This post may seem scattered, because we learned things as we went - and this post will probably look the same way. However, we hope you can learn from other people's mistakes experiences. It will mix your general instructions with our tips - because ultimately we winged it {as much as a control freak can "wing" anything}. Here goes nothin'! *Sorry for all of the words and less pictures, these are more brain tricks and tips and unfortunately, we couldn't snap pictures from inside there!
Patterns and Execution
Tip #1: Turn the last board in the row around so the groove is up next to the groove {length wise}, mark where the cut should go to make it shorter {should light up with the board you lay immediately prior to this step - make sure to leave room for the gap!}, and cut there. Instead of measuring, marking, etc. we found this method to end up in an extremely low error rate and made the process go much faster. The majority of the time, if there was a "miscut", we were usually making it too long instead of too short which meant we could correct the error. Yardsticks really help when you made an ut-oh cut. {If you would like pictures or further explanation of this, just let us know in the comments, after much searching for a picture, we couldn't find one. But we could definitely stage the situation for you if you would like!}
Tip #2: Use the end of the cut board in Tip #1 as your starting piece for the next row (or if laying two rows at a time like we tended to do on an alternating teamwork-type situation) if you are doing a random pattern. Just makes it easier that way. Which brings me to...
Tip #3: Save yourself sanity and do a random pattern. Unless you absolutely, unequivocally, no-doubt-about-it cannot for some scientific and tried-and-true reason MUST do a staggered pattern, if this is your first time laying your own wood floor and you are DOING IT YOURSELF {how many times do I need to reiterate that there are no professionals involved}, don't try to match a pattern. I am a crazy person {we all know that} but staggered would have been a wasteful nightmare. Random, while I wasn't able to completely relax and not control even that pattern {"No, that's too much like the row before it..."}, the end product is so amazing to not look and say "Dang it, that one row is 1/2 an inch too far to the left". Think of it this way, save your troubles for your tile grout-lines {a.k.a. where it really matters}. It's called prioritization people.
Tip #4: If your wife likes the "half pieces", let her use them as she pleases. Just ask Andrew how that worked out for him.
Tip #4-B: Not all of your boards are going to look the same, and that is perfect. Some will have slightly different coloring and markings and beatings. This will save them later when your 110 lb dog plays chase on them {don't have one of those? You are welcome to borrow one so you can get this full effect at any point you would like}. We have one board in the entry that we affectionately call the "blonde board" that we still notice. It makes it look rustic and old. And we have come to like blondie.
Think Ahead {and buy tools}
Tip #5: Do acclimate your boards to the house temperature. We took the boards off of the truck, into the garage, and then 72 hours prior into the house {on the plywood kitchen floor}. We also had 2-3 warped boards in the entire 32 boxes of wood flooring with roughly 14-20 boards per box {sorry, my memory fails me}. Yes, I do realize part of that was just God knowing my sanity couldn't handle anything more. But, we do think that some of that can be attributed to moving it into the house ahead of time.
Tip #6: Cut your door frames ahead of time. We didn't and it would slow us down periodically until we had enough legs of flooring that we could continue elsewhere while Andrew cut door frames. This Rockwell Sonicrafter was handy during this process. Make sure and buy some extra blades because you will go through them. It was quick and we could use it cutting the flooring in closets, under door frames, and in corners too. It was actually an "impulse" buy {we knew we needed something like it but splurged on something less manual than planned} and we now use it for everything. It is a fantastic tool that I am sure you will get to know quite well on our blog.
Tip #7: Get help. Brother? Bother-in-law? Stranger? Friend? Beer buddy? Whatever it is, enlist it. This really is a 3 person job. Yes, you heard me refer to something as an odd-number-of-people job. This is why: having someone to go outside and cut everything while you are marking and laying not only speeds up the process, but it saves your back/knees/hands/glutes... This is definitely something to be thankful for later.
Tip #8: Don't be afraid to use the banging objects on the click and lock planks. In certain doorways, corners, etc. it may be necessary to use some force. This is okay. They use the tapping block on "traditional" non-click-and-lock planks to make sure they are all pushed together and pretty and perfect. Using it on click-and-lock when you can't get it "just right" is perfectly fine {as long as the board isn't fundamentally warped or damaged before you use the tapping block}. This was especially useful near our front door where my fingers couldn't quite fit to pull the board close and tight before "locking" it.
Tip #9: Have some heavy items handy. On the Elastilon, we still needed something to help weigh down the back end of the floor to make it as flush as possible as we were still working. This is especially helpful around the walls and before you get quite a bit of floor laid. Luckily, because we did use the Elastilon, it was permanent immediately so we could step and walk on the floor, but weight was still nice to have. We just used full boxes of flooring until we ran out. And by then the floor had enough weight on its own that it was a non-issue.
Numbers, Numbers, and More Numbers
{Bet you wished about now you would have paid more attention in that algebra and geometry classes - don't ya?}
Tip #10: If you don't plan properly, you can make something go from difficult to extremely difficult. And sometimes when you do, it still gets extremely difficult. With that said, we got really lucky. But we still ran into an issue. We calculated how much we needed to "rip" {read: cut a board with a table saw hot-dog style} a board to make sure there weren't any pieces in the hallway less than an inch. Our hallway, we thought, would fit boards exactly the width of 7 boards. And it did - for the most part. We found out that our hallway wasn't square {see arrow below}. So we had a smidge on the "far" side {Andrew loves it when I describe directions with "near" and "far"... this time, I mean the last side, not the side we started with} that we actually had 1/2 inch pieces - NOT fantastic for click and lock boards. Our trim {also in the picture from where we were judging how much wiggle room we had} was just barely too thin to cover this gap. So we ended up having to very carefully - and I mean very carefully - rip an extremely narrow piece of flooring to fit in this gap. In our case, we didn't actually make it click and lock in, we cut off the tongue side and stuck it to the Elastilon instead.
Almost Finished
Tip #12: Stop when you need to. Don't be stubborn and keep going when you are too tired that you start making mistakes. When we knew we were approaching this situation, 2 nights in a row on a project we thought might take 1.5 days total, we implemented a policy: 2 people voting to stop will halt work for the night OR 2 cutting mistakes back to back. While this is a DIY, it still is dangerous to your pocketbook {too many errors} and your fingers {saw}. Take those two reasons as enough to take a break despite your own pride if you need to. This was possibly our biggest lesson and our biggest lifesaver {figuratively and otherwise}.
Tip #13: Clean and polish the floors before you move in. Or put back your belongings. Or whatever. More than once if possible. We use Bona hardwood floor cleaner and High Gloss polish. We switch to the Low Gloss after it has a polish or three on it entirely {we don't waste a partial bottle though, so we go through as many cycles as we need to in order to "land" on an empty bottle}. This protects and makes our floor much easier to clean and dust later. In our experience, we would love to do the first polish or few on a completely furniture-empty floor. However, I don't believe this is 100% necessary, just my peculiarities talking. We love Bona - easy to use, easy to maintain. Do make sure you get extra pads for your stick though {here are the cleaner ones, here are the polish ones, and here are the dusting ones}. The first time you do them, if they are dusty like ours were and dirty, you will need to change the cleaner pad often.
*Some links are affiliate links and in no way, shape, or form were we paid to talk about these items. We just don't believe in making you do work that we have already done. Thanks!
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