Tips for Installing Your Wide Pine Floor

Wide pine floors are warm, luxurious, and beautiful–IF properly installed. The beautiful part about pine hardwood floor installation is that wood floors can be laid beautifully by an amateur with the proper research and mindfulness.

Wide plank flooring must be carefully installed to ensure that the floor will not only be beautiful but will have longevity with that beauty.

When beginning your wide pine floor installation process, we highly recommend that you face your nailing in boards 8” in width, or wider. In addition, we recommend that you nail into every joist (16” O.C.), or at least into every other joist (32” O.C.).

When using 8” and 10” boards you should be nailing them in with at least two nails, and ¾” to 1” from the edge of the wood. If using 10” or 12” boards consider using 3 nails, for optimal results.

When cutting planks to fit within a contained space ensure that you have the “butt” of the joint on top of a floor joist –and cut it in a square pattern.

If you decide to use traditional rough cut nails you might want to pre-drill them at the ends, before nailing them in. This will ensure a professional look. This process is not necessary for the entire plank, just at the ends.

An easy way to cut corners (a little flooring joke) is to glue your wide pine planks to the floor—but we implore you not to do this. Solid wood floors and planks will expand and contract with heat, cold, and other weather—because while this expansion is only slight, at just 1/32” to 1/16”, it can cause the bond between the floor and sub-floor to break or even the plank itself. Also, even if the plank doesn’t break, your floor may begin to separate and create gaps between planks.

When installing your hardwood floor do not cut corners, follow the tips above, and ensure that you pay attention to small details.

If you have any interesting stories, fun anecdotes or helpful tips we encourage you to share them with us and our flooring community.