Floating Laminate Wood Floors
By Jimmy Sturo

Laminate floors have become quite popular over the years for various reasons. The main reason is that laminate wood floors hardly require any maintenance. This is because of the way that they are made.

Laminate floors are usually various layers that are fused together with each other. There are mainly four layers. These are the wear layer, the pattern layer, which is also known as the image layer, the processed wood core, which is made of fiberboard, and a balancing layer on top that. Within these layers, there is usually a moisture barrier and scratch resistance layer.

These various layers are fused together using either high or direct pressure to ensure the strength of the laminate floor. It also ensures that they stick together and enhance the beauty of the floor for years to come.

When there is a proper wood layer in between two layers, to allow free floating during installation, they are called floating laminate wood floors. Such laminate floors have a lot of advantages over other laminate floors. First of all the layer is thick and solid, giving it the feel of a hardwood floor. Secondly, they can be easily installed over previous floors, no matter what the old floor is made of. Whether it is plywood, concrete slab, or OSB, they can be installed by simply floating the laminate tiles over the original flooring.

Previously, this type of laminated floor needs to be glued to the floor. However, floating laminate floors these days come with tongue-and-groove edges, meaning that the planks can be interlocked to give a complete finish. They are just placed, i.e. floated, over the previous floor. However a special polyurethane underlay is laid on the old floor before installing to allow the laminate wood floor to float freely.

Floating laminate wood floors combine the best of both worlds. They are attractive and as tough as hardwood floors; at the same time, they come with the ease of maintenance of the usual laminate floors. Hence, it is hardly surprising that these are gaining in popularity.

Laminate Floors provides detailed information on Discount Laminate Floors, Hardwood Laminate Floors, How To Clean Laminate Floors, How To Install Laminate Floors and more. Laminate Floors is affiliated with How To Install Laminate Flooring.

Floating Hardwood Floors
By Marcus Peterson

Before you begin the project of installing hardwood floors yourself, you must read the manual carefully. Remember that different kinds of wood require different kinds of treatment and preparation. A simple mistake may cause a lot of money and a whole day's effort.

Floating Wood Floor

A floating wood floor is a layer of hardwood planks glued together on top of a sub floor. The sub floor may be of any material - concrete or wood, for example. The important thing is to make sure that the sub floor is even and clean. Little bumps will affect how level your floor will be.

The secret to a well-constructed floating hardwood floor lies in the technique of laying the planks together. Anything well-planned comes off as interesting and aesthetic. Some people will take into account the direction of the light or the entrances and exits of the rooms as bases for the pattern in the layout.

Installing the Floor

Before you go any further, make sure you have all the necessary tools for the job. The following are what you will need: glue, spacers, pull tool, tapping block, chalk, hammer, measuring stick or tape, straps, and saw. You may add to this list of equipment when needed or called for by the contractor?s manual.

The planks must be glued together snugly and firmly on the sub floor. Apply enough along the edges of the planks to achieve this. Too much will just create gaps and bumps. To ensure a snug fit, hammer the planks together softly using a tapping block. Make sure that you have your first few planks where you want them to be because it will be difficult to adjust them later on. Cut the pieces as you put them together. This will ensure that you will have less scraps.

Once you have finished laying down the floating floor, apply the finish. Be careful not to place your tools on the floor while the coating dries. Even a single bristle from a paintbrush can ruin the finish.

Hardwood Floors provides detailed information on Hardwood Floors, Engineered Hardwood Floors, Solid Hardwood Floors, Long-strip Hardwood Floors and more. Hardwood Floors is affiliated with Install Hardwood Flooring [http://www.e-Hardwood.com].

Instructions on How to Install Floating Hardwood Floor Panels
By Niv Orlian

Have you ever wondered how to install hardwood floor panels to make your home beautiful inside? There are many methods of installing hardwood flooring currently in use. One of the best do it yourself hardwood floors is the floating hardwood floor. The term floating doesn't refer to a floor that is sitting in liquid. Floating means that, while the floor is fastened to itself, it is not fastened down to the subsurface.

A floating hardwood floor has some disadvantages you should be aware of before proceeding with your installation. These floors will sometimes feel like you're walking on a bubble. And, each bubble you step on will have a creaky sound. On the other hand, those bubbles give the floor a much softer feel than a well-fastened hardwood floor. And, the floating floor is much easier to maintain. Best of all, it is one of the cheapest types of hardwood floors to install.

Before continuing with the installation of a floating hardwood floor, we highly recommend that you consider using oak as your hardwood floor material. Oak looks beautiful and provides lasting durability.

Tools Needed to Install a Floating Hardwood Floor

Broom and Dust Pan - It is important to keep everything clean as you go. It is particularly important to keep the saw dust out from under and between your panels where it can really throw things off kilter. If it gets in there, there is no way to get it out without the very difficult process of hardware floor disassembly.

Carpenter's Crayon - You'll have to cut up your panels to make them fit in the corners and make them go around objects that cannot be removed from the room having the hardwood floor installed. You may also want to use your carpenter's crayon to mark a layout pattern of where to place your flooring panels.

Circular Saw - Your saw is what you will use as you cut along the lines you drew with your carpenters crayon.

Claw hammer - In most places, you will use a rubber mallet to help push the boards together, but in those places near the wall where you don't have enough room to swing the mallet, you can use the claw hammer to fit them together.

Cushioning Surface - You can make your floating hardwood floor feel even softer to the feet with the use of a cushioning surface under the floor. You would be shocked by the difference between a floor with the surface and a floor without the surface if you could try the two side by side.

Cutter Knife - The cutter knife comes in handy in more places than you would expect as you work on your floor. But the main reason we recommend this tool is so that you can make minor cuts on the panel ends when you just can't quite make them fit together.

Glue - Floating hardwood floors aren't supposed to be glued together. However, you might find you get better results if you just put a bit of glue at the end of each panel as you connect them. Of course, this will mean you'll need to be very careful not to get any glue on your floor surface.

Nails - You will need to nail the floating floor to the wall strips. It may help to use a drill to do pilot holes to prevent the wood from splitting, but if you're a gambler, you can just hammer these nails in without pilot holes. Most people do that anyways.

Rubber Mallet - The rubber mallet is what you use to fit the panels together at the joints. However, you need to be very careful not to hit the panels too hard and damage the panel surfaces.

Preparing to Install Floating Hardwood Floor Panels

Before you install your floating hardwood floor panels, you need to get your cushioning sheet installed. You can use your cutter knife to make it fit. Some people find that making it into many small pieces is much more manageable than trying to fit a large piece in the room. These pieces should be laid in the same direction as your panel rows.

One of the nice parts of using a cushioning sheet is that debris on the sheet or lumps in the surface below it have a less dramatic effect on the floor. However, you should still try to get all of these straightened out to the extent you can see them. For debris, just use your broom and dust pan to remove them. It's not such a big of a one-time task when you consider the implications are pretty close to permanent if you fail to remove them.

Installing a Floating Hardwood Floor

1. Place your first panel in the corner with the ends with a cavity in them towards the walls.

2. Put a little bit of glue in the cavity of the next panel.

3. Attach the next panel to the first panel quickly after step two.

4. You may need to work with the rubber mallet gently to ensure that the two panels come together snuggly. If the wall gets in the way of the rubber mallet, you can use your claw hammer to nudge it in place.

5. Continue this until you get to the end of the row where you will need to mark off the excess length of your last panel with the carpenter's crayon. Then cut the panel to fit using the circular saw.

6. Use the remaining piece of the panel to start the next row of hardwood.

7. If you are using the glue, as in step two, you'll need to be careful to get the entire adhesive off of each row as you complete it or it may do permanent damage to the hardwood surface.

8. Make sure you fit your entire pieces well, especially the last corner piece. If you have fit everything together just right, your floor will be much more stable. And, it will look better after the next step.

9. Now you go around all of the room walls and place the wall strips. You should nail these strips to the wall and to the floor. This will stabilize your floor. This will also make the edges of your new floor look better.

How to Install Floating Hardwood Floor - Clean Up

As with any big woodworking project, you can expect to have a mess as you go. There are such debris as saw dust, cut splinters, glue spots, and more. While you were trying to clean as you went, you should really do a final inspection and cleaning at the completion of the project. You don't want any saw dust or wood chips scraping across your new floor before you even get to admire its smooth shine.

After your floor has had a day to settle you can clean it with a mildly wet mop to get everything else up that you might have missed. You need to dry the floor up right away after mopping, of course. Otherwise, your wood will swell and lumps will form.

Hindsight Tips for Installing Your Floating Hardwood Floor

You do not need to be terribly careful with the cushioning sheets. Don't spend all day trying to get exact measurements. As long as there are no major overlaps or separations between them, your floor should be just fine.

When you are working with your hardwood panels, it is important not to rush. You should not be moving on and placing another panel until the current panel is completely and firmly connected to the other panels. But be very careful when using the rubber mallet and other tools on the panels not to cause surface damage. The surfaces are quite fragile when they are not yet anchored in place. It is very hard to go back and fix later if you missed a panel early in the installation process.

Be careful when measuring your panels for cutting at the end of the row that you are marking off the right part of your panel for cutting. One of the most common mistakes is to have the panel backwards while measuring it and then end up with the wrong pieces being the lengths you need. Save yourself some time and be careful.

Feeling Good after You Install Your Floating Hardwood Floor

You have saved a lot of money by installing a floating hardwood floor yourself. And, if you don't like it, you've chosen one of the easiest hardwood floors to replace. But, of course you like it. Hardwood floors look great. And, your new floating hardwood floor feels great too with its cushioning surface. Your neighbor's glued down floor may not creak much, but your neighbor's feet don't feel like they're floating when he walks on his floor.

Niv Orlian is an experienced Home Improvement Adviser who writes articles for his Flooring & Carpet Cleaning online guides.
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Guide to Mirage Hardwood Flooring
By Justin Holbert

The purpose of this article is to provide a general guide to all of Mirage's current product line and availability. Mirage's product line can be broken down into three main categories: Solid, Engineered, and Mirage Lock. Each of these categories is discussed below in details of what species and widths are available within each collection. Mirage is also a leader in offering different grades and finishes (gloss levels) or their various products.

In the 3/4" solid collection of Mirage hardwood flooring there are several domestic and exotic species. The domestic species include American Cherry, American Walnut, Beech, Maple, Red Oak, White Ash, and Yellow Birch. All of the domestic species are offered in the 2-1/4", 2-1/2" and 3-1/4" wide planks. The maple and red oak species are offered in 4-1/4" wide planks in the exclusive (natural) and stained finishes. Several of the species are offered in a more traditional or classic width of 2", which include the American cherry, American walnut, natural maple. natural red oak, white ash, and yellow birch. Unfortunately the beech is not offered in the 2" wide planks. Mirage also offers a unique variable staining process that recreates a sought-after antique look. The Sweet Memories stains are available on the 3-1/4" solid maple in Toffee and Truffle. Also in the solid collection as two exotic species in Brazilian Cherry and Tigerwood. Both species are only offered in the 3-1/4" wide planks. When looking at the milling and grading processes that Mirage puts their solid hardwood flooring collection through, it is unsurpassed in the industry.

In the engineered collection all of the same species are offered and several exotic species have been added. The new species are Breza, Koubari, Santos Mahogany (Cabrueva), and Sapele. All of the engineered products from Mirage come with a sawn hardwood layer that is 4 mm (5/32") thick. The thicknesses vary according to the width of the product. The 2-9/16" and 3-5/16" products are 3/8" thick, while the 5" wide product is 1/2" thick. All of the engineered products have a four sided micro-V bevel. All of Mirage's engineered can be installed on, above, or below grade and are radiant heat approved except the Brazilian cherry and koubari. With a 4mm sawn wood layer on top one can still enjoy the hardwood floor and have added stability of an engineered product.

The Mirage Lock system is a glueless floating hardwood flooring system. This system was developed to give the DIY consumer a chance to install their own hardwood floor. The Mirage Lock is currently only available in three species maple, red oak, and sapele. The product is 4-5/16" long and is 7/16" thick and is constructed with a 2mm (3/32") top layer. The Mirage lock floor is designed for the end user in mind and gives the consumer to install the product themselves and save a little or installation labor.

Mirage flooring is an industry leader in quality and craftsmanship.

For advice, reviews, or installation questions on Mirage hardwood flooring visit http://www.truehardwoods.com/mirage_hardwood_flooring.html and we'll gladly help you.

How To Install Wood Flooring - Floating Floors
By Christopher W Smith

If you're interested in learning how to install wood flooring in your new or existing home, the good news is that there is a special type of hardwood floor that is very easy to install. It's called a "floating hardwood floor", and it works just like it sounds - it "floats" over the top of a substrate with no gluing or nailing required to adhere it. Even better, floating hardwood floors can be installed over the top of an existing hardwood floor, meaning that there is no need to do demolition.

Before you begin to install wood flooring, you will need to make sure your subfloor or substrate is completely clean and level. A joint compound that is self-leveling can be used to remedy any leveling problems. You will also need to decide what direction you would like the planks of your hardwood floor to lay.

When installing hardwood floors using floating flooring, a tongue and groove construction is used to "lock" the planks together. However, you will also need a special flooring glue to apply between the planks in order to create permanent adherence. Don't use too much glue, and try to wipe away any excess.

The first three rows of planks are the most important, and it is these rows that can often become skewed or not fit together tightly when you are learning how to install wood flooring, therefore creating problems with the rest of the rows of flooring. You will want to use clamps or straps to make these first three rows fit together tightly until the glue dries.

Around the walls, you will want to leave a little bit of a gap in your floor during the floor installation. This is because the floor needs to be able to expand and contract from summer to winter. The instructions you receive with your floor will tell you how much room to leave. The molding on your walls will end up covering this space, so it won't be visible.

After the planks are laid and glued, the floor will need to set for a while (consult instructions to find out how long you will need to leave it.) Then, you will need to sand the floor and use a finish to completely seal it. Many people prefer to hire a specialist to perform this step.

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