Monday morning I realized I needed to stop over at our Floral Dr project. That is the "honey do" project we are finishing up which I wrote about on my January 7th post "Cross that off your list!". http://www.applewoodremodelers.com/carpenterandtheartist-blog/. I had a ton of things to do but I knew I had to go shoot some pics of the project.
It was a good day to stop. They were just starting to install the hickory wood floor. I have never seen a wood floor installed. Now I know why they are more expensive. It's major prep before the first piece is stapled down!
To start.. the wood needs to be delivered and sit stacked in the environment where it is to be installed for at least a week. You can see in the photo below how it was stacked to acclimate... even that is interesting!
Then each and every piece must be placed so no end seams line up. This is called "racking" a floor. And each piece comes at random lengths from the supplier. It's a lot of bending over and trying sizes. I think I'd lose my mind! Not to mention my back.
After a few rows are laid in place and prepared... then the stapling can start. Each piece is moved forward and fitted into position. Piece by piece. A special tool is used called a wood flooring stapler.
After all the wood is installed then it gets sanded, seams get filled with wood filler, sanded again, then "water popped" (a light coating of water so stain goes on more evenly), stained, then two coats of polyurethane. Welcome beautiful wood floor!
I had no idea. I will never look at a custom wood floor the same again. I might not ever want my own custom wood floor.. I might not allow anyone to walk on it! And certainly not little muddy puppy paws.
