How to Replace Wood Floors

Repairing and refinishing an old wood floor is almost always preferable to replacing it. If your old plank floor is rotting or otherwise beyond repair, view it as an opportunity to install a new version of the old classic. New flooring is installed using specially designed floor nailers that drive in the nails with air pressure that's triggered by the swing of a mallet (to press the planks as tightly together as possible as the nail is driven in). Don't forget to make disposal arrangements for all the ripped out floor that you'll have on your hands.

Things You'll Need

• Hammer
• Flatbar
• Flooring felt
• Stapler
• New tongue-and-groove flooring
• Miter saw
• Drill
• Pilot bit
• Screw bit
• Wood screws
• Rented floor nailer with mallet and compressor
• Nail strips for the nailer

Instructions

1. With your hammer and flatbar, remove all the floor trim in the room. Remove the old floor by wedging the flatbar under the planks and prying them up and out. Carefully go over the subfloor in sections, pulling up any stray flooring nails or other obstructions that remain.

2. Roll out your flooring felt in overlapping rows throughout the room, stapling it every few feet.

3. Starting one-half inch out from one wall, lay your first four courses of new flooring planks by hand. Position the planks so the tongue side faces out into the room. Drill pilot holes and drive in wood screws every foot or so along both edges of the first row of planks. Snap the groove of each new course around the tongue of the previous course, pressing the boards tightly together as you screw them down. Cut the end pieces to size with your miter saw.

4. Set up you floor nailer with its compressor and set it on the four courses you've laid. Lay the rest of the courses by setting the new boards in place, hooking the nozzle of the nailer down over the tongue, and hitting the triggering mechanism with your mallet to drive in the nail.

5. Continue across the floor with new courses until you reach the opposite wall. Lay the last few courses by hand as you did the first few courses (because you'll be too close to the wall to use the nailer). Stop a half-inch from the opposing wall.

6. Sand and finish the floor and install your floor trim.

Tips & Warnings

• Wear goggles when using a floor nailer or miter saw

References

• Laying wood flooring.