Installation tips - Installing Knotty Alder flooring , Casings, and Crown"
1. Choose the right product
2. Order it on time
3. Install it properly
4. Maintain it for life
5. Installing door/window casings and crowns
1. Choose the right product. With all the various wood flooring or wood-look
products on the market, it is no wonder the average buyer is confused. Nearly everyone
claims their product is the best, their product is the easiest to install and their
finish lasts the longest. The questions to ask yourself... What are my expectations for
a wood floor? What is my lifestyle? Do I want a contemporary look, or do I want a more formal
look? If you choose natural wood floors you need to consider a number of factors. Maintenance
is minimal. Cleaning is easy, requiring nothing more than a vacuuming and swabbing with a
wood floor applicator and cleaner. All natural wood floors will wear. The surface finish
will scratch no matter which finish you choose. Animals in the home will wear the surface
even faster. If you choose a satin or semi-gloss coating, the scratches eventually are not
noticeable as your floor develops it's own patina. Should your floor require a new finish, you
can buff it with a 200 grit screen and apply a new coating.
What about the so called water borne finishes? There are many finishes on the market that purport to be environmentally friendly in that they are water borne finishes with low voc's (volatile organic compounds). If you choose these finishes have them professionally installed. Water borne finishes designed for the weekender are one part finishes. They are not particularly durable. Professional water borne finishes are two part and require special application tech- niques.
2. Order Flooring on time.
Building a new home? Order your flooring on the day the sheet rockers arrive. Have it delivered
to the job site after you are finished painting, the home is enclosed, and the heating system is in
operation. These rules apply for natural wood floors and do not necessarily apply to engineered products
containing no wood.
3. Allow Flooring to acclimate.
When your natural wood arrives, check it's moisture content. You can usually rent or
borrow a moisture meter that will give moisture content in percent by volume. 6%? It can
not get any dryer. 8 to 10%? If you live in a wet moist climate this is perfectly fine.
If you live in the arid west, you need to dry it further. If you don't live in Florida and its
12% and more? You probably ought to send it back. If you dry flooring that is too wet to begin with, you
will get differential shrinkage, making your installation process very difficult. 1/8 inch
difference in widths is possible. Do not, under any circumstances, install your flooring
directly from it's wrapped bundle. Open all bundles and nest the flooring on the floor in
the approximate position you wish to install it. If necessary sticker it to allow moisture and temperature
acclimation.
Check the moisture content of your sub floor. It must be within 2 percent of moisture content of the wood flooring to be installed. It should be at the moisture content your subfloor will be after the heating system has been in operation.
In a general sense, never rush the installation if a natural wood floor, be it alder, oak, maple, or pine. If you install a wood floor, before the subfloor or flooring material is ready, you risk having extensive and unsightly shrinkage at a later time. Or worse yet, your floor may swell resulting in boards popping up and becoming loose .
4. Install it properly.
Use a vapor barrier underlayment if you feel it is necessary. Actually though, it is
better to solve moisture problems, before relying on a vapor barrier to keep your floor dry.
This means ventilating the crawl space or applying a water proof barrier to keep water out.
Lay out your floor to parallel the longest dimension of a room. It is usually better if the
boards are nailed at right angles to the flooring joists. However, if your subfloor is flat
and a minimum of 3/4 inch thick, you can install flooring in any direction and get good
results. You can change direction or install borders if you like, but your finishing job
will be a little more difficult because of cross grain scratching.
If your floor is not flat and is wavy, repair it first. Flooring does not bridge low spots very well. You could very well end up with squeaking problems and a spongy feel when you walk over it. There are many ways to flatten a floor. There are pourable fillers. They work but they are costly. You can shim up the low spots if you have access underneath the floor. It is even possible to hammer up the sub floor to make it level. Then nail or screw new supporting members along the original joists.
The best way to begin the nailing of a new floor is to chalk the center line of the long dimension of the room. Nail or screw down a temporary guide board. It can be any straight board. Even a 1x2. Nail the first course. If you are installing very wide boards ( over 5 inches) it is a good idea to apply a bead of wood flooring adhesive on the underneath side.
Remove the guide board. Insert a wood spline into the exposed groove. Some- times you can buy spline material from your supplier. Other times it is just as easy to saw them yourself. Now install the second course into the exposed spline. You now have two boards running the length of the room with the tongue side out. You can now nail in both directions until you get near the wall.
Be careful when you approach the wall. It is easy to damage wall board sufaces. The last few boards will have to be hand nailed. Nail through the tongue or face nail. Face nail marks are not usually noticeable if they are properly filled and placed.
Nail your boards as tightly as you can. It is normal to have a few crooked boards. It may be necessary to pry or wedge boards tight while they are being nailed. A large screw driver works, as well as driving wood shims against a temporarily screwed down block of wood.
If your flooring ends at a doorway or opening to another room, it is best to install the board ends against a transition header, i.e. a board running at right angles to the installed flooring. This header may be be tapered to adjust to different thicknesses between the wood flooring side and the other side, which may be carpet, tile, or concrete.
Now that your flooring is installed it is time to finish it. You can hire a pro- fessional to do this or you can do it yourself. If you decide to finish it yourself, rent good quality equipment, learn how to properly operate the equipment, and follow an approved sanding schedule, that is, the proper order of sanding grits and surface preparation. Newly installed wood floors generally require sanding with 36 grit paper and followed by 50 grit and 80 grit. Extremely hard woods like maple, hickory, or tropical woods may require a sanding with 120 grit. Finish sand your floor with 120 grit, preferably with sanding screens instead of sandpaper. You can use a rotary buffer, a square vibrating buffer, or a 3 disk random orbit buffer.
If your floor is well machined to close tolerances (it will be if you purchase your alder flooring from us) you may be able to eliminate sanding with a drum or belt sander. Many of our customers report good results with only a finish sanding. There are no fixed-in-stone rules here! If possible, check out other flooring installations in your area to see what you would like to your finished floor to look like.
4. Maintain it for life
There are really only two enemies of natural wood floors -- water and grit (dirt). If
you must mop the floor because it is really dirty, than wring out as much water as possible from
your mop head. Clean up any water spills as soon as possible. Use one of the many commercially
available wood floor cleaners. They do not leave water spots.
Vacuum your floor often. Take shoes off at the door if the soles are excessively dirty. No finish known to mankind can resist the scratching action of dirt. Even so called engineered floors and laminates can be damaged!
Even if your natural wood floor is abused, you can still restore it to it's orig- inal beauty. Most wood floors can be sanded several times without exposing the tongue and groove. Enjoy your natural wood floor. It's one of nature's most beautiful and renewable products!
5. Installing door/window casings and crowns
Knotty Alder door/window casings and crowns are easy to install. You may find it pref-
erable to pre-finish your moulding before installing it. It is more work to stain alder after it is
place since stain is easily transferred to your wall board. Our casings are back-reliefed to make
them easier to install if the door/window casings either jut out slightly or hang-back slightly
from the wall board. If you cannot get your casings tight to wall,carefully mark and remove the
excess sheet rock. Sometimes, only the outer paper need be removed. You can also compress the portion
sticking out by gently tapping it in with a hammer.
Crown mouldings are sometimes difficult to fit neatly into the corner of your room. They must fit
tight and cannot be caulked to cover up the cracks. On long runs,it may be best to fit the mitered
corners first. Then carefully fit the pieces that lie between the corners.It helps to have a partner
when installing crown mouldings. Make sure splices match as closely as possible taking care to note
color,grain,and knots.
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