What is the purpose of starting the installation of the floor 36" out from the wall? I would have thought you would want to start at a wall and move to the other side of the room. I know you want to space it so that you do not have a full plank against one wall and have to cut down the other walls plank to 1 inch of whatever you need, but that could still happen by doing this right?

Thanks for the help.

New:

36" is used for gluedown type installations. Actually you can start any distance you like depending on what you're comfortable with. For nail downs it's started off the wall while leaving some expansion space.

Is there a reason that you would not start from the wall on a glue up as well?

Thanks for your help, I hope to order some flooring soon. I am looking at the Khars RedOak NewYork 3 strip. I am not sure what the 3 strip means though. I like a nice flat floor without the grooves between boards. and I like the 3" board look, but I notice those are like 7" wide. Do they preglue some of the boards together or something? I am hoping to do a glue down install of them, I do not like floating without glue because they have that clacking sound.

Thanks again

It would be pretty messy job if you were to do it that way. Glueing the Kahrs 3 strip(any longstrip type product) is probably one of the hardest types of installations out there and I'm sure the other guys will agree with me. Incidentally 3 strip means there are three strips across the width of each board.

I agree Ken, Longstrip is designed to be floated and performs best that way. Why anyone would want to expend the money and time into direct gluing is beyond me; not to mention the difficulty. So, Newtoflooring, take our advice, don't glue down longstrip, of any brand. If you want a direct glued down floor that gives a good square edge fit, consider Firebird's "Phoenix" line or Lauzon "Next Step". I'm sure there are other brands I'm unaware of.

Firebird's Phoenix is now Bruce's Studio B.

Thanks mc. I never actually saw the Phoenix product, but the Studio B is in a class of itself. Will Firebird ever start up again? They had some real impressive 3/8" and 1/2" quarter sawn solids.

Firebird is kaput. Bankrupt or something. The guy running it was trying to start a new flooring company the last I heard. In Europe, the Studio B product goes under the factory's own brand name of Dekora (Belgium, I think).