Wood Floors of Dallas Podcast

Before You Break That Tile: Hunter Ross' DIY Floor Installation Wisdom

• Hunter Ross • Episode 8

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What Are Some Pro-Tips To Give DIYers To Do Their Own Installation?

Considering a DIY hardwood floor installation? Before you grab that nail gun or spread that adhesive, expert Hunter Ross shares the professional secrets that can make or break your project.

The enthusiasm of homeowners tackling their own flooring projects is admirable, but without proper preparation, that enthusiasm can quickly turn to frustration. Hunter breaks down the critical first steps that professionals take but DIYers often miss - from proper floor preparation techniques to tool selection. You'll discover why creating a perfectly level subfloor with cementitious floor float isn't just a good idea but essential for a successful installation.

Ever struggled with removing old flooring? Hunter reveals time-saving techniques you won't find in standard how-to guides. Learn why cutting carpet into three-foot strips makes removal dramatically easier and how a specific sledgehammer technique can cut tile removal time in half. Perhaps most surprising is Hunter's recommendation to start your installation from the center of the room rather than against walls. This counterintuitive approach solves alignment problems caused by the reality that no home has perfectly straight walls.

The quarter-inch expansion gap rule alone could save your entire installation from buckling and failure. Hunter explains why this seemingly small detail matters so much for the long-term success of any hardwood floor. Whether you're planning to install engineered hardwood, solid hardwood, or another flooring type, these professional insights will help you achieve results that look professional and stand the test of time.

Ready to transform your space with beautiful new floors? Call 972-525-0026 for a free in-home consultation with the Wood Floors of Dallas team. Visit Woodfloordallas.com to learn more about our services and see examples of our craftsmanship. Remember to subscribe to our podcast for more expert advice on creating exceptional living spaces.

To learn more about Wood Floors of Dallas visit:
https://www.WoodFloorDallas.com
Wood Floors of Dallas
159 W. Main St., Suite 200
Lewisville, Texas 75057
972-525-0026

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Wood Floors of Dallas podcast, where we bring expert insights on hardwood flooring design and craftsmanship, hosted by Hunter Ross, owner of Wood Floors of Dallas, with over 20 years in the building product industry. Whether you're a homeowner or a general contractor, we're here to help you create amazing spaces with honor, quality and expertise. Let's get started.

Speaker 2:

Thinking about tackling your own hardwood installation. Before you roll out the underlayment or fire up that nail gun, hear what seasoned pro Hunter Ross wants every do-it-yourself person to know first. Welcome back everyone. I'm Sofia Yvette, co-host and producer, back in the studio today with Hunter Ross, owner of Woodflowers of Dallas. Hunter, I know you've been crazy busy recently. How have you been doing?

Speaker 3:

It's good. We just have been definitely very busy, haven't been as pointed as we want with our podcast, but we're picking up, so we're doing good. I'm happy to be back with you and ready to go up so we're doing good.

Speaker 2:

I'm happy to be back with you and ready to go, and definitely happy to have you back on today. Now I know DIY is a hot topic. Can't wait to hear your take on how homeowners can do it right and avoid costly mistakes. So, hunter, what are some pro tips to give DIYers to do their own installation?

Speaker 3:

yeah. So first to start off with, I think one of the most important things is, as a hardwood floor guy myself for many, many years, I love people's enthusiasm to, you know, tackle something like putting in new floors. I often laugh when some of my clients call me and they're like I'm going to do it myself and I'm like, okay, well, that's great, but also you need to know a few things. You know before you start. So like, basically, help you stop the bleeding before it starts is the idea right? But there's just there's.

Speaker 3:

There's a whole lot of things, but in order to get everybody kind of started off on the right track, the first fundamental things that you need to know about doing it yourself is that you're going to need to have the tools and the patience in order to get it all done right. Those are the two foundational things. Working with different types of hardwood materials and different types of flooring materials they all have their very specific needs, but when it comes to starting off right kind of the keys are make sure you have all your flooring in your house and it's acclimated and we can get into that later and then your preparation for your actual floor. So if you're on a slab, for instance.

Speaker 3:

You want to make sure that the very first thing you do is you know you remove the old floors and then prepare that concrete slab for the new floors. And the way you do that is using like a cementious floor float. The flatter the floor when you start, the easier, simpler the installation will be and the better result that you'll have long term. You'll avoid things like hollow spots and things like that in your flooring and it'll also allow those floors, when they get all connected, to stay very tight and stick down to the floor and not have any movement up or down. So your floor preparation and your tools is really the number one thing that people skip out and skip over or don't know about whenever they're just getting started in their project and we can go in pretty deep what were you thinking about? Other questions, and then I can just kind of choose one and kind of go into it so we can explain to a DIY person how to get started on it.

Speaker 2:

Definitely. So how long does it typically take for the first part of the process for DIYers to get their floor set up?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, so let's just take, for example, that we'll take an easy example that you're just removing carpet, right, so you've got your. You've got your products, you know, either delivered into the home or you know, or sitting in a place where it's out of the way, for instance, cutting carpet. There's a trick.

Speaker 3:

Some people will try to go into a room of carpet and they will try to roll the whole carpet up into one giant thing and fold it and bring it out of the house. Don't ever do that. You take a knife, like a razor blade knife, and you cut it into three foot strips and you roll those three foot strips up, you tie those little three foot strips up and then you walk them out the house really easy, really fast, and you can clear a whole house of carpet like that, no time, right. And then you're not hitting the walls with the carpet or dragging it across any other surfaces or you're, you know, railing on your, on your stairs or walls or anything like that, right? Or if you're doing tile demo, for another example there's a million different ways people try to demo tile.

Speaker 3:

But the tried and true, proven method is to get like a two and a half pound sledgehammer and you hit every single tile like 12 to 15 times in a little grid and it pulverizes the tile and the mortar bed underneath it. It's really easy to knock the tiles off and break the tiles, but the mortar is the hardest part to get off of the slab. So if you do that method, you may think it's going to take a long time, but it actually cuts your total removal time in half because that mortar bed is coming off at the same time as the tile is being pulverized. And then you just scoop it and put it into a bucket and throw it in bags and take it outside. So little, two little things, just right from the get go. That can really help you get started is just knowing how to take it. Take those things out, watch some podcasts uh, you know, watch them YouTube. So that way you get the. You get to see some of those tricks.

Speaker 3:

But the next thing is, of course, preparing the slab, like I was talking to earlier. Float it with, you know, a cementious floor float. Do some lessons on that as well, like learning how to do it and feather it with a big trowel. Um, so you get like a nice, a smooth, clean surface to feather it with a big trowel. So you get like a nice, smooth, clean surface. And then let's say you're going to go a glue down engineered hardwood right, some people will.

Speaker 3:

There's a lot of different ways to do it, but the bottom line is the easiest and best way for you to make the most accurate and perfect install is to take a point in the middle of the floor, your longest run from the front to the back of your house or whichever way you're running the material, usually it's going from the front to the back and you take a line and you snap a chalk line right in the middle and you set your first boards on those. Because all of your walls none of them are ever straight. If you start to set your first row on a wall interior excuse me, an exterior wall in your home and then you start to set your first row on a wall interior excuse me, an exterior wall in your home and then you start laying all that floor out from there you'll get to another wall and you'll realize that it's at a major angle one way or another. So you want to avoid that. So you start right in the middle of the house.

Speaker 3:

Snap a chalk line, lay the first row of boards glue them in place, let them sit there overnight and now you have a very sturdy, strong first starting line so you can lay the rest of your floor out from there, going to the walls, right. So that's a really, really good trick that you would just never, naturally, think about. If you're going to do it yourself, you just think, hey, I'm going to put this up against the wall and you're good, right? Some other really important things, just to know as a DIY person for a successful install is you always have to leave a gap, a minimum of a quarter inch gap, around any hard surface before it touches any vertical surface.

Speaker 3:

So if you're laying material and you have a wall here or you know any, any like an island, a piece of cabinetry, anything you always have to leave a little gap right there so that way the material can expand and contract, because with temperature and humidity, every single flooring expands and contracts, it doesn't matter what it is. And if you don't have that little gap around the edge, it puts too much pressure on the floor and then the floor will pop up. It'll peak because there's just so much pressure on the floor and then the floor will pop up. It'll peak because there's just so much pressure on that floor. So making sure your gaps around the edges, making sure your floor is flat, and then starting your whole installation from a straight line right in the middle of the floor is going to give you the highest chances of success, for sure. And there's all the technical details about cutting and things like that, which is you got to just work on it and play with it at your house with your tools, to get really good at those things.

Speaker 2:

Wow, Well Hunter, thank you so much for breaking it down for us today. You've just saved a lot of floors and probably a few weekends too. Looking forward to more insights next time. Have a great rest of your day.

Speaker 3:

You too, looking forward to more insights next time. Have a great rest of your day, you too. Thank you, sophia.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for tuning in to Wood Floors of Dallas podcast. Ready to transform your space? Call 972-525-0026 for a free in-home consultation or visit woodfloordallascom to learn more. Work with honor, build with excellence. See you next time.