How to Reverse a Tongue & Groove Wood Floor

Tongue-and-groove wood flooring is usually installed starting with the grooved side along a wall and the tongue side facing out into the room. Modern floor staplers drive staples into the side and downward on the tongue side. This presents problems when you have to reverse the positions of the boards, which is something you'll have to do if you're laying the floor diagonally, or if the first course of flooring crosses a doorway into a room where you plan on laying a connecting floor.

Things You'll Need

• Tongue-and-groove wood flooring
• Nail gun
• Miter saw
• Pneumatic floor stapler with air-pressure tank
• Mallet
• "Slip tongue'' fillers to fit the floorboards
• Hammer

Instructions

1. Lay your first course of flooring across the diagonal center of the room, securing it by top-nailing it with pairs of nails every 2 feet or so, using your nail gun. Lay pieces end to end, cutting the end pieces at a 45-degree angle to fit against the wall.

2. Lay your next course of flooring on the tongue side of the first board. Use your pneumatic floor stapler to lay the courses, setting the stapler on the end of each new board and hitting the firing pad with a mallet to drive in the staples through the sides and downward.

3. Repeat for each next course on the tongue side of the first board, cutting your end pieces as needed with your circular saw. Lay all the flooring that will fit on that half of the room.

4. Insert your strips of "slip tongue'' in the groove of the first course of flooring that you laid, tapping the strips into the grooves with your small hammer. (Slip tongues are small, thin pieces of wood that fit into the "groove" side of the floors boards, turning it into a "tongue''; find them at your home improvement store.) The slip tongue should turn the grooved side of the board into a tongue side, now facing the empty side of the room.

5. Lay the rest of the floor from the newly created tongue side of the board, in the same manner as you did before.

Tips & Warnings

• Wear eye protection when using power nailers are staplers.

References

• Reader's Digest: Lay Your Own Extraordinary Hardwood Floor