Timber Strip Flooring

[End Grain]

I've just got back from visting a number of timber yards, searching for an appropriate timber to use for the floors. My intention is to use an 80x19mm hardwood, tounge and groove and then secret nail. I was also thinking of laying the floorboards myself (approx 30m2).

Now I guess the question is, can a relatively experienced handyman/DIYer lay timber floorboards or should it be left to the professionals?? Assuming the all the right tools are being used can it be done with little hassle??

I only ask this as I asked various timber places on their advice, they were 50/50 down the line.

What are you're thoughts out there??

[stolar]

If you are doing it for yourself and you know you will be looking at it for more then few days I'm inclined to think you will pay more attention to detail and spend little bit more time then a pro would and come up with better result then a pro would.
If you plan to use premium grade timber with little feature and generally uniform in appearance the only thing to look after is how tight you joins are. Secret nailing with a pneumatic secret nailer (stapler) should easily give good results.
If it is a single room that you are doing there are no particular tricks or gotchas.
If you decide to lay natural grade feature timber then it is definitely better to lay it yourself. Get more then regulation 5% extra and spend some time selecting boards as you lay them and the result can be outstanding.

It is not easy work but the results are ultimately satisfying.

I have recently done 80m2 in two rooms and corridors with doors and some stairs in natural grade spotted gum (mix of NSW and Qld). It is one fantastic looking floor (even if I say so myself).

[echnidna]

Its a relatively straightforward job.

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Thanks Stolar.

I intend to use a select grade timber (maybe an Ironbark or mixed reds) with end matching boards. Good point about paying a little more attention to detail, therefore hopefully acheiving a better result. I guess time and patience is the ultimate winner here.

[ThePope]

is a fairly simple task, can't see you having much trouble handling it.
just a few points:

never been a fan of end matched boards joined between joists, can still end up squeaking, so I prefer joining on a joist. You'll use a litle more timber though.

glue boards down aswell as nailing for a far better job.

run a straight edge over the top of joists before you start laying and plane down any high spots, doesn't need to be perfect just get rid of any bad spots.

get some knee pads :)

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Thanks Pope. Will take on board (pardon the pun). Knee pads though will be a definate.

[elphingirl]

I just put in 90sqm of blackwood over a yellow-tongue base over hardwood subfloor. It wasn't physically hard or difficult at all, just hire a good Portanailer. The only tricky bits were adjacent to the walls where you cant use the nailer because, I found a wrecking bar to lever the boards into place before nailing worked a treat.
Have fun! Justine

[seriph1]

as all have said - it seems a fairly straightforward job, especially backwards

:D:D:D:D:D

You might make some errors but it will work out far better than a tradie if you take your time, select your boards well and nail them off correctly. Vastly cheaper too, wheich leads me to my next point. The skills you'll develop actually doing it yourself will stay with you. The skills you may have to develop re-doing the tradie's work will also stay with you forever, as will the story...... the older I get, the more I like the stories about how someone pushed through and got the result they sought by doing the work themselves - not without advice or help, but, well you know what I mean.... I just find such stories give me more inspiration and energy to have a go myself.

[ThePope]

You might make some errors but it will work out far better than a tradie if you take your time

umm, lost count of the number of handy peoples who thought along those lines seriph. After receiving my bill for repairing their work they no longer think that way.

that said, I understand what you're getting at :)

[Gaza]

It is really hard to and you need thousands of dollars is special gear, no GMC compressor can power the secret nail gun. ONLY JOKING just trying to keep my self in business.

It is not too hard, some pros are very rough, just make sure you use a timber flooring glue, (go to a flooring trade depot to get the stuff), make sure the first board is square and stright and pack it with wedges to stop it moving when you nail the following rows,

You need ND brads for top nailing the first row plus the last couple, (last couple can be done though the tonuge)

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Thanks for the replies everyone. The skills that I'll learn doing it myself will be far more valuable than watching someone else doing it. Should also score a few brownie points with the Missus too :)

Will post on how I went with a few photos too.

May the force be with me.

[Andrew in Tas]

I've recently laid approx 20m2 of 85mm x 19mm tas oak, secret nailed. I used bostik ultraset (on advice from the forum) and a bostich manual secret nailer which takes 50mm cleats. These nailers dont use a compressor. Took a few practice runs on some scrap to get the technique right as you have to drive the cleat all the way in with one hit. The first few times I was only driving the cleat 3/4 of the way in but once I got the technique right it did the job easily. These secret nailers force the boards together and drive the cleat in the one motion so you dont need to use clamps. I was a bit dubious about how effective this clamping action would be but it was actually very effective.

Like the others said, give it a go. If you have any problems during the process you will find plenty of good advice on the forum