How To Start With A Straight Line For Hardwood Flooring

Remove the shoe molding and snap a chalk line 3 8 out from the baseboard this allows for expansion in the hot humid weather and contraction in the colder drier weather of the hardwood flooring.

How to start with a straight line for hardwood flooring.

Properly laying the first three boards in a hardwood flooring installation is essential to a quality install. Starting a line for a 2 1 14 hardwood flooring oak floor. Then proceed to assemble the first three rows. Get tips off this video.

Since wood is a dimensionally imperfect material this can be a challenge to get right but the extra effort is worth the time investment. The first three boards set the tone and direction for the floor. It s rare to find a room that s perfectly square so the wall opposite the one you choose for the first row is probably angled with respect to it. A chalk line helps to make a straight edge that you can align your planks against for even precise flooring.

Drive nails into the marks and stretch mason s line between them to create a straight guideline along your wall or snap a line on the floor with a chalk line. 1 pry off with a prybar any baseboard or molding from the longest wall in the room. They must be absolutely straight and laid without gaps or bends.