Hello everyone, I'm brand new to the forum and am still reading through the old posts that might help, but I wanted to get this conversation started.

A friend recently removed a red oak floor in good condition, and I now have access to the boards. I am looking to replace the carpeting in my dining room. This is a significantly more difficult project than I may have anticipated for a couple reasons. I am on the third floor of a condo with carpeting over Gypcrete subfloor. How should I go about installation? Everything I have read suggests that even with proper treatment, gluing to this subfloor is a bad idea, and there is nothing to nail to. From my perspective that means I am either installing a thick piece of plywood over the Gypcrete, which would mean a very high jump in flooring height, or I would have to remove the Gypcrete first, which would be a real pain and I have seen some references to it being legally required to put some other sort of fire blocking material down to replace it.

So, any ideas on how to best install this?

Second, the original floor has wide holes that were used to screw it down with wood plugs to fill the holes. I really dislike this look, so would likely be cutting down the flooring to remove the holes (thankfully the original floored area is much bigger than my dining room, so I can afford the wastage). I imagine I will be ripping/ cutting down the boards, then routing a lip back into the cut pieces so they fit together as normal. Some of the boards just have the holes at the ends, but some of the wide pieces have it all the way down one or both sides.

Should my priority be in keeping the boards as long as possible and losing more width, or keeping them wide and having shorter boards?

Lastly, these pieces have a very small 45 degree bevel in the top edges, so there will be small, maybe 1/16 inch grooves between boards. It seems like this would be harder to clean. Anyone have any experience with that? Since I am already going to have to work on most of the boards, should I just narrow them up a tiny bit to remove the groove? This is extra work, but will result in a smoother final product.

Thanks in advance, I realize this is a bunch all at once, but wanted to get some advice before diving into a project that may not be feasible.

Brendon

Sounds like a lot of work. Is this a solid 3/4 hardwood or engineered? Cus you can float engineered over an underlayment which would muffle the noise, which may be a requirement with your complex.

Solid. Probably wouldn't go to all the hassle for engineered. But it would save me a good Grand in material cost to use this stuff if I can.

You would need a bench top planer.

I have access to one. I'm mostly concerned about installation and how I can make this work. Or if I can.