Chalk Line: These are great tools for marking measurements. You can use these over a longer distance than you could with a straight edge or anything else.

Nails: This all depends on what type of hardwood flooring you’re installing, but chances are, you’ll need nails in some shape of form or another. Usually any type of nail should be fine for use. They do make nails to be used specifically with hardwood flooring and you can also look for these are your local hardware store.

Power Floor Nailer: Then of course you’ll need a nail gun to drive the nails. There are a few nailers available specifically for hardwood flooring. They’ll make the going much easier and are almost a must due to the fact they’ll do a more efficient and safe job than most people’s arms. They’re a bit pricey and unless you’re planning on redoing all the floors in your home you may be able to find one for rent at a hardware store.

Hammers: You’ll still need these, just in case you have to nail some flooring down in an area where the power floor nailer may not be able to reach.

Power saw: You can opt for the manual kind if you don’t mind putting a little extra elbow grease into your work. Depending on what type of wood you’re working with you may need a special type of saw, especially when cutting some of the harder, exotic, trade woods.

Miscellaneous: These items may be miscellaneous but they are just as important as everything I listed previously. You’ll most likely need some sort of underlayment. Underlayment is vital to most hardwood flooring and provides cushion and moisture protection. You can also get underlayment that provides specialized soundproofing as well. If you’re opting to float your flooring or glue it down then you’ll need special flooring glue. And depending on what type of wood you’re working on you may need a breathing mask, goggles or even a full protection suit.

This is just a rough list of items that you will most likely need when installing hardwood flooring. I implore you to do even more research, especially after you purchase your flooring since installation instructions can vary greatly from product to product and from wood species to wood species.

Hardness is a very important issue to keep in mind when deciding on what types of flooring to install in your home. And you know your home better than anyone else. If you have a room that sees a lot of foot traffic and wear and tear then you should be interested in flooring that will naturally resist such impacts. If you’re planning on installing hardwood flooring yourself there are a lot of factors that you’ll have to consider. And it’s important to treat each wood in a specific and advised manner. That’s why I’m going to go over some of the harder trade woods available and touch on their unique attributes.

Ipe is an amazingly hard wood and one of hardest woods available for use in flooring. This same hardness makes it difficult to install. It resists attempts to shape and nail it so special tools are needed. But once installed this wood will last for a very long time. The tree is valuable for more than just its hardwood though. Its bark is used in many medicinal applications. Asides from being durable the wood is also naturally moisture and pest resistant and as inflammable as concrete.

Cocobolo is a great wood to work with, especially considering its density and hardness. When cut and installed, cocobolo has a beautiful orange brown color. There are a lot of natural oils which makes gluing down this wood very difficult, which is one popular option for woods with a lot of hardness. But at the same time this oil gives the wood a magnificent polish. But these same oils can cause harm due to its ability to induce allergic reactions. Exotic hardwoods often cause reactions like these from their oils and dust.

Wenge is another extraordinarily hardwood and due to its toxic properties this wood isn’t just hard to work with but hard to handle period. When sanding Wenge the dust from the wood can cause poison ivy like symptoms and irritate the eyes. The dust can also cause respiratory problems and drowsiness and the wood’s splinters are septic. While many precautions have to be taken when working with Wenge, once installed it offers very durable hardwood flooring. When finished the wood is very dark and often displays partridge like patterns in its grains.

These are just a few of the very hard woods that are available. I thought it’d be interesting to point out some of their unique properties if only to show how varied wood species can be from one another. When choosing hardwood flooring you really need to do just as much research as you would when you’re buying a car or a home. And even more if you’re planning to install the floor yourself. Most of the wood species that I mentioned here are available at FloorMall.com and they’ll have even more information for you to take a look at. Thanks for stopping by.

Be it Edelman Leather Floors, hardwood floors, or laminate floors – walk down the aisles of the local home improvement store and you will see tools and kits designed to allow the home owner to install them with ease. But is do-it-yourself installation the best option for your home?

All flooring options can be installed by the home owner. The question becomes one of time and materials. Not to mention knowledge – you need to be sure that you know what you need and how the product you have chosen should be prepared and installed. Once you have that information you can make a more informed decision on installation.

All flooring surfaces need to be clean, in good shape, and even. Many installations can be done using tools you likely have around the house, but some materials require special tools or machines that will need to be purchased or rented for the job.

Hardwood floors are generally best left to the experienced installer. Hardwood floors can show mistakes easily and that will detract from the value you hope to add to your home by its installation. Vinyl floors are the easiest to install yourself. Sheets of vinyl flooring may be difficult to manage, however, so if you opt for DIY be sure to have a large area to layout and cut the flooring. Peel and stick vinyl tiles are a fairly simple install. Laminate flooring is a DIY dream. Most flooring is sold in interlocking pieces and installation kits are readily available. Hiring a professional installer for irregularly shaped rooms or for glue installation may be a safer choice. The most difficult job would be stone and ceramic tiling. Special tools are required and the cutting a gluing of the tiling is often better left to experienced installers.

When you’re looking for services related to flooring install, be sure to check their track record and prices. There are many hardware ‘cowboys’ which are crawling the market looking for uninformed clients for scams. Such cowboys perform poor jobs in exchange for rock bottom prices, but in the long run, your cost of redoing your flooring will be much higher. Thus, the number one rule when you want to find flooring installers : always choose a reliable one.

Flooringnow.com and Floorsupplier.com offers premium flooring materials and provides professional floor-related interior decoration advice, all at an affordable cost. Whether you’re looking for hardwood flooring, or flooring articles, Flooringnow.com has it all, and more.

With many hardware ‘cowboys’ out offering substandard jobs at rock-bottom prices, you’re never know if you’re at risk of such scams. At this Flooringnow.com, you can be assured of quality professional service with their perfect track record. Seek professional advice from a certified floor supplier, with no additional charges.

If you’re looking for unconventional flooring solutions, Floorsupplier.com has exotic offerings such as bamboo and cork floorings. They have also embraced green practice by offering eco floors which embodies reduction of carbon emissions during its manufacturing process.

Aside from flooring materials, they also have a wide variety of flooring-related items such as tiles and vinyls to give a twist to your home. Refresh and rejuvenate your intended look by adding a carpet or two and you’re set to go!

Flooring companies such as these have solutions for everyone, be it casual interior decorators or green activists. No matter your preference, make sure to visit the websites of these companies.

We all know it’s hard to find professionals to handle jobs like flooring installation around the house. It usually doesn’t even matter how big or small the job is – the pros always seem to be busy. In fact, after calling a few of the flooring installers listed in the phone book and hearing the wait times for their services, you might be ready to throw in the towel.

But don’t be discouraged. The good news is that there are all kinds of great flooring installers out there ready and willing to handle your job in a hurry. It’s just a matter of finding them. Here are a few suggestions for finding qualified flooring professionals with least amount of hassle possible.

Make The Phone Calls

Even though all the installers from the yellow pages might be booked solid for months out, it’s still worth calling a few of the local mom and pop flooring stores to ask them for a recommendation for a good installer. Whether or not you actually purchase flooring from the local stores, they’re still usually willing to help with a referral – after all, when they refer business to their network of flooring installers, the favor is usually returned full circle eventually. And would you be surprised to find out the contractors who are slow right now might just be hanging out around the flooring stores?

Help The Professionals Find You

There are several really good contractor referral sites on the web where you just plug in your request and then the network of prescreened, preferred service providers contact you with their quotes. Depending on your locale, there might be tons of flooring installers looking for work in the area, or there might not be any. Either way, the contractor matching services are worth a try – you can find them through a quick web search.

Ask For Moonlighters

Installing flooring is laborious work as it is, but if you ask some of the more ambitious flooring installers if they’ll take extra evening or weekend work beyond what they normally do, you might be surprised how many will jump on the offer. If you live in a neighborhood where there’s lots of new construction or remodeling going on, just poke around a bit and see if you can catch the flooring installers as they go to a job site or while they’re taking a lunch break and ask them if they take moonlight work.

Check The Big Box Stores

Again, even if you score a great bargain on your new flooring online, it’s still worth checking in with some of the retailers in the area to see if they offer installation services. Most big box home improvement stores do have professional flooring installation services available for a fee, regardless of where the flooring comes from. A bonus to hiring professionals from a major brand name store is the fact that the stores have a certain reputation they must uphold, increasing the likelihood of quality installers.

As crazy as it may seem, it’s not always easy to find a flooring installer that’s ready and willing to work. But be persistent and you’ll be able to locate someone who can get the job done in no time at all. Just one more thing… be sure to check references first. Good luck!

Bamboo flooring is all the rage right now. It should come as no big surprise either – in fact, because it grows so rapidly and it is easy to “farm,” bamboo flooring is completely sustainable. And in an age when going green is not only the right thing to do for our own well being, but also for the fragile earth we live on, choosing bamboo for your new floor is a very commendable choice. Add the fact that bamboo makes an incredibly beautiful and durable floor surface, and it just makes even more sense.

Perhaps the best news is that bamboo flooring is not only affordable, but it’s a breeze to install too! Installing floating bamboo flooring is a fairly simple task for both professionals and handy do-it-yourselfers alike. However, there are a few things you should know first before jumping head first into the project.

Not Every Bamboo Flooring System Is Designed To Float

Floating a bamboo floor means that the individual boards or planks just interlock and fit together instead of the traditional nailing, stapling, or gluing. When combined with the right underlayment, a floating floor has a wonderful silky feel under the foot. This only works if the flooring system was designed for this specific application. Remember, not every bamboo flooring system is designed to float – be sure to check this out before going any further with the installation.

When Installing Floating Bamboo Flooring, Allow Plenty Of Space

As with any flooring system made from natural material, floating bamboo flooring will expand and contract – sometimes by a reasonably large amount. While this is a perfectly normal occurrence, there are precautions to take to prevent problems. Allowing about a half an inch of room at any edges or abutments of the floor is advisable in almost all cases with bamboo. Giving the floating floor room to “breathe” is essential to keep it tight and level. If they’re available, be sure to follow the manufacturer’s specific directions for spacing.

Use The Recommended Type Of Underlayment

When installing a floating bamboo floor, using the correct type of underlayment material is absolutely essential. The underlayment is a critical component of the overall flooring system, and a complete engineered flooring system is designed for the individual parts to work together to create a beautiful, long lasting finished product. Skipping or using a mismatched underlayment for a floating floor would be a huge mistake. For a quality flooring installation, use only the recommended type of underlayment.

Again, the good news is that bamboo flooring not only looks fantastic and is helpful to the environment, but it’s also a breeze to install!

Installing tile in a bathroom is well worth the effort in so many ways. It looks great, it’s durable and can stand the test of time, and thanks to its easy to install nature, many homeowners even find that doing the installation themselves is an enjoyable weekend project. Here are six of the best reasons for installing tile in a bathroom…

One – Bathroom Tile Is Attractive!

It’s safe to say that about 9 out of 10 people would probably agree that installing tile in a bathroom is the ideal floor covering for that space. Why? Well, first of all, because tile looks great in a bathroom. The beauty factor alone is certainly a respectable reason to install tile in a bathroom.

Two – Tile Is Water Proof

If there’s one thing that can be said about typical bathroom flooring, it’s that the floor is definitely going to see its fair share of moisture. Splash from showers, baths, and sinks will inevitably end up on the floor more often than not. While many flooring surfaces can’t handle the wetness, fortunately, a tile bathroom floor is nearly impervious to the water.

Three – Installing Tile Adds Value

Because it can be expected to last for so long, and because it looks so nice, installing tile in a bathroom is an obvious way to increase a home’s value. It’s a well known fact that bathrooms and kitchens sell homes, so why take any chances with this one? Bathroom tile is classically desirable!

Four – It Is Usually Simple To Install

In most straightforward scenarios, installing tile in a bathroom is an ideal project for the average handy do-it-yourselfer. The installation process does have many important steps, and it does take time; however, installing tile is also a very forgiving task. Mistakes are easily reversed and corrected. Of course, some more complicated bathroom tile applications will require the help of an experienced professional.

Five – Tile Is Architecturally Appropriate

Whether you’re thinking about installing tile in an ultra-modern bathroom or in a Victorian era charmer, there’s a perfect bathroom tile out there for the job. Because tile is so diverse, it’s just as versatile when it comes to fitting in with a home’s architectural stylings. Not many other flooring surfaces could work for both historical and cutting-edge mod themes at the exact same time.

Six – Patterns Are Possible With Tile

Some folks like to keep their bathroom tile really simple and elegant, while others like to go all out and create elaborate patterns. Either way is just fine, but do know that tile is one of the few bathroom appropriate flooring materials that will work so well for creating unique customized designs.

There’s nothing quite as beautiful as richly detailed hardwood flooring in a home. It’s no wonder the hardwood craze has taken off so rapidly over the last decade or so – people just love the look, feel, and durability of wood flooring in their homes. Before we discuss the basics of installing hardwood flooring, there is a bit of confusion that should be laid aside.

First things first, it’s important to note the different kinds of hardwood flooring on the market today. Not every floor commonly referred to as a hardwood floor is really a true hardwood floor. In fact, these days, most new “hardwood floors” are anything but the real thing – not that there’s anything wrong with that.

A real traditional hardwood floor is comprised of actual planks or boards of real solid hardwood – substantial and beautiful woods like oak and mahogany. Many modern flooring systems that are described referred to as hardwood are actually engineered materials made of wood fibers and a type of glue binder. They’re usually topped off with either a thin layer of real wood veneer or a layer of composite material designed and manufactured to look like real wood.

While there are many really great products in all of these categories, it is necessary to differentiate the different types of wood flooring because they all install differently. There’s no concise “one size fits all” solution when it comes to installing hardwood flooring, so to start with, let’s just take a look at the basic aspects.

First, it’s imperative to start with a completely straight and level subfloor. Because any crooks or uneven spots are only exaggerated as the layers of flooring unfold above, subfloor perfection is a noble goal.

After the subflooring comes the underlayment. The underlayment serves several purposes, most importantly helping the wood flooring freely expand and contract while also serving to prevent squeaks and creaks. While the exact specs can be different according to the hardwood flooring to be installed, a 15 pound felt asphalt felt underlayment is one common standard.

Once the underlayment is tacked or stapled in place, it’s time to begin the installing the hardwood itself. This usually begins along a wall with a small spacing between the wall and the edge of the wood. A process called blind-nailing is used with the first strip – meaning that it will be fastened so the nails remain invisible or hidden underneath a baseboard or similar cover.

When this step is complete, the boards are laid one after another against the first strip in random staggering lengths. According to the type of wood floor, they are either nailed in place with a special nailing tool, or the boards might even just snap together (this is called a floating floor).

Then, it’s just a matter of filling in the remainder of the hardwood floor and finishing the far edge with another hidden nailed piece, or with a specially designed edging piece. Installing hardwood flooring does take some practice and experience, but by no means is it totally out of reach for the handy homeowner!

When thinking of cork flooring, it’s only natural to have the vision of the traditional wine cork material, or perhaps even the cork backing of a bulletin board in mind. Of course, if this is the look you are going for with a cork floor, you’ll have no trouble – there some really great looking natural cork flooring products on the market today. But some folks are totally surprised when they see the myriad of alternative cork flooring for the first time – everything from bright colors to patterns that resemble something you’d see done with traditional ceramic tile.

As impressive as cork floors are to look at (and as great as the feel under foot), there’s another really huge benefit to using the material too – installing glue down cork is a remarkably simple process for folks that are moderately handy! Here are the most important steps of installing adhesive cork flooring:

Before beginning, there are few things to know. First, cork does not work well in wet environments or with a subfloor that’s prone to any dampness at all. It’s important to take this into account before choosing cork flooring. Second, once you have the cork in your home, it’s important to set it out and let it acclimate to its new environment before installing right away – let it sit for several days to expand or contract to the surroundings.

Working on with a perfectly flat and level subfloor (this is important as imperfections in the subfloor will show trough in the cork), the first step is preparing and cleaning the surface. Make sure any waxes or paints are completely removed along with any dirt or grime.

Now it’s time to do a trial run layout of the cork flooring tiles. Keeping the normal rules of aesthetics in mind, just lay the cork out the way you desire. You’re looking for conflicts where patterns might not be configured right or where cork tiles might need to be cut in awkward places. Work out the kinks and then use a chalkline to mark your efforts as you proceed.

The next step is rolling the adhesive to the entire floor with a medium nap paint roller. For the least amount of hassle, start by covering the edges first and then going to a far corner and working your way back without painting yourself into a corner. It’s important to cover the entire subfloor as evenly as possible with adhesive. Now, let the adhesive thoroughly dry until it’s clear.

After this, it’s time to start installing the cork itself. Work according to the plan you marked earlier with the chalklines, simply placing one cork tile tightly against the next. Use a rubber mallet to tamp down each cork section, and also to coax unruly edges into place. For small imperfections, a utility knife can also be used to trim and fit.

That’s all there is to the installation phase of glue down cork flooring. The next steps revolve around applying the finish coat and maintaining the floor. Basically, just follow the manufacturer’s directions to apply the top coat the first time. Maintenance might necessitate a reapplication of the finish product sometime down the line.

So, are you ready to begin installing that cork floor yet, or what?