When it comes to installing flooring in your kitchen, bath or other areas of your home, there are many factors to consider. The price, durability and type of flooring are just a few, but it’s not a bad idea to review the actual process of installation to insure a successful outcome. To make your flooring experience easier, we have compiled some useful tips so you can achieve the best results.

The Perfect Amount: It is very important to determine the square footage of the room by multiplying its length by its width. When we encounter irregularly shaped rooms,we divide the space into smaller rectangular sections and calculate the square footage of each section and then add them together. To prepare for any mistakes during installation, advise our clients to purchase an extra 10 percent and even an extra box for future flooring fixes.

Subfloor: In order to have a flat and quiet subfloor, we typically specify screwing a wood subfloor to the underlying joists helps to minimize creaking and then padding low spots with plywood or shims. We generally specify filling dips with a leveling compound for clients with concrete subfloors.

Glue-down installation: Engineered wood and vinyl are floor coverings that can be installed using a glue-down process. It is best for wood or concrete flooring, or even existing flooring. To install tiles or planks are glued to a clean, flat subfloor using a troweled-on adhesive, yet some glue down flooring is simply peel-and-stick. No vapor barrier is required.

Floating installation: Floating installation can also be used for engineered wood, plastic laminate or vinyl plank flooring surfaces. A wood or concrete subfloor works best with floating installation as well as using existing flooring for a subfloor. During installation, tongue-and-groove planks or tiles are locked together mechanically, yet some products must also be glued together at the joints. To account for minor flaws in the subfloor and to absorb sound, the flooring material is generally laid over a thin foam pad. For installations over concrete, a thin plastic vapor barrier is required.

Nail or staple-down installation: This type of installation works for solid wood and engineered wood and is best for a wood subfloor. The installation process includes using a standard ¾ inch-thick solid-wood strip and plank flooring that is traditionally nailed to the subfloor, while thinner solid or engineered material is almost exclusively stapled. Fasteners are driven diagonally through the tongue side of the material and into the subfloor, which makes them invisible once the floor is finished. Solid flooring can also be nailed straight through the surface with decorative cut nails or fastened with screws, which are typically countersunk and concealed with wood plugs. A layer moisture barrier is often sandwiched between the subfloor and floor to prevent moisture accumulation between the two and lessen sound.

Specifying flooring is something we specialize in because we understand that our clients want both beauty, functionality and flawless performance.