Installing Wood Flooring

[rhull]

I may urgently have to rip out the carpet in the outer part of the master bathroom and install wood flooring over the course of the next 5-7 days. Fortunately, it's a very small area that needs to be done. Unfortunately, I really have NO idea how to do this, or what (besides flooring) I need to accomplish the task. Can anybody point me at any good resources?

[TDHofstetter]

What type of flooring do you have in mind? Floating (like Pergo, et al) or nailed full-thickness T&G hardood (or softwood) or wood tiles?

Wood flooring isn't generally a great choice for bathrooms because of the major humidity issues, but if it's done well and the bathroom isn't huge, it may be fine.

If you're going with random-length T&G planks, you'll need a flooring nailer (purchased, rented, borrowed, stolen) and some sort of smallish nail hammer (for the starter & ender courses) and wedges (to lock the courses together while they're being nailed). You'll need rosin paper (the red stuff) to lay under the wood so it won't groan as it moves.

Peel up the mopboards (baseboards). Staple the rosin paper down. Carefully lay out where the flooring will go so you don't end up with slivers as your final course. Leave a good 1/2" gap around all outside edges (the replaced mopboards will cover that gap) for expansion. Start against one wall, VERY CAREFULLY laying out the first course so it's DEAD STRAIGHT and face-nail it to the subfloor. Face-nail the second course, too, after "driving it home" with a block of scrap and holding it in place with wedges. You may get lucky & have enough room to use the flooring nailer after two courses, but count on face-nailing three before you can bring the flooring nailer to bear.

Wedge each course tightly in place while you use the flooring nailer.

When you get to the far wall (last couple of courses), you'll have to switch back to face-nailing again 'cause you won't be able to get the flooring nailer against the wall.

As you nail down each course, try to (1) color-match the sticks to each other, and (2) end each course with a long plank in a short space. Measure & cut that long plank to fit, then use the "waste" end to start the next course. That saves you a BUNCH of scrap; your only real scrap, if you do it carefully, will be in the last course.

Oh, and... triple-check each plank for width before you nail it down. Some brands are pretty bad about consistency from stick to stick. If you have to, rip 'em a tiny bit & recut the tongue or groove edge to get 'em consistent. If they're not consistent, you'll have odd gaps all along each course.

Be sure to leave the planks in the house, acclimating, for at least a couple of weeks so they stabilize at something approaching the humidity they'll be living in. Ideally, that'd be in the bathroom.

BE CAREFUL nailing anywhere in the vicinity of the bathtub and toilet! You'd best take the toilet out to do the job, but the bathtub is problematic - whack it with an errant hammer & you'll see the whackmark forever. Getting the planks to fit well against the bathtub can be an exercise in patience, too, especially since they have to move with the seasons... you have to hide the necessary gap between the flooring & the tub SOMEHOW.

[Leo Voisine]

No not a wood floor in the bathroom. I wouldn't do carpet either.

Don't know what you have - but.

I "might" be inclined to use a good construstion adhesive and glue a 1/4 thick plywood underlayment.

Sand all the seams nice and smooth, and fill seams with quickset or something like that. Sand smooth again.

Then lay a good quality lino down with a great quality mastic.

That's it folks.

If you're forced into wood - I did a floating floor last year. Not hard to do. Bruce flooring is far better than Pergo. There is a barier that lays on the floor first. It seals the floor below the flooring. Then the floating floor on top of that. The floating floor really wants a "mopboard" or at least some 1/4 round to hold it down in place. That might be a problem in front of the tub.

In either case - you definately want to remove the toilet - and vanity if possible. The bruce floor is 1/4 thick - and you will need a new wax ring under the toilet.

[rrich]

Leo,
Not plywood but cement board.

And then the water proof floor of your choice. Sheet vinyl probably the best and easiest. Tile, stone, ceramic and such is probably the next easiest.

Finally, if you do the cement board or hardie backer, then a floor guy may be a very cheap alternative.

[TDHofstetter]

I'm a big fan of laying ceramic tile on 1/2" cement board with thinset mortar for bathrooms. No, I'm more than a big fan of it... I INSIST on it, for my house.

[Beezlebub]

Hardy board underlay and your choice of top.

[rhull]

Mar 17, 2010 13:10:27 GMT -6 TDHofstetter said:

Wood flooring isn't generally a great choice for bathrooms because of the major humidity issues, but if it's done well and the bathroom isn't huge, it may be fine.

Our bathroom has two sections. The inner part of the bathroom has the tub and toilet. The outer part of the bathroom has two sinks, a medicine cabinet, and is kind of a "dressing area". There's a slider between the two sections, and a venting fan in the inner section of the bathroom. That said, I'm not *too* worried about humidity, since we always close the slider and turn on the venting fan when we bathe.

I don't have most of the tools I'd need to nail in the flooring, butI don't see myself buying nailers, etc. So maybe I need to go with "floating", engineered flooring... This is a small simple L shaped area, maybe 22 sqft. The only tricky part is the baseboard heater.

[TDHofstetter]

If you do... don't skimp. The cheap stuff delaminates really badly, especially if it's not kept bone-azzed dry. Also... with floating floor as with solid T&G, you MUST MUST give it expansion room around the outside edges (all the way around with floating floor) or it'll buckle.

I used to live in an apartment where they didn't provide enough expansion room. When it rained, the living room had about a 3" speed bump across the middle.

[mapleman]

I have done several bathrooms so far --- 3 for in-laws and one for parents. Three were ceramic tiled and one was bamboo. The bamboo is about 2 yrs old and doing great! it is prefinished and it is bamboo. I knew the wood (or grass, actually) would be fine. But the glue, I was unsure of since I had no idea what kind of glue they used (bamboo is thing strips of grass laminated together). but so far so good. and it is bamboo right up to the tub, toilet, etc. it was a total gut and re-do... and it has gone well so far.

other three were typical heavy subfloor, concrete backer screwed down with the special screws, thinset, ceramic tile. that works very well and it is more forgiving if someone allows water to stay on the floor for a long time.

One thing to keep in mind. Standing water is not as big a danger as....
da-da-daaaaa.

a soaking wet towel sitting on the floor for days. That is horrible b/c it is constantly wet and will take forever to evap away. whereas standing water will evap away eventually...

of course, leaks and floods are entirely different stories.

i have a big bath remodel coming up and we are undecided on wood or travertine (natural stone). but i feel absolutely comfortable with a well-chosen wood. unfinished wood, thin engineered or even moisture-sensitive woods i would stay away from.

my $.02...

john