Wood floors are as beautiful as they are durable, and installing it yourself can save money.
BUT, you need to prep your subfloor, or your new flooring could have problems.
We’ll show you the steps to prep a plywood subfloor.
First you need to how much flooring and materials you’ll need.
Measure the room length times width to calculate the square footage.
Add about 10% for mistakes or warped boards.
Next remove the baseboards, carpet, and tack strips.
If you have vinyl, you can install certain flooring right over it.
No matter what type of flooring you install your subfloor has to be: clean, dry, level,
and structurally sound.
For glue down applications, you need to remove any wax, paint, adhesives, or oils with a
sander.
For floating and nail down floors you just need to clean up dust and debris.
What about odors from pet stains?
Well, the best approach is to use a stain remover then cover it with a primer sealer.
But keep in mind, some glue down adhesives won’t adhere to the sealer, so check the
instructions.
After you’ve cleaned your floor check the moisture level.
A simple moisture meter will work.
Just press the pins into your subfloor and check the reading.
Your flooring manufacturer’s instructions will list acceptable readings.
If your moisture levels are too high, call a pro for help.
Oh, when working on plywood over concrete, check the levels of both floors.
After the moisture tests, check that the floor is level.
It shouldn’t vary more than 3/16-inch every 10-feet.
Sand any high spots, and fix low spots according to your floor type.
Typically, on glue down and floating floors you can apply leveling compound.
For nail down floors you can repair by reinforcing the joists, or building up the low spots with
15-pound felt or shims.
Your subfloor also needs to be strong and structurally sound.
Fix loose or creaky boards with wood or decking screws.
Of course any major damage will need to be repaired too.
One more note for subfloor repairs.
Flooring typically looks best running along the longest wall in the room, BUT it should
be perpendicular to the floor joists.
If it won’t be, you can add another plywood layer to strengthen the floor.
Next, prep the doorways.
Stack a piece of flooring on the underlayment and cut door casings about 1/16-inch above
with a jamb saw.
For doors, remove them and cut about 1/8-inch above.
When your subfloor is in good shape, you can put down the underlayment.
The type depends on your flooring installation.
For nailing solid hardwood or stapling engineered, go with felt paper or Grade D craft paper.
Roll it out, leaving the underlayment long at the ends--you’ll trim it after you’ve
installed the floor.
Overlap the seams about 6-inches, and staple down.
For floating engineered, locking, or laminate, use a 2-in-1 or 3-in-1.
Typically they have self-adhesive seams to join the pieces together.
For glue down floors, the moisture barrier is usually part of the adhesive.
Some products even have the underlayment pre-attached, but you might still need a moisture barrier.
One other thing: some engineered, locking, and laminate floors can go right over vinyl
as long as it’s not two layers thick.
Next step is to mark a starting line square to the room walls.
However, many walls are bowed or out of square, so here’s what you do.
Mark the center of each wall and snap lines between.
Then measure from the center to the starting wall, subtract the expansion gap, and mark
this distance at the ends.
Snap a line between to get a straight line against the wall.
Now your subfloor is prepped.
For more great ideas and how-to’s, go to Lowes.com/HowTo or click subscribe.
Next, learn how to install your flooring.