How to Start Wood Floors
- 1). Roll paper underlayment out over the whole floor, slightly overlapping courses. Secure it with a stapler.
- 2). Make two pencil marks half an inch out from the wall at either end of the edge of the floor where you want to start (usually the longest unobstructed wall in the room).
- 3). Stretch your chalk snapline between the two marks and snap it, to lay a line running the length of the floor and sitting half an inch out from the wall. Repeat the process along the opposite edge of the floor.
- 4). Measure across the room, between the two lines. Divide the measurement by the width of your floorboards, to figure out how many courses of board there will be and, and how much space is leftover at the end. So if the distance between the lines is 163 inches, and your boards are three inches wide, then you can lay 54 whole boards totaling 162 inches, leaving one more inch of space to fill.
- 5). Add that amount of leftover space to the width of a full board, which in this example will give you four inches. Divide that number by two, to get the right widths for the first and last boards (two inches, in this example).
- 6). Use a table saw to length-cut the boards of the first course to the starting width you've come up with, cutting off the grooved sides. Lay the boards on the line, with the cut sides facing the wall and sitting half an inch from it. Link them together end-to-end using their tongue and groove fittings. Secure them with your floor nailer, shooting pairs of nails every foot or so. Cut the final board in the course on a miter saw.
- 7). Set the rest of your courses in place, building across the floor. Cut the boards of the last course lengthwise, at the same width as before, but take off the tongue side instead of the grooved side. The half-inch spaces by the walls will be covered with floor trim.
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