Removing Hardwood Flooring

• 1). Check the condition of the floor. Look for nails or screws that are visible, squeaks or uneven areas of the floor. Mark these areas with a marker for repair. Repairing the floor is usually all that is required unless the hardwoods are rotted or destroyed by termites.
  
  
• 2). Cut the first few pieces of flooring with a circular saw set to 7/8-inch deep. Use a pry bar to remove the pieces you cut. If the tongue is facing you, continue using the pry bar to remove the flooring. However, if the groove is facing you, repeat this step on the opposite side of the room. Remove all the old flooring with the pry bar. Remove any nails remaining in the subfloor.
  
  
• 3). Use a 2x4 board to check for high or low spots in the subfloor. Screw down any loose flooring. Sand down the high spots with a flooring edge sander with coarse sandpaper. The subfloor is now ready for new flooring.
  
  

Installing Hardwood Flooring.

• 1). Roll out a layer of 30-pound felt over the subfloor. Overlap the seams by 3 inches and secure it in place with a framing stapler. This acts as a vapor barrier and helps reduce squeaky floors. Chalk a line the width of your flooring plus 1/2 an inch onto the felt paper on the wall that you will start laying the flooring.
  
  
• 2). Place 1/2-inch shims against the wall. Pre-drill the flooring every 9 inches for the first row of flooring. Place a long piece of hardwood flooring on the chalk line with the tongue facing you. Leave a 1/2-inch gap to the left of the flooring. Nail through the the holes securing the flooring with finish nails. Use a nail set to counter sink the nails. Continue down the row. Measure the distance from the last whole piece of flooring to the wall and then subtract 1/2 an inch. Cut the flooring to this dimension with a miter saw.
  
  
• 3). Start the next row with a shorter piece of flooring. You do not want any adjacent rows of flooring to have end joints that line up, so stagger the flooring. For the next few rows, you will have to pre-drill the flooring through the tongue at 45 degrees to finish nail the flooring in place. Repeat the process as in Step 2. Use a scrap piece of flooring as a tapping block for any joints that don't want to fit tightly before you nail them in place.
  
  
• 4). Use a flooring nailer and a dead-blow hammer to finish installing the remaining flooring.
  
  
• 5). Sweep the floor and it is ready to repair or finish from this step.
  
  

Repair or Prepair the Floor for Finishing

• 1). Use a 2x4 board to slide across the flooring looking for any high spots. Mark these with a "H." Use a flooring edge sander with 40-grit paper to sand down the high spots. Check often so that you do not remove too much material.
  
  
• 2). Use a flooring drum sander with 80-grit sandpaper to sand the entire floor, working in the same direction the floor is running. This sander removes a lot of wood fast, so gently lower and raise the sander as you start and finish each pass. Sweep up the sawdust and save before proceeding to the next step.
  
  
• 3). Use the flooring edge sander to sand any areas that the floor sander was not able to get. Also feather in the start and ending points of the drum sander. Use the same grit paper as the drum sander. Sweep up the sawdust.
  
  
• 4). Check for any exposed nails or screws and counter set them with a nail punch or screw gun. Mix the sawdust with lacquer sealer to make a wood filler that matches the hardwood flooring. Trowel this over the entire wood floor. Let this dry before proceeding to the next step.
  
  
• 5). Repeat Steps 2 and 3 using 120-grit, then 180-grit, sandpaper. Your floor is now ready for finishing with your choice of stain and sealer.