Installing hardwood floors?

[mamaley]

Does anyone know approximately how long it might take to install hardwood floors in an 1800 sq ft home, in 2 living areas and 4 bedrooms?

[mightymoo]

I've never done it, but I've heard that you should give your best estimate and then double it. Oh and never use the glue down kind the glue gets everywhere and can wreck the finish of the wood.

[Pepperdove]

Our guys were able to do1 to 1 1/2 rooms a day, with generous lunch breaks and leaving at 2 or 3 (started at about 7:30). This was with bamboo floors, I think they install the same as hardwood, tongue and groove with glue and nails.

[runes]

it took 3 guys working 3 very long days to install about 400 square feet of bamboo flooring in our downstairs area. dh had already done a lot of the prep work and moving of furniture etc. before they started. this also included the installation of new baseboard moulding.

[griffin2004]

I'm in this process myself right now. The wood needs to acclimatize for 2 days in your home. You can be doing prep work for those days. Laying time if all goes well is estimated 3-4 days for a 2200 sq ft home. Then a day of putting the baseboards back on, the moulding (if any), touching up the paint, clean up, etc. I'm giving my installers a generous week in an empty, not-lived-in-yet house.

[calla lily]

My brother (he installs floors for a living), DH, and FIL installed around 1000 sqft (living room and 3 bedrooms) of bamboo in about 1.5 days. Basically, DH spread the glue (nail down not an option here), brother marked the boards, FIL cut them, and then brother would lay them down. It went real fast. I kept all the kids busy and did some pre-vaccumming and clean-up.

Yes there was some glue residue in places. We got most of it off with mineral spirits before it set (once it dries, it's pretty much there forever). It can be hard to see in some light. I was helping with that and guess I didn't do a very good job. It's not really all that noticable though. My brother said you pretty much can't do a glue down floor without some glue mess. Most of ours was from DH and his dad tracking it through on their shoes.

Laying the actual floor was fast, but DH and I spent 3 days, 3 long hard days, scraping the paint off the concrete slab.

[melissa17s]

We put one in our kitchen/dining area- about 20 ft. by 15 ft. space. 3 of us alternated hammering and cutting wood and did it in a long day. Some of it depends on how many tricky spaces you have to cut wood for. It took us a bit of time to figure out the nailer... but once we got it, it went ok.

[mamaley]

Thanks! From what I'm getting here, I'd expect about a week, which is great.