DIY wooden floor?

Do it yourself, I did a large lounge and hallway early last year (first time I'd ever attempted it) and it wasn't too bad going, the hardest bit for me was cutting around the door frames etc. Small room should be easy :)
 
Do it yourself, read up about it and take time to do it properly.

measure twice cut once is all you need to know, oh and leave a gap around the edges for the wood to expand/shrink otherwise you will have problems.
 
Leave the wood in your house for 2 weeks before laying it, as even with compensating for wood expansion by leaving gaps you can end up with warped floors. Leaving the wood inside will allow it to expand before you lay it.
 
Bennie-Mac said:
Leave the wood in your house for 2 weeks before laying it, as even with compensating for wood expansion by leaving gaps you can end up with warped floors. Leaving the wood inside will allow it to expand before you lay it.
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Plus DO NOT stand any of the wood on it's end. Leave in original packaging (opened) and stacked no more that 4 packs high. Keep the heating in the room you are fitting as normal.

Make sure you use the correct underlay and use the correct tools. How much wastage have you allowed for?
 
The hardest part would be making the trimming around the edges look neat. every diy job I've ever seen has looked a mess.

Best way to do it is to remove the existing skirting boards and then clean them up and then re-install them over the floor to produce a nice clean edge around the room. This does take much longer but looks far better imo.
 
I haven't bought anything yet but I'm looking to totally redecorate this room.

The trickiest part looks like installing the floor around the two radiator pipes.
 
Are there floorboards underneath? Have you thought about sanding them and staining/varnishing them? Look much nicer IMO if you have nice boards.
 
Stupot_ said:
Are there floorboards underneath? Have you thought about sanding them and staining/varnishing them? Look much nicer IMO if you have nice boards.
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Problem with that is new houses have chipboard/rubbish boards and old houses have big gaps between each board.

Just get some decent quality board and take the skirting off, best bet IMO.
 
are you going to be using proper pieces of wood or the laminate stuff?

if its the laminate, dont do it!

they gather up so much dust and hair its unbelievable and floor noise is bad.

what ever you go for, get some good knee pads as your on them most of the day.

i layed a 5x4 meter room of laminate on my own in a day so its not that hard. just get the right tools.
 
utajoker said:
are you going to be using proper pieces of wood or the laminate stuff?

if its the laminate, dont do it!

they gather up so much dust and hair its unbelievable and floor noise is bad.

what ever you go for, get some good knee pads as your on them most of the day.

i layed a 5x4 meter room of laminate on my own in a day so its not that hard. just get the right tools.
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Nothing wrong with laminate and I've 2 dogs and cat running around on it. Doesn't gather hair or dust any worse than normal wood floors and is better than carpet. As for noise, lay some proper padding underneath and noise is no worse than normal wood floors.
 
What AHarvey said, if your laying a Laminate floor, don't use the cheap 2mm thick padding that comes on a roll. Get the 6mm fibreboard, yes its more expensive but it makes a huge difference.
 
recently did my hallway with a nice expensive laminate. Real wood is good, but it dents, and needs treating too much so we went for a good laminate. Cutting was a pain, but manageable, thing with laminate is its like a big jigsaw puzzle, and you need to minimise waste by being creative with the ends.

Would wholeheatedly reccomend lifting the skirtings - especially if you're painting the room anyway - looks loads better, and is easy to do.

Good underlay is important too - tho we found good didnt neccesarily equal thick - the thick stuff causes a rolling. Ours was quite thin, yellow, and cost a fair bit /m2.
 
utajoker said:
if its the laminate, dont do it!
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In the UK "laminate" generally conjures up images of the unrealistic, thin, noisy, slippery, textureless flooring - glorified lino. It's horrendous.

You can get some fantastic textured laminate flooring too.
 
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