How to Float an Engineered Wood Floor
Engineered wood flooring is made of particle board, then topped with a finished veneer of oak or other fine wood. This allows the boards to be very thin and predictably straight, which is necessary for a "floating'' floor system. A floating floor is one in which the boards are locked together by tongue-and-grooved edges like a regular wood floor, but they aren't attached to the subfloor or walls; instead, they ''float'' on a foam underlayment. You can install floating floors over any flooring surface other than carpeting. Does this Spark an idea?
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Things You'll Need
- Hammer
- Prybar
- Foam underlayment
- Razor knife
- Plastic underlayment tape
- Wall spacers (1/4-inch plastic nubs that go on the floor along the walls)
- Miter saw
- Trim nailer
Instructions
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1
Remove the floor trim from the whole room carefully, using your hammer and prybar. Make sure not to break the trim. Extract the nails from it with the hammer and set it aside.
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2
Roll out foam underlayment on the floor along the longest wall. Cut it at the end with your razor knife. Roll out the next course alongside it. Tape the two courses together with plastic tape running lengthwise along the whole seam. Repeat with additional courses until you've covered the whole floor.
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3
Put 1/4-inch wall spacers about every 2 feet along all the walls.
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4
Set the first course of engineered floor boards along the longest wall, pressing the grooved side of the boards against the wall spacers. There should be a 1/4-inch gap between the boards and the wall. Clip the boards together end to end. Cut the final board to size on a miter saw.
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5
Lay the subsequent courses of floor boards by clipping the grooved side of each new course to the tongue side of the coarse before it. Don't let the ends of the boards line up from course to course (the boards will come in varying sizes, so you can choose which size to use in each instance). Cut the end pieces as needed. Keep the boards 1/4 inch away from the walls on all sides. Lay the whole floor. Remove the spacers.
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6
Re-install the trim using your trim nailer, covering the 1/4-inch gap and holding down the floor. Shoot the nails into the wall, not into the floor.
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Tips & Warnings
Wear protective eye coverings when using your miter saw.
