Kitchen hardwood flooring done (w/pics)

[David Eisan]

Evening All,

Here is how the kitchen stands right now. I have all the hardwood flooring down and I am waiting for the plumber and electrician to do their work so I can hang some cabinets. I and my wonderful helper spent the vast majority of the weekend installing the flooring. The flooring is prefinished (golden oak'ish in colour) 3.25" wide, 3/4" thick red oak. The flooring in the hallway outside the kitchen runs in one direction and in the dining room the other way (at right angle to). So, since I couldn't decide which way to be parallel to I decided to run the flooring at 45 degrees across the room. This added much more work, but I love how it came out.

To start, I laid out some chalk lines starting just inside the two doorways and wanted to floor away from that direction. I jointed two edges of a 2x4 and screwed it to my starting chalk line. Once I had reached the corner, I removed the 2x4 and secured the tongue of the first strip with pre-drilled and countersunk drywall trim screws. I then glued a 1/2"x1/4" hard maple (had on hand) strip into the groove to be a tongue so I could start flooring in the other direction. The first doorway was easy, just slap a board in the tennoning jig on the Unisaw with a 1/4" dado cutter (my lovely assistant did most of this) and lay it down. Once at the other doorway, the board had to be a *perfect* fit, no room for error, 5 cuts nibbling up to my final length and angle for each board were common. I must say I have fallen in love with my Hitachi C10FSH 10" SCMS w/laser onto which I was using a CMT 80 tooth -5º radial arm saw blade. Each cut had to be a perfect finish cut, no room for tearout. Cutting through the finished oak flooring at 45º with *zero* splintering was a dream come true. I had the laser set to indicate waste, so when nibbling off 0.25º of a degree the laser would show what was being removed, made the job sooo much easier.

Starting out in the corner,



Securing the groove and adding a tongue to start flooring in the opposite direction,



At the end of the first day,



My lovely assistant adding a groove to the end of a 44.5º cut for one doorway piece,



The finished floor,




Sorry for the low quality of the photo's, but I could not have hoped for the floor to have turned out any better, I am very pleased, it turned out perfectly.

Thanks,

David.

Every neighbourhood has one, in mine, I'm him.

[Jim Becker]

Looks great, David! Putting the floor in on the angle is a nice touch. (I'm happy to see I'm not the only one who worked with a "temporary" kitchen in place for awhile... )

[John Miliunas]

David, I think your floor looks GREAT!! Very nicely done and I think you were right about installing it at an angle. Nice touch, albeit I'm sure it was much more labor intense. Must be nice to have an assistant who, is not only good lookin', but knows how to handle power tools! My "assistant", has the "good lookin'" part OK, but nuthin' beyond a cordless drill for that girl! (Actually, I'm kind of glad about that!) Nice job, Dave and I'm sure it will give you many years of pleasure, as well as many more compliments!

[Alan Tolchinsky]

David, Beautiful job on the floor. You did a first class job on it. I have the same saw and I love mine too. The laser really comes in handy doesn't it. Alan in Md.

[David Eisan]

Originally Posted by John Miliunas

David, I think your floor looks GREAT!! Must be nice to have an assistant who, is not only good lookin', but knows how to handle power tools!

Thanks!

She actually made most of the cuts with the Hitachi SCMS keeping me with boards ready to nail down, she is a keeper !

David.

[Jason Tuinstra]

David, thanks for the update. I think one of the great things about a project like this is being able to look back at where you were and what you have done. Thanks for letting us see the journey. The floor looks great. With the other, I think the angle is a nice touch.

[Chris Padilla]

The angle is what make the floor quite special...looks excellent! Nice job...glad to see you getting some quality help, too!

[Dev Emch]

Dave...
Nice job here. But I have a question. I am assuming that the the counters and the sink setup are a temporary fix. You can see where the real lower cabinets will go.

But what are you going to do with the holes or voids in the floor which runs under the cabinets? Are you just going to leave the holes the way they are?

I have done a few hardwood kitchen floors in my day and my own kitchen has a hardwood floor. Its actually easier on the feet than tile or concrete. But my concern is what happens when you have leaks from the sink or the dishwasher? Hardwood flooring can pop and that can raise the floor by 3 or 4 inches in the area of the pop. Every pop I have ever seen happened in the open and never under a cabinet or esp. under the edge of a cabinet. Do any of you guys ever worry about this? Have any of you ever seen this issue come true? Its always a worry in the back of my mind that it can result in one nasty call back even though its never happened.... yet!!!

[Richard Wolf]

David, The floor looks great. Nice job. One question. Doesn't your wife mind that you have a good looking assistant?? LOL

Richard

[Jeff Sudmeier]

David,

That floor looks beautiful! You have done a wonderful job on it. The extra work to run the flooring at 45 degrees was well worth it!

[Bob Hovde]

Originally Posted by Dev Emch

Dave...
Nice job here. But I have a question. . . .But my concern is what happens when you have leaks from the sink or the dishwasher? Hardwood flooring can pop and that can raise the floor by 3 or 4 inches in the area of the pop. Every pop I have ever seen happened in the open and never under a cabinet or esp. under the edge of a cabinet. Do any of you guys ever worry about this? Have any of you ever seen this issue come true? Its always a worry in the back of my mind that it can result in one nasty call back even though its never happened.... yet!!!

Dev,

I put a pine floor in my kitchen and had a flood from the washer in the next room. The floor didn't exactly "pop," maybe because the underlayment is fairly waterproof. However, there are several places now with very pronounced squeaks when you walk on it. I assume that the boards warped slightly and the staple holes widened somewhat, leaving some boards loose. Moral - If you have a washer anywhere near wood floors, build a water dam around it with a drain.

Bob