
twice as much total labor if you want to maintain an attractively random
pattern and keep the joints tight. They claim that a good machine and
operator can sand and edge 800 to 900 square feet of floor in an 8 hour
day. Good luck! They also say an experienced worker can apply about
1,000 square feet of finish in an 8 hour day, which sounds about right.
You could install about 400 square feet of floor one weekend and sand it
the next weekend, and then finish it over three evenings. The hardest
part for some folks is finding a place to park their furniture and
keeping people off the job site. After a floor is sanded you don't want
anybody walking on it with dark-soled shoes, or you may have marks on
the wood that won't come off.
Right now we are in the midst of a hardwood flooring job. We installed
the boards last week with a rented pneumatic 2" flooring stapler,
and this week we will be sanding the floor.
Sanding hardwood is perhaps the hardest part. The first floor we laid
worked out well, but there are some very slight waves in the sanding,
waves that could not be seen until the urethane was applied. Sanding
makes a lot of dust, so keeping the place ventilated properly and
covering the furniture with drop cloths will help.
As long as the hardwood flooring you are installing has a good hardwood
top layer, it should work well. But beware, there are some pre-finished
hardwood floors that have a very thin veneer of real hardwood over a
plywood substrate. These won't last, can't be re-sanded, and the veneer
may peel up.
If you can find a solid wood floor supplier that mills the bevels around
the edges, I'd go for that. I encourage you to look beyond Home Depot
and Lowes... there are many flooring retailers. We bought our wood from
a small mill in our area.
I had never done a hardwood floor until two years ago. I have no special
training. I just read some articles from Fine Homebuilding's Builders
Library. I'm quite pleased with the results. The worst part was carrying
that mammoth drum sander up the stairs!
Bruce W. Maki, Editor.
| Update, 2005:
Since I wrote this reply in 2001 I
have installed pre-finished hardwood flooring in 3 rooms. Two rooms
were thin 5/16" red oak flooring, and the other room, a
kitchen, was conventional 3/4" thick maple.
Pre-finished hardwood flooring
installs just like regular unfinished flooring, but when you are
done fastening the boards the floor is done. Extra caution
needs to be taken while installing the flooring because there won't
be a chance to sand out any marks or shallow dings. And since the
last few rows of boards need to be face-nailed, the nail holes need
to be filled with a wax color crayon.
In short, pre-finished hardwood
flooring is a great product and it saves the worst step... sanding. |
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