Hardwood Flooring

RoyTV

we are planning for real wood flooring. And it is going to cost us a lot(in excess of 50 pounds/sqr. Meter). Do you guys know anywhere some deals going on ?

Is it easy to DIY ?
I was told get a professional do this would cost 28 pounds/sqr. Meter

any advice appreciated

roswell

I did engineered hard wood flooring myself first time and all went well, there are many sites that give you a basic guide on how to do it along with instructions in the packs, You need to have the wood laid flat in the room about 48 hours before you start for it to aclimatise, you will need a fitting kit of spacers and a bar to knock the sections together (from any diy store or flooring shop) dont skimp on underlay it can make a massive differance to the accustic nature of the floor and the warmth.

Use a rubber mallet not a claw hammer to knock the sections together. If you are using trim or new skirting boards you can get away with a jig saw or circular saw but if you want the best finish use a hand saw and make sure you have a spare (they soon go blunt)

Most importantly take your time double check your measurements before cutting. You should start my laying the long length of the board across the shortest length of wall and use full sections till you get to the end of the row, use the offcut to start the new row. The hardest part is the final row.

Jazzy_B

My OH has managed to do this, and has done a fantastic job,even though it seemed daunting at the start.He didn't use edging strip, but took off all the skirting boards and the door surrounds. We thought it looked better, but it was more work. He got loads of info first from webpages. Roswell's post seems to cover everything, especially the bit about taking your time.
If you look around, you'll be able to get it much cheaper. I noticed Homebase were doing real wood (oak) for £15 a square metre last week. It was cheaper than a lot of the laminates, and looked great.