Installing wood floors is fairly complicated, even when you’re using pre-finished wood planks. At my handyman business, we install a fair amount of wood flooring but typically the customer has done all the planning, purchased the materials, arranged for delivery of the materials and we simply arrive and handle the installation.

As a homeowner, you can stretch these tasks over several months and never realize how much time went into the project. We had to work quickly and learned how complicated it can get when you look at the steps involved from initial planning to installation. Take a peak at what we did.

My handyman customers often want help installing a new floor. Sometimes the first question is whether they should go with a laminate floor, pre-finished hardwood or the traditional approach where you install the hardwood and finish (stain and coat with polyurethane) the floors after installation. For these customers, I’m able to recommend a flooring store where homeowners can review all sorts of flooring and get answers from an expert.

Other customers aren’t so lucky. They’ve already purchased the flooring and after a few failed attempts, call for help because it’s a bit more difficult than they were told. The worst scenario is a homeowner who thought they’d done a great job installing their floors but now find the floors buckling. Most often they didn’t do enough research to learn you need to leave room for the wood to expand and contract as the weather changes. READ MORE