Tips for Installing DIY Hardwood Floors

From tearing up the old carpeting to a satisfying set of before/after photos, I’m going to share our best tips for installing DIY hardwood floors!  After we purchased the townhouse, the first thing we did was run to Home Depot to order hardwood flooring.  The main floor already had maple hardwood in the living room and dining room, so we tried to match that:

How Long Does it Take to Install Hardwood Flooring Yourself?

We had to wait about 6 weeks for the flooring to come in so, if you are planning this project, you may have to wait for the materials to get shipped.  My husband and father-in-law installed approximately 600 square feet (plus a staircase) of hardwood flooring in a few days, with both of them working all day long.  Luckily, they had both installed flooring previously at my sister-in-law’s house so they had previous experience installing hardwood flooring.

How Much Does it Cost to Install Hardwood Flooring Yourself?

Price for hardwood flooring will vary a LOT, depending on quality, wood species, etc.  Installing it ourselves, the maple hardwood flooring still took a huge chunk of our reno budget: just over $4000 for 600 square feet plus one staircase, when the dust settled (in 2009).  Take into consideration that you may need to purchase underlayment, rent tools, etc., and that will add to the cost beyond the hardwood flooring planks themselves.

Tips for Purchasing/Ordering your Flooring:

1. Have your calculations done before you even begin looking at flooring and ask the salesperson to double check your figures—don’t rely on that person to do all the math for you.
2. If you haven’t done flooring before, consider 15% extra (as opposed to 10%) to account for mistakes cutting – especially if your hardwood is a special order.
3. When you order your wood, ask for a copy of the guarantee and the instructions.  We didn’t ask for it ahead of time and were scrambling last minute for the proper underlay we didn’t know we needed and wasted an entire day.
4. Ask about the return policy – you might have to pay a restocking fee for returning unopened boxes, but it’s helpful to be able to return unused boxes.
5. Double check your entire order before taking your boxes of hardwood home—we almost left the store with 12 fewer boxes than we ordered!

Townhouse Before – Carpeted Bedrooms + Stairs:

Although the main floor was a mix of tile and maple hardwood flooring, the stairs and upper bedrooms were a mix of old, rippled carpeting in blue and grey.

Removing Trim + Ripping Up the Old Carpet:

The first thing we did was remove the old trim and rip up the old carpet and underlayment.  That was the easy part!  Then it took days to remove all of the staples…

Tips for Getting Started Installing Hardwood Floors:

1. If you live in a townhouse/condo/duplex – let your neighbors know—this is LOUD work!
2. Make sure you allow the wood to acclimatize as per the manufacturer’s instructions (that’s why it is wise to get the instructions ahead of time, so you can plan your schedule accordingly).
3. Don’t stack in one GIANT pile because it might be too much weight for the subfloor (depending on the size of your project), so spread the boxes in a number of rooms if possible.
4. Allow for some “wiggle” room in your schedule—it took an entire day to pick up the flooring, rent the tools, find the underlay, etc., and we didn’t account for this time in our schedule.
5. Make sure the subfloor is clean, level, and free of nails and staples.
6. Start doing some measuring and figuring before you cut a single piece—plan the project: where to start, trouble areas, etc.
7. My husband and father-in-law started at the stairs (which were also stripped of carpet in exchange for hardwood) because the house isn’t square and they didn’t want the top of the stairs to showcase the crookedness – it’s best to hide that in closets or outer edges of a room where it’s hidden by furniture, window coverings, and baseboards.
8. I asked them to do the guestroom last because in case we ran out of flooring, it would be an underused room that stayed unfinished (not our bedroom or the office).

Tips: Make Adjustments to Doors/Trim Before Installing Hardwood Floors:

Depending on the height of the flooring you have before installing hardwood flooring, you may need to make room under the door frames – even the doors themselves – to account for the thickness of the new flooring.  Measure and do this before installing the flooring, so you don’t need to worry about gauging the new hardwood.  As a side note, if you’re doing a BIG renovation like us, it is also nice to do all of the painting before installing the wood floors as well.

How to Install Hardwood on Stairs:

We used 1/4″ maple plywood for the stair risers.  Before installing, we applied a few coats of varnish.  They were affixed with construction adhesive and then air nailed along the top and bottom (which was hidden by the stair tread and hardwood planks).  Then the stair treads (also purchased from the Home Depot) were installed, with the same hardwood flooring installed behind each riser on the step.  After completing the top step, my husband and father-in-law continued with installing the hardwood floors from there, moving backward, away from the stairwell, into the bedrooms and closets.  Then they went back and finished the stairs.

Tips for Installing Hardwood Flooring:

• Lay your hardwood across the joists – I wanted it the other direction, but it isn’t as structurally sound going in the same direction as the joists.
• If you have more than one person working, rent two floor nailers for the days that you are working on a simpler, wide open space with few cuts—it will really speed up the process.
• It’s dusty, but setting up your circular saw in the space – as opposed to outside/in the garage – will save SO much time.
• You may need to trim door frames and doors, depending on the thickness of the previous flooring.
• Look at each piece of wood carefully and pull from a number of different boxes at a time, so you don’t end up with a darker room and light room and some random piece in the middle.
• Don’t rush—it can be very difficult to fix mistakes once the planks are installed.

Tip to Protect New Hardwood Floors During Installation:

I thought this was genius: as my father in law and husband worked, they kept one room for cutting.  To protect the brand new hardwood floors they installed, they covered the floors with the empty boxes from the hardwood floor planks!

Tip: Make Sure You Get the Right Transition!

There are different kinds of transitions, for different applications.  Because the vinyl bathroom floor we installed is a bit lower, we needed a threshold but we accidentally bought a reducer.  Depending on adjacent flooring heights/types you will need to research the correct threshold for your application.

Here is the correct transition in place:

DIY Hardwood Floors After:

Here are a couple of photos we took right after installing the hardwood floors:

And once we decorated a bit more, I snapped some additional photos of our new house and they show off the DIY hardwood floors:

I hope these tips for installing DIY hardwood floors will be helpful!  I didn’t include instructions or a detailed tutorial, because the installation method will be determined by the type/brand of hardwood flooring you purchase.  These tips for installing hardwood floors should be helpful for a broad range of applications and will help you from wasting time or making expensive mistakes.