Remodeling: Installing T&G Flooring

This is part three of my series of projects I encountered when remodeling my kitchen. All of the Instructables can be viewed in my Kitchen Remodeling Guide. (Coming Soon!)

In this part the old linoleum and carpet floors in the kitchen and dining room are removed in favor of a wood-laminate tounge and groove (T&G) floor. Since the flooring comes with instructions and there are other well done instructions all over the web I will not go in-depth about the actual install and instead will focus on some of the prep, not found in basic instructions, and tips I picked up along the way.

Step 1: Materials and Tools

Materials

• Tongue & Groove Flooring - I would suggest having at least half a box extra, more if the shape of your room necessitates a lot of cuts. Besides cutting boards there will be warped or damaged boards as well.
• Underlayment Pad - We used a pretty basic pad and so far have not had any problems yet. You will need slightly more than the area of your project.
• Underlayment Board - This is sheets of particle board used to build up the sub-floor to match the carpet or to provide a smoother surface than the sub-floor. If your new floor won't come up to carpet and your sub-floor is nice then this is not necessary
• Wood Screws - For attaching the underlayment board, if necessary.
• Click-Seal - Cal-Flor, $16.99 - This is a fairly new product for use with T&G floors that are going in places where water likely to find it's way onto the floor (entries, kitchens, and bathrooms). It is a wax/oil gel that goes onto the tongue as the floor is assembled. It doesn't actually glue the floor pieces together, it just reduces the water absorption of the boards. It's a product that you won't know is working but it gives a little peace of mind when putting a non-sealed wood floor into the kitchen.
• Transitions - Again you can reuse the old ones, if there were any, but like most everything in this project, this is a good time to change these to match the new style of the room.
• Tack Strip - Only necessary if you cut a new edge to some carpet. If you are careful when removing the strips you can reuse them.

Tools

• Hammer
• Tape Measure
• T & G Tools - This consits of a puller bar, a block, and edge spacers.
• Utility Knife
• Screw Driver & Bits - Only needed if to build up your subfloor.
• Saw - We used a combination of a table saw, handheld circular saw, and standard wood saw.
• Pry Bar - Only needed if you are removing carpet.
• Pliers - See above.

Comments

[mikeasaurus]

I love the grain of that flooring. Looks like a pro job, great work!

[bwrussell]

Thanks, up close you can see some mistakes but as a whole I'm pretty pleased with it.