How to Install Floating Engineered Hardwood
- 1). With your hammer and pry bar, gently remove all floor trim from the room. Don't break it. Tap the nails out with your hammer and set the trim aside.
- 2). Roll out your foam underlayment across the floor next to the longest wall in the room. Cut it to fit at the end with your razor knife. Lay the second row right next to the first, taping the seam together with a long strip of plastic tape. Repeat and continue until the entire floor is covered.
- 3). Lay your first tongue-and-groove floorboard along the longest wall in the room, with the ``groove'' side facing the wall and the ``tongue'' side facing out into the room. Set it so the edge of the board is about 3/8 of an inch from the wall, leaving a gap. (This will allow the floor to expand with moisture variations.)
- 4). Clip additional boards at the ends of the first one, laying them in the same manner. Use your miter saw to cut the end pieces, leaving a 3/8-inch gap at the wall for each one.
- 5). Lay the next course of flooring by clipping the tongue-and-groove sides together and working your way across the floor. Cut the end pieces as needed. Lay planks across the entire floor to the other side. If necessary, use a table saw to cut the final boards lengthwise so they fit correctly in front of the wall.
- 6). Re-install your floor trim, using your trim nailer. The trim should cover up the expansion gaps by the walls. Make sure the nails go through the wall and not through the new floor.
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