We are planning to do a family room and hallway with utility grade hickory. I understand the increase in checking, empty knots, short boards and great variation in color (which I like). We also understand the increase in labor time it will take to accomdate those problems. We are on an extremely tight budget and think its worth the extra effort. We live on 20 acres in the country in Colorado. Are we nuts to take this on? I have installed several other floors with a manual stapler and refinished others from 100 yr old oak and pine plank in a 50 yr old house. Do we have a decent chance for this to come out okay? Should we over oder by more than 15% because of extra waste? Should we just shoot ourselves now and save ourselves the trouble later? Anybody else out there done and had a good result? I'd love to hear from any and all that have tackled this sort of thing. We are handy and capable with a fair amount of experience. Let us know what you think.

Cut, measure, nail. Sure....

This can save you $ on the installation. Plus give you pride in your sweat equity.

Read and ask questions on this site. You can do it with the info you can get here.

Then give serious consideration to having a professional do the sanding and finishing. There is a steep learning curve to that portion of creating a new and beautiful hardwood floor.

Why so much waste on a tight budget .. If it is a local dist , i would order less ,and see if i need more as the job progresses ..

If you are choosing utility grade Hickory, I dont understand why you would order so much extra material. Other than cutting waste, you shouldn't be trying to select out this floor for anything other than structural defects. All the colour and grain variations are part of the look with this grade, especially Hickory.