How to Replace a Hardwood Floor

Old hardwood floors can practically last forever under the best circumstances. If your floor has not had the best circumstances and it is beyond repair, you might consider replacing it with new hardwood. Modern tongue-and-groove flooring is designed to hold up better than the wood floors of earlier generations, and the floor-laying tools available today make it something any competent homeowner can do. Ripping out the old floor is a straightforward but physically challenging task, so make sure you are up to it before you take it on.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Circular saw
• Hammer
• Chisel
• Large metal floor scraper
• Rolls of flooring felt
• Electric stapler
• Tape measure
• Snapline
• Enough new tongue-and-groove flooring to cover the room
• Drill
• Pilot bit
• Screwdriver bit
• 1 1/4-inch wood screws
• Miter saw
• Hand-held electric nailer
• Rented pneumatic floor stapler with compression tank and staples

1. Set your circular saw at a depth of 3/4 inches (the thickness of standard hardwood flooring). Begin running the saw flat across the floor, perpendicular to the direction of the planks. Cut a line all the way across the room every 2 to 3 feet. Use your hammer and chisel to pry up the floorboards at the cut lines. Once you get under them and they start coming up, use your long scraper to continue. When all the boards are up and discarded, go over the floor with your hammer and prybar and pull up any raised nails. Use your scraper to take up glue and debris.

2. Lay your felt underlayment for the new floor, rolling it out and stapling it down in overlapping strips. Snap a line along one wall, a 1/2 inch out, to set your first course of floorboard.

3. Top-screw the first course, setting the board with the tongue side out into the room. Drill pilot holes and drive in wood screws in pairs every foot. Lay the next few subsequent courses by tapping the grooves of the new boards into the tongues of the set ones with your mallet, and using your hand-held electric nailer to drive in nails at an angle above the tongue. Make sure the boards are tight when you nail them. Cut end pieces with your miter saw as needed.

4. Once you have laid about four courses, bring in your pneumatic floor stapler. Set it on the courses you have laid, with the nose hooked around the edge of the new boards. Use your mallet to trigger the firing of the staples.

5. Do the whole floor with the stapler until you are too close to the opposite wall to continue using it. Install the last few pieces with your hand-held nailer, and top-screw the last piece. The floor is now ready for sanding and finishing.

Tips & Warnings

• Wear eye protection when tearing up the old floor and making miter saw cuts for the new floor.

References

• Removing Hardwood Flooring