Preparing and Choosing Your Flooring

First, make sure you prepare properly before starting the project. You need to measure the room carefully, making sure to include closets and foyers if you have them. Choose a floor color that will compliment the overall decor of your home, and shop around for the best price. Purchase enough flooring to finish your project, plus an extra 20%, to insure that you have enough flooring to complete the job properly. Because of the way the boards get cut, you might need more flooring than the room measurements indicate. If you are laying the floor in an already finished room, you will need to use a dovetail saw to trim any door casings. You also need to make sure the room is clean by vacuuming carefully, since you don't want to have any pieces of debris end up getting trapped under your completed floor.

Underlayment

Next, you will be putting down the underlayment. Roll it out, trimming with a utility knife as you go along. You can hold the separate pieces of underlayment together with some duct tape to make the job easier.

Getting Started

Then, choose a wall as your starting point, and put down your spacers. Spacers will make sure that your floor doesn't buckle if it expands. Put the first plank against the spacer, making sure that the tongue faces out. Lay the first row of flooring, ending with a spacer, and cut the final flooring board to fit. If the piece you cut off to fit the final board is longer than eight inches, you can start the next row with this piece, making sure to start the row with another spacer. You will be staggering the boards in this fashion for the rest of the job, always starting and ending the row with a spacer piece next to the wall.

Some Floating Floors Require Glue

If you are laying a floating floor that requires gluing, put the glue in the groove of each flooring board, and then slide the board up against the previous row. Using a wooden block to protect the flooring board, tap it gently with a hammer. If some glue oozes out, wipe this excess off as you go along. If you reach any doorways, remember that you must make the flooring fit inside the doorway by notching it.

Finishing Up

Continue in this fashion until you reach the final row. Measure the required width of the final board, and fit it into position, using a pry bar and block and hammer if necessary.

A floating floor should dry for at least 12 hours, to make sure all the boards have set and that the glue dries properly. After everything is dry, you can replace your floor molding and door thresholds, and enjoy your new floor.

About the author

Senior staff writer Jessica Ackerman of WallDecorandHomeAccents.com, writes award-winning “How To" articles on candle scones online and wall art for the home.