Do-It-Yourself
Doing a home remodeling project? Aitkin Hardwoods has lots of home remodeling tips to make your job easier! Hardest to Easiest Installations fo Wood Flooring How to measure and calculate flooring? How to order paneling.
There are plenty of HGTV shows and Do-it-yourself magazines that paint a picture on how easy it is to install a wood floor, however, depending on your skill level there are many things to consider about installing. A professional installation always gives a quality finished appearance. However, for those of you determined to do it yourself here are some thoughts to consider. The most difficult and labor intensive of the hardwood flooring installations would be solid 3/4 x 2 ½ (or smaller) nail down or staple installation. The wider the planks the less work and time it takes. (However, in the Midwestern climate it is not recommend to exceed 6” in width (in solid flooring) without some face nailing to secure it from warping). Depending on the quality of the product, some boards may need persuasion (crooked, twisted, bowed) to get into place before fastening. What may have been the best price in town or on the web may become an installation nightmare. Here, at Aitkin Hardwoods, we only carry or import the highest quality products with the best reputations and best warranties on the market; even if we price slightly higher than a great web deal, we assure your quality and stand behind our products. It might also be wise to invest in a pneumatic stapler or nailer since some boards will require extra pressure and need to be secured every 6-8”. The next most difficult installations is glue downs. This installations is left best to the professionals. However, if this is what you wish to tackle you’ll need to consider the best adhesives and most user friendly on the market. Without some professional equipment this project can get very mess and as it is a lot of hands and knees work can leave a very sore back. Again, the quality of the boards are important for a smoother installation. Also, this can be near impossible with a prefinished flooring product as you need to be extremely careful to avoid sanding off the excess glue at the end of the installation. See our sealers and adhesive recommendations for some ideas of which might work best for you. The easiest of the do-it-yourself projects are the floating floors. This allows you less work in nailing and stapling (although may still be required in some installations) in wider width flooring though it reduces the time. The best of all installations for the do-it-your self projects is a floating lock together flooring. The allows you wider widths (unless engineered 6” is still recommended for max width) and lengths. It goes together but clicking in place like a puzzle with only some tapping into place. Again the quality of the product plays a key factor in the ease of this installation type. Again, at Aitkin Hardwoods, we carry brands that assure you quality and “easy” installation.
How to measure and calculate flooring?
	How to Measure: There are techniques professionals use since most goods are sold in standard sizes. When they figure out the amount you’ll need they tend to coordinate with that in mind. That is our job at Aitkin Hardwoods, to help figure out what you will need. Your job is to figure out how large your space is. Flooring (wood flooring and laminates) are sold in square footage. So to figure out your square footage of an area simply take the length x width (you don’t necessarily need to subtract for a few cut out here and there as it will work itself out). Example: Length= 12' x Width 15' 6" = Total Square Footage to Cover is 186' When you come in to Aitkin Hardwoods we'll be able to help you figure what you'll need to order. Ordering: For instance, most of the flooring will be sold in bundles of maybe 16' sq ft so…. In our example 186' / 16 = 11.625 bundles but since you buy a whole bundle you'll need 12 bundles which will give you 192 sq ft. Don't feel overwhelmed just bring in your dimensions and our experts at Aitkin Hardwoods will figure it all out for you!
How to order paneling.
	1. Figure the area you are covering…ie walls, ceiling. Find the square footage. Length x Width = Area to cover example 15’ x 25’ = 375 square feet. 2. Decide what species you would like to consider. (Contact AH for helping deciding or design help too!) 3. Decide what direction you want to install the paneling…ie vertical, horizontal or diagonal 4. Decide if you want the random width pattern or if you will want specified widths 5. Consider if you will want the ends “end matched” or left square ended 6. Then finally decided if you will want it left unfinished or if you will prefinish with Aitkin Hardwoods. 7. It is also good to consider there may be a lead time of one-two weeks depending on our inventory and the size of your order. Any prefinishing will be at least an additional one week in addition to your order lead time.