Hard Wood Floors
are First to be Noticed
Walking into a Home!

Bruce hardwood floors

Hard wood floors are the first thing that get noticed when I walk into a home!

The most common statements I hear when showing off my home remodeling projects are, "the floors are beautiful!"

The floor is the first thing noticed because when we enter a house, we tend to look down to watch our step, thus, the first thing noticed is the hardwood floor.

Hardwood Flooring

Wood has a natural beauty that is warm and inviting to the touch and has a sensational eye appeal.

In the photo, the Bruce hardwood floors choice I made is the solid 3/4 inch oak with a factory applied urethane finish that is much tougher and longer lasting than a site-applied finish on a raw unfinished oak floor.

For more flooring ideas, take a look at Flooring Specialty to see a variety of hardwood floors (click here).

Less work, dust, and time for installation and pre-finished floors are only pennies more per square foot than unfinished floors.

Sub-floor damage

Sub-Floor Damage.

On the extensive home remodeling project I did here,
the sub-floor needed extensive repair.

Refinishing the old oak floor laid in 1925was not an option. There were other areas in the house that needed sub-floor replacementso I removed all the original oak floors.

I used 2 tools to remove the oak floor, a hammer and a pry bar with a little brute strength!

Sub-floor replaced

Sub-floor replacement

Cutting out the old sub-floor is easily replaced with plywood, its less expensive and readily available.

The plywood used for the sub-floor matches the 3/4 inch thickness of the original boards used when the house was built in 1925.

I did try to find the 1 x 8 inch Tongue and Groove pine boards, originally used in the construction.

Lumber Manufactures don't make the old sub-floor boards because plywood is less expensive.

The lumber yard said they could fabricate the original material by running 1 x 8 inch boards through their router table but, it's just too cost prohibitive. 

3/4 inch plywood works just fine and its what is now used in new construction today at a fraction of the cost.

Floor underlayment

Flooring Underlayment

You can see in the photo I used Red Rosin Paper. When in doubt, best to get manufacturer recommendation.

Installers choice

There is conflicting debates between contractors and flooring installers whether to use Red Rosin Paper or 15# roofing felt tar paper.

The questions for which underlayment to use under hard wood floors:

  • As a moisture barrier.
  • To quite the squeaks between sub and finished flooring.
  • To keep dirt from passing through to the lower level or basement.
  • To prevent water from leaking through to the lower level.
  • Red Rosin Paper is better because tar paper is messy.

My Opinion about Underlayment

After 10 to 20 years both underlayment products either tear from expansion, rot from spills and dirt, or decay over time from lack of humidity control.

I've used both products...

I use the rosin paper now because it's clean to work with!
Red Rosin Paper is a Green Product made 100% from recyclables.

Tar paper is messy! The tar gets on everything including my clothing.
If the walls are painted - definitely not tar paper. If you want to express your opinion about this or have a question click here.

If I need a water barrier or a sound barrier
I'll use a rubber underlayment similar to what's used
under bathroom tile and showers.

Prefinished oak floor

Prefinished Oak Floor Installation

Flooring installation requires a special air powered flooring stapler to fasten hard wood floors to the subfloor.

I use the Stanley Bostitch Flooring Stapler. The tool cost about $450 and a case of flooring staples cost $50 to $70 for a case of 7720 staples per box, enough to do about a 600 square foot project on 3/4 inch hard wood floors.


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