Professional Flooring Installers

There have been many changes in the flooring industry over the past 20 years - some good, some not so good.

I'm not going to exaggerate and say that back then everyone took pride in what they did and worked efficiently, because that was not the case. However, it did seem that more people, especially younger people, were eager to learn and work hard to make money. As we know, that's not the case in this day and age.

Twenty years ago the procedure for becoming a professional installer was simple. You'd work as an apprentice or "helper" for a few years and gradually learn the skills required to go out on your own as a qualified installer. Nowadays, there seems to be no such thing as an apprentice. As soon as a helper gets wind of how much his or her mentor is making, two weeks later they're an installer running ads in the newspaper and making a mess out of customers' houses. Twenty years ago almost all installers worked in the union. Although union labors do have their bad points, their apprenticeship program was definitely a big benefit. If you were in a union, you did not graduate to installer status unless you were ready and qualified to do so.

I would have to say, honestly, that in my opinion, 50% to 70% of all people calling themselves professional flooring installers should be considering another career! Even some of the ones that have field experience don't have the skills. The experience they have under their belt may have been obtained by their own trial and error, as opposed to professional training. Some are even ordinary people who may have just decided that their previous job was going nowhere, so they bought some Time-Life 'How To" books and hit the streets.

There are many things that I feel contribute to the lack of qualified installers. One thing is the added opportunity we have these days. Installing floor covering is hard work. If a young person attempts to learn a trade such as this, and sees how hard the work is versus, say, learning how to work on a computer, then realizes the pay rate is the same or better for computer work, which field do you think they're going to pursue? One thing that has to change is the pay rate for true qualified installers. In simple terms, it has to increase! Some of the pay rates for this type of work haven't changed in over 30 years, and some have actually gone down! That doesn't give newcomers much incentive, and it sure irritates the ones who already have been in the industry for many years. It irritates some of them to the point that they want to get out, or they work every day with a really bad attitude.

Another contributing factor is that, in many states, counties, towns, etc., there is no license required to do this type of work. Electricians, plumbers and many other tradesmen must be licensed to do the work that they do. In most cases flooring installations run into thousands of dollars—much more than other trades charge for their work. So, why aren't they required to have a license? This makes no sense. I feel that if a license were required for all the different types of flooring installations, it would weed out the non-professionals. Furthermore, in some states, a license is required by flooring installers on commercial jobs, but that licensing is usually overlooked when it comes to residential work contracted by homeowners.

There are some signs that the industry as a whole is attempting to change all of this. With the introduction of laminate flooring into the United States, and the fact that its popularity is growing at a staggering rate, the manufacturers are taking their own approach to this problem. Some of the larger manufacturers are now offering training classes. They charge potential installers a fee and put them through a training program that's designed for their product line. They then deem these trained people "Certified Installers." That's great, except that these classes are usually one to four days, and then they're done. I understand that the manufacturer considers them "certified," but I can't see how they'd be qualified in that short period of time. This goes back to my feeling on the apprentice programs of yesteryear. One good thing about the laminate flooring manufacturers, though: They are all terrified of developing a bad reputation with the buying public. With that in mind, they have been a bit more forgiving when it comes to approving claims. I've seen them approve claims that were installation-related problems and replace them, even though they had no obligation to do it.

What's the bottom line on this subject? Things have to change for the better, or the industry is doomed. When I say doomed, I'm referring to low profits, bad reputations and all of that good stuff. If you buy a floor made by the XYZ company, and you have a problem with it, even if it's installation-related, you may not recommend that floor to anyone. Even if the manufacturer was not at fault, you still had the bad experience. Hopefully, things will change for the better.

In the meantime, I highly recommend that you do all of your homework before hiring an installer. If you're considering doing the installation yourself, and you have some experience with this type of work, then I say go for it! You may be more professional than the "professional" you were going to pay to do the job.

Additional information on installing flooring

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What Size Screws Should I Use?

Q: I am building a small addition on the back of my house. I am at the point where I will be screwing the OSB sub-floor to the floor joists. My next-door neighbor said that the screws that I chose (2”) are to long and that they would pop up of the sub-floor!

It would seem to me that the longer the screws the better the holding power and if the holding power is better they would be less likely to pop up. Is he right?

A: I can understand your dilemma, it would seem to make sense that the longer the screw, the less likely it would be to pop up. But, your neighbor is 100% correct, the longer the screw the more likely it is to pop up and release its grip.

In the vast majority of cases, flooring fasteners pop up because the joist lumber will shrink. Staples pop up more than common nails and common nails more than long screws and long screws more than short screws.

If you follow the link below, you will find a detailed explanation of lumber shrinkage and screw length. Because of the inherent holding power of screws, they do not need to penetrate the joist more than ¾”.

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Asbestos In Flooring Adhesives

Q: Our current project is replacing the flooring in our sunroom. The sunroom was added in the 1960's and has beautiful avocado green linoleum. The floor is sliced in places, curling at the edges, and there is at least one soft spot in the subflooring. My fear w/ tearing it up is asbestos. I've read the adhesive used to glue the linoleum has asbestos in it and when you tear it up you release the dust into the air, which can be dangerous. Is any of that true? And, if so, is it safe to tear it up? Wet it first? Any advice, experience, or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

A: Yes, asbestos was used in some adhesives for flooring. Once you start removing asbestos you will most likely (depending on where you are) fall under some environmental guidelines for the safe removal. In many areas homeowners are not permitted to remove asbestos products themselves and must hire a licensed contractor.

The best way to solve the problem is to leave the current floor in place and cover it with a layer of 1/4" plywood and place your new flooring on it.

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Hardwood Flooring Finish

Q: We installed pre-stained oak in our house- we did mix up the boxes but some of the pieces are more matte and others are more shiny- which makes the floor look awkward- is there a floor polish that would even things out when we go on the market, yet not hurt the finish?

A: The finish should have been the same, sometimes there are variations in the color primarily because wood being a natural material, will stain differently depending on which tree it is from and from what area of the tree. They make both a satin and gloss finish. If it is a name brand flooring, such as Bruce, I would contact them.

That being said, if you buff the floor with a fine grain sand paper, you should be able to coat it with a high gloss polyurethane floor finish, which will make the entire finish the same. I wouldn't apply a wax or other polish to a finished hardwood floor.

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Fast Setting Thinset

Q: Probably the only "critical" part of our bath remodel is the tile around the toilet. How long will thin set take to set up enough to add grout, and then the grout to set up for the toilet? We only "need speed" for the toilet area. We do have access to another toilet, but it isn't convenient. The rest of the bathroom could be done at a bit more leisurely pace.

A: They make a fast setting mortar for this type of thing. You might be able to grout it in a couple of hours, and I don't see any reason that you couldn't set the bowl within an hour or two of grouting, if you really, really want to push it.

Standard mortar should set up overnight before grouting.

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Stains On Old Floor Boards

Q: I have a 117 year old house and am working on finishing the old wood floor in the living room. I say finishing rather than refinishing, because the floor has never been finished in the sense of sanded, stained and urethane. I'm not sure what kind of wood but probably not oak or anything high-end. Just old wooden boards. The 'archaeological dig' shows evidence that in olden days it had an area carpet in the middle, with varnish and then later on paint, around the edges. I've removed the modern wall-to-wall carpet, taken out all the old staples and nails, and used a drum sander. The old paint has been removed. The old red varnish was tough to get rid of but is pretty much gone. The outer four foot rim of the room looks reasonably good. The problem is that in the center of the room where there was once only area carpet, there are some black stains that are proving very difficult to deal with. Sanding and more sanding seem to have little effect on them. My husband thinks that the stains must go all the way through the boards; he says someone must have worked on their engine in there! I've tried bleaching them off, but that just lightened the unstained wood around them without lightening the stain. Does anyone have any advice how to deal with this? Is there some special product that is made specifically for removing stains from wood?

A: Sounds like animal urine damage that soaked through the rug/carpet and then into the floorboards. Sorry, but to my knowledge there is nothing that can be done, besides replacing those boards.

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Finishing Hardwood Flooring

Q: I have a question about finishing wood. I have sanded down the wood in preparation for putting on a shiny topcoat of varathane or polyurethane. When I finish sanding I wipe off the sawdust with a wet cloth. When the floor is wet it looks much darker than it does when it's dry. Does the coloring of the floor when it is wet pretty much give you an indication of what the coloring will be when clear polyurethane or varathane goes on?

A: The floor should be wiped with a tack cloth not a damp cloth. Water swells the wood fibers. It must be 100% dry before you stain, not 99.9% but 100%. The wet darker appearance is Not a good indication of what you will get. A clear high quality urethane will not change the color of the floor.

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Laminate Flooring Questions

Q. A couple of laminate flooring questions.

1. I installed laminate in our living room and since then the stick-on tiles in the dining room are peeling up on the edges. I've decided to put down laminate floor in that room as well. I have a reducer molding between the living room and dining room. I'm going to have to replace it with a T molding and will have to remove it before starting the dining room for spacing. How do I remove it? Jig saw?

2. I'm also installing laminate in our master bathroom. Is it necessary to glue the glueless click planks because of moisture?

A. 1. Without actually seeing the installation a saber saw is probably your best bet. Although a circular saw set at the right height is easier to maintain a straight line.

2. DO NOT glue the glueless planks - they need freedom to expand and contract. Glue them and you will have no end of buckling problems. I am not sure I understand the part about "moisture" in the master bedroom. If you have a moisture problem in your home, you should fix the problem rather than trying to remodel around the problem.

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Hardwood Floor Project

Q. I'm researching phase of a hardwood floor project. Some background, this is my first time laying hardwood flooring and I have access to tons or scrap pieces of random lengths from 6 inches to 32 inches of solid kiln dried .75 inch hardwood (cherry, oak, and hickory) the width is between 2.25 and 4 inches.

My plan is to purchase a router, table and tongue and groove bits and manufacturer my own product.

Here are some questions:

What is the min length of material I should use for a floor?
Is there a min and max width I should use?
What are some of the pitfalls of going this route?

For the cost of surfacing one room with a cheap laminate I can do basically my whole house so I'm pretty set on doing this, unless there is some big red flag out there.

Thanks for your time and input.

A. I think it is a great concept. Considering the varieties of woods you have available you might want to consider some different patterns:

Tips:

Make sure the lumber is in the room that you plan on flooring, to allow it to acclimatize at least 72 hours.

Unless you are using a diagonal pattern, and some of the patterns above will utilize a lot of smaller pieces, in a straight layout, an 18" piece is really the smallest you want to work with. You don't want joints in parallel rows to be within 6" and joints should not line up for 4 rows minimum.

You will need to mill one side smooth (bottom) in order to use a router table.

If these are unfinished, and you are going to sand flat, make sure that the tongue and groove are cut from the same side and when laid, otherwise your floor will not sit tight to the sub-floor. Try to do all your routing of tongues, then do grooves. Duplicating the set-up exactly will be tricky.

You will also have to decide whether you will tongue and groove the ends.

There is no real difference in widths and you can mix and match in rows. I wouldn't use less than a 2 3/4" width.

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Laminate Flooring on walls?

Q. Would it be possible... or practical... or cost effective to use laminate wood flooring on a bathroom wall? There is no tub or shower, so moisture shouldn't be an issue. I'm planning to use tile on the floors, but I found some inexpensive interlocking bamboo laminate flooring that I think would look nice to use half way up the walls to go with my Asian theme. Since these are usually used as "floating" floors, what would be the best way of attaching it to the wall? Any thoughts or suggestions would be welcomed.

A. Technically there is no reason why you cannot use laminate flooring on a wall. I would use some construction adhesive. I would also use an overlapping molding to finish the top and put the baseboard in front of the planks rather than butting the planks to the top of the baseboard. Lay a bead of caulking on the floor to allow the planks to expand and contract.

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Sanding Hardwood Floors

Q: I want to get someone to refinish my hardwood floors about 400 sq. ft. How much should I be charged I don't want to get ripped off. And what kind of sander do I need to rent? I really just want the trade to do the sanding part not really the staining and everything.

A: It depends somewhat on where you are located. But you should budget $1.50 to $2 a sq. ft. for sanding, they will supply the sanders and sandpaper. That should also include doing the hand work in corners, but will not include stairs. The big box home improvement centers offer this service.

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Can't Afford To Refinish My Hardwood Floors

Q: I too need to have my floors refinished but it isn't in the budget. Could I just clean the floors really well and then put a polyurethane on them to hold me over until "someday" comes when it might be in the budget?

A: Their are two problems with adding a coat of urethane over your hardwood floors. The first is that you will seal in any dirt, grime and other marks. The second is that if there is any wax or varnish on the floor the urethane will not adhere to it.

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Removing Staples From Hardwood Floors

Q: I took the carpet out of my home a few years ago and I have hardwood floors underneath. They had stapled the pad down. I pulled up a lot of staples that I could get a hold of with the needle nosed pliers, but there are still a lot of staples still in the floor. Is there a secret to removing them with out gouging the floor too badly?

A: You can remove the nails by using a very thin straight screw driver or 7" mini pry-bar and "carefully" push the edge of the tip under one end of the staple, twist and the staple should lift. Try using lineman's pliers they
have a wide set of jaws and by placing the head of the jaws straight up on the floor, one jaw on each side of the staple. Needle nose pliers don't provide the necessary grip.

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Flooring - Consider Your Options!

Today, homeowners have a vast assortment of materials available for flooring and each of those materials provides numerous options in color, size, shape, quality, texture, and price. It is important to consider all your options before choosing new flooring material.

Homeowners have been applying coverings over nature’s floor, earth, for thousands of years. It started when cavemen removed the stones from the dirt and made the earth smooth and more comfortable to walk on. We graduated from bare dirt floors by the careful placement of straw (available at the local DIY - Cave Depot) over the earth to provide some protection from the ground’s dampness and to provide a cushion for our feet.

The Romans and Greeks, used fired clay tiles on the ground going farther back than 1,000 BC. The advent of fired flooring material allowed the floors to be properly cleaned for the first time in history. The Egyptians used natural stone, such as granite as a flooring material, and slate was used in other parts of Europe to cover the earth. In Persia, they wove animal hair into wool to create rugs and in other parts of the world complete animal skins were used to provide flooring comfort.

A lot has changed since our forefathers used straw as a flooring material. Today we have a vast assortment of materials available for making and covering our floors to provide us with comfort and aesthetic warmth:

• Wood flooring - in planks and boards (more than 50 varieties)


• Bamboo flooring (which is a grass)


• Cork flooring (tree bark)


• Ceramic Tile


• Porcelain Tile


• Clay Tile


• Laminate flooring (a manmade manufactured product)


• Natural Stone – in slabs and tiles (marble, granite, slate, limestone)


• Glass (produced in blocks)


• Vinyl – in sheets and tiles


• Carpet – in square yards or as tiles


• Rugs & Mats – in natural and manmade fiber


• Concrete

And, each of the above coverings comes in a vast assortment of textures, colors, patterns, shapes, thicknesses, and sizes. However, it is not only the aesthetic value that must be considered when purchasing flooring as each material has advantages and disadvantages pertaining in wear, installation, maintenance, cleaning, longevity, thermal properties, moisture properties, and price.

In many cases, it is advantageous to use combinations of flooring, such as placing area rugs over wood, ceramic, porcelain, or naturals stone floors. The combination can create a unique appearance as well as adding comfort to the room.

If you are considering changing your flooring, you should take some time to consider all the possibilities and options that you have available.

Planning and knowledge are the keys to any successful diy home improvement!

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Laminate Flooring - Buckling Problem

Yesterday I saw a laminate floor that had buckled. The laminate flooring had been installed for about 6 months and was a medium quality product. The homeowners did the installation themselves, after getting verbal instructions from a sales person at a big box retailer.

They admitted that they had felt comfortable in doing the project themselves and had only skimmed the manufacturers installation instruction sheet. The room size was approximately 11’ x 17’.

To my knowledge, there are only 2 reasons for a laminate floor to buckle:

• The laminate flooring was not allowed to acclimatize itself to the room before installation. (Warehouses and big box retail stores are exceptionally dry facilities).

• There was no expansion space allowed between the flooring and the wall.

On questioning the homeowners, they said that the material was in their home for more than a week before they installed it and that they had left a 3/8’ gap all around the room. Both of these should have been adequate to prevent buckling.

Quarter round had been placed around the room to hide the gap between flooring and the walls. I removed a piece of quarter round and immediately discovered the problem. The homeowners had nailed the quarter round to the floor, through the laminate, rather than to the wall, thus locking the floor into place and not allowing the flooring to expand and contract under the quarter round.

Simple mistake and one that was relatively easy to correct.

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Why Are Area Rugs Popular Again?

Area rugs have been around for centuries. In modern decorating the usages seems to have peaks and valleys that cycle ever 10 to 15 years. Right now, area rugs are definitely the "in" floor covering. There, maybe a number of reasons for their current popularity.

Carpeting, in one manner or another, has always been a popular floor covering. The decorating cycle that seems to be prevalent is between area rugs and wall-to-wall carpeting. One of the inherent problems with wall-to-wall carpeting is the difficulty in cleaning. Carpeting is one of the worst enemies of individuals with respiratory or asthmatic health problems. It traps, dirt, dust, mold spores, animal dander, and a host of other allergens.

The better the carpet, by number of fibers per inch, the worse the problem. Vacuum cleaners, no matter how powerful, never remove a 100% of the dust or other contaminants. If you don't believe me, use your current vacuum over an area of wall-to-wall carpeting (after vacuuming, with the power still on, hold the hose in the air, stretch and shake the hose as best you can to remove any dust that may be trapped in the hose). Clean out the bag or canister, ensuring that there are no dust remnants. Vacuum the same area again check the bag or canister and you will see more dirt and dust!

Area rugs have the same inherent problem of trapping dirt, dust, and pollen, however they have the advantage that they can be conveniently removed from the home and taken to be dry-cleaned. The residential and commercial so called steam cleaners, I say so called because they do not use steam to clean the carpet or rug, do a better job than a vacuum, but they still do not remove all the dirt, dust and other contaminants that have made their way through to the under padding.

Now that other floor coverings, such as hardwood and laminates have come down in cost and are being manufactured for installation by the home handyman, wall-to-wall carpeting is decreasing in popularity and area rugs are being used to create warmth and decoration. Where wall-to-wall carpeting is generally a flat color, area rugs give a homeowner the ability to decorate with an assortment of colors and patterns.

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