How We Installed Our Own Hardwood Floors

I’ve been meaning to blog about our hardwood floor project for so long. It’s the biggest house project Danny and I have done so far and our favorite one yet! I’ve always dreamed of light French Oak hardwood floors (I watch too much HGTV 😉 ), and since we have grey hardwood on our first and second levels of our house, we decided to modernize the final level of our house with my dream floor. I absolutely love them – they are light, bright, and modern, but yet still have the rustic and natural beauty with the grayish and dark knots and grooves – which totally ties in with our existing hardwood. The light floors have opened up the rooms and hallways to make them feel bigger.

The floor we chose: California Classics Mediterranean Hardwood French Oak in Malta

The Process

This was our first time EVER laying floor. We came up with the idea late last year when we tore out our existing closet racks and installed our own built-in closet organizers. The demolition part of the project inspired us to take on more. We also did a LOT of research into what tools we would need, how to install the floor, etc. The most useful video we watched was this one by Shaw. In case you’re wondering, we installed floating hardwood floors – this means the boards are glued together on top of underlayment, but not nailed down.

Tools

Here are some of the tools and materials that we found super helpful throughout the installation process:

• QuietWalk Underlayment – highly recommend! Works really well and easy to install.
• SkillSaw flooring saw – this is the saw Danny used for most cuts. He also used a jig saw.
• Glue – this glue works so well! 
• Spacers – these really came in handy.
• This baseboard remover with a rubber mallet was a lifesaver! 
• Linked to more below:

Takeaway

Although it was A LOT of hard work (Danny carried all of the heavy boxes of wood up 2 flights of stairs!), it was totally worth it! We love working on projects together – it’s fun to see our dream come to life and to bond figuring out a new project together. It makes us love our house even more, and the memories we made along the way we’ll remember forever. Like the one door frame corner cut that took over an hour because of the intricacy of measuring and cutting 😉 Check out all of the pictures on this post – from picking out the floor, to the before shots, to mid-process, to the finished product. If you have any questions at all, please reach out to me here or leave a comment below. 

Closet Before

Closet During Installation Process

Finished Closet!

Bedroom Before

Bedroom During Installation Process

Finished Bedroom!