Hello,

My name is Mike and I'm getting ready to install about 500 sf of flooring starting tomorrow. I'm a DIYer with reasonably good carpentry skills. This will be my first install and I have a few questions.

I've done all of the prep work (about a month or so of reading and working) and the wood has been on site for over 3 weeks. I'm using 15# felt under the flooring. I'll start here with my questions.

1) Should I overlap the felt paper about 2 inches as I go along, or should I butt the seams?

2) Can I use custom cut felt paper shims on top of the underlayment but below the 3' wide roll of felt I will be laying down. I don't know if it will be ok to do that, if I staple the shims as well as the felt paper over the shims.


3) The stair nosing I have is 3 1/2" wide with about a 1 3/16" overhang. I'm somewhat tight on space in my stairwell and don't know if the sheetrock should tuck into/under the nosing or if it should butt square underneath of the nosing. The first method is easier for finishing the sheetrock. The second method leaves less of an overhang meaning more support for the back of the nosing as well a more room in the stairwell. Is there a standard for installing nosing?

4) Since I won't be starting the flooring at the top of a stairwell, how can I possibly install 20 rows of flooring and have the groove of the stair nosing match the tounge of my 20th row when it arrives at the stairwell. Also, I can't use a groove when the end of the 2 1/4" flooring pieces butt the back of the nosing. Is it ok to ignore the groove in the stair nosing?

5) When using a 2" transition strip with the 1/2" piece sticking down in the center, what is the maximum gap between sections of flooring that I can use. I'm thinking a gap of no more than 1 1/2" giving about 1/4" bearing on each side of the strip. However, I don't know if that is too little bearing for the strip and worry that it might break at the sides.

6) Now for the last question. It's about layout and requires a bit of setup.

I'm installing the flooring on the first floor of an older 24' deep rancher. When you open the front door of the house there is existing red oak flooring that is about 45 years old. 12' deep into the house there is a load bearing wall where I will transition the old flooring to the new flooring. The opening for this transition area is about 7 feet wide.

The problem that I'm having is that the existing flooring is out of square (by about 1/2" in 7 feet) with the walls in the area I'll be putting down flooring. Because I'm installing a new kitchen that will have about 11 feet of cabinets running parallel to the flooring I would like to have the flooring be square with the cabinets.

So, the question is, do I pick up the 1/2" under the transition strip where there is only about 7 feet to eye up the strange angle, or do I continue with the out of square flooring and not worry about how the base cabinets or kitchen island sit on the floor.

Note: for simplicity I've described the house as a standard rancher which it originally was. However, the reason we're installing the flooring is that we've extended the back of the house out by 20 feet. So, the run from the transition stirp to the back of the house is actually 12' + 20' arriving at 32'. If I keep the new flooring in line with the old flooring I'm worried I'll be way out of square after a run of 32'. Also, the flooring will have to start matching the base cabinets after only 11 or 12 rows have been put down.

My apologies for the long post.

Thanks,
Mike

Sorry about the long post above. I got a little carried away and was anxious to get started. I've found answers to most of my questions.

1) I am going to butt the 15# felt. I don't need a moisture barrier.
2) I am going to use felt shims
3) I am going to butt the drywall square against the bottom of the stair nosing.
4) I won't worry about using the groove in the stair nosing when using it as a border around the stairwell.
5) I'm going to have a 1 1/2" gap at its widest point for the T molding.

6) I'm going to just pick up the half inch I need to get square with the room all at once under the T molding.

If there is something wrong with my plan so far could one of you guys let me know?

Thanks,
Mike

1) yes, good
2) yes, good
3) I can't picture what you're saying but if it looks good to you, go for it.
4) Well, It's always better to be able to engage the T&G of the flooring and nosing together. A lot more strength. I guess it's no ALWAYS possible but I can usually design my layouts and starting points to accomplish this. I could show if I were there or if you had a sketch. Trying to describe it is well, not as easy.
5) Some T-molds are barely 1.5" wide. Best to double check before you commit to that gap.
6) Again, I'm not getting what you're talking about but it sounds as if you have an idea and a plan.

Layout comes with experience. One learns to consider everything. There is just no easy answers sometimes. But if I had a sketch to work from, well, I could be more help.

6) I know exactly what you are talking about. DO NOT continue into your big room! You need to fix that offset, either now or later, otherwise your main room will be off by about 2.25 inches, end to end (which will be very noticable and will cause you to be depressed).

In my situation I was offset 3/4 inch for every 5 feet coming from a hallway leading into my big room. I stopped laying in the hallway and started in the big room (combo family room and kitchen, about 35 feet , end to end) opposite side from my hallway to ensure my big room was perfectly straight. When I came to where the big room boards met the hallway boards, I ripped boards (about 18 inches long) to prefectly fit into the space (gap), . Since my offset was not truly linear, I measured the gap every 4 inches and transferred those measurements to the board I needed to cut. Then I precision-cut the board, with a few extra cuts to get the board to snuggly (very snug!) fit into the gap (no tongue and groove, just flat pieces butting up against each other. I face nailed the boards into place and used the Bruce puddy to fill the nail holes. Pay attention to the color of boards you use in this transistion and it will help hide the fact that the boards are less than 2.25 inches wide, like the rest of the floor. It was the best 2 hours I spent. I have a hard time noticing the transistion, let alone others. I was VERY glad I took the time and did this, otherwise I would of had a T-Molding in that transistion, like you are considering.

Gary and LV,

I'm sorry. I didn't notice that anyone had replied.

First I have a quick question than some optional reading on an update.

I'm starting to put down 1/8" masonite to protect the finished floor while I'm installing the remainder of the kitchen. Does it matter which side of the masonite (Rough or Smooth) goes against the floor?

Ideally the smooth sid would face up, but I'm worried about the rougher side taking away some of the shine of the prefinished floor. Any thoughts?


Gary- Thanks for the feedback. I ended up working out a solution around the stairwell with the stair supplier. I don't think I did a very good job of explaining this earlier because I wasn't using the term balcony describing where I was using the stair nosing. For now I'm using a straight 1/6 pine board (5 1/2" width) around the stairwell and butting the edge of the new flooring tight against it. I've got a 2" overhang to allow for 1/2" drywall a bit of a reveal for the nosing and room underneath for a small trim piece to cover where the drywall meets the underneath of the stair nosing. I'm using the 1x6 to square up the opening in the floor so that the flooring/trim will be located properly when it's time to set the railing. The opening is only slightly out of square and any minor variations in the overhang should not really be noticable..

LV- Thanks for your response. I have already set up the old/new floor meeting spot to use a transition strip. currently, I have a gap that goes from about 7/8" to 1 3/8" but have not yet installed the T molding. I like your idea and am letting it soak in a little. In my case there is a slight difference in color between the 45 year old red oak flooring and the new red oak flooring. I may decide to install the molding to make a definite break between the two areas of flooring. I'm worried that if I don't use the molding it will look like we tried to hide the fact that there were 2 different floors.

In other words, using the molding, the floors are very close and it appears we did a great job of mathing them on either side of the break. Eliminating the molding makes it look like we only did a "pretty good" job of trying to make the floor look as if it was all a single install.

Thanks again,
Mike

Mike,

On my transition gap I had the new flooring on both sides of the transition gap, so "old vs. new floor" was not an issue. I would do whatever you feel looks the best.

Gup

Gup,

I think I will stick with the original plan. It also gives that long run a place for expansion/contraction.

Thanks,
Mike