Wood Floor Installation

Hundreds of our Q&A on wood flooring installation.

Humidity from below or bad milling / installation causing overwood? 1 Answer

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Can humidity in subfloor cause overwood? Or is it installation issues?

Q: Can humidity in subfloor cause overwood? Or is it installation issues? I have several examples in my newly installed floor, plus several cracked boards. Some of the tongues at install were observed to be severely fractured, with multiple staples piled on top of each other. Also, the incorrect fasteners may have been used.

The contractor is blaming subfloor/basement humidity (floor is on first level above the basement), but I think it is a bad installation.

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Gluing a transition on a concrete slab

Q: We’re installing flooring on a concrete slab. We need a transition for uneven heights between ceramic tile and wood plank flooring. We would like the transitions to be glued.

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Installing hardwood in adjoining room in the opposite direction

Q: We have a hardwood kitchen floor that runs one way and we want to put a hardwood floor in the family room next to it. To match the rest of the house the new family room floor will run the opposite direction of the kitchen floor. How bad will that look?

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Installing hardwood or laminate on top of a parquet floor

Q: In our lounge, dining room and hall we have hardwood parquet floors. The floors were installed when the house was built circa 1962. We have lived in the house for over 30 years and to the best of our knowledge all the above have been carpeted for decades. The parquet floor appears well adhered to the substructure, but there are sizeable gaps. We have been strongly advised not to put a solid wooden floor or a laminated floor on top of the existing parquet floor. Should we accept this advice and if not are there any things we should be aware of?

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Cleaning up grimy reclaimed wood (and not using a power washer!)

Q: I reclaimed 500 square ft of Douglas fir from an abandoned building. It has black grime in the tongue and groove. I’ve tried numerous tools and the best thing I have found so far is a toothbrush and elbow grease! Can I power wash it? If not, what do you suggest?

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Can smell the tar paper left under new floor

Q: I removed two layers of vinyl flooring in my kitchen of an old house built in the 50’s. Only thing left was tar paper from long ago before exposing 1×6 wood planks. Rather than scraping the tar paper off, I had a wood flooring company install a new laminated wood floor right over top of the tar paper. However, my problem is I smell the tar paper (petroleum type smell) in the kitchen even though the new floor is laid. Will this smell dissipate over time?

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Squeaking due to particleboard subfloor

Q: My floors are squeaking badly, so I removed the carpet that was in my hallway and the tile that was laid down in the front foyer area just inside the front door, and I also removed the second layer of subfloor (which believe it or not was simply particle board) someone had nailed on top of the original subfloor before they laid both the carpet and the tile. I’m now down to the actual subfloor. The house was built in 1967. I’ve gone and purchased screws and screwed it into the joists every 6 inches and the thing is still squeaking badly.

Does this mean I have to rip up the original subfloor and replace that? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

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