How to Lay Floating Wood Floor
- 1). Use your hammer and prybar to remove the floor trim in the room. Take it out carefully so you can re-install it later.
- 2). Roll out your foam underlayment on the floor alongside the longest wall, cutting it at the end with your razor knife. Lay the second row alongside the first, taping them together with your flooring tape. Continue until the whole floor is covered with the foam underlayment.
- 3). Measure the width of the room and divide it by the width of a floorboard to determine how many floorboards will be needed to span the room. If the final course is going to be less than half a board wide, then split the difference with the first course, ripping the first boards on a table saw lengthwise.
- 4). Lay your first course of boards alongside the wall, leaving a 1/4-inch gap at the wall to allow for expansion of the floor. Clip the boards together end to end. Cut the end boards as needed on a miter saw. Lay the next course alongside the first, snapping them together with the tongue-and-groove connectors on the sides.
- 5). Continue laying courses, cutting the ends on your miter saw and leaving a 1/4-inch gap at all walls. Rip the last course as needed on your table saw.
- 6). Re-install your floor trim, using your trim nailer to nail it to the wall (not through the floor). The trim should cover the gaps at the walls and hold down the floorboards.
