What kind of floor, tile or wood? Here's complete how-to data on all types

Putting down a new floor, either wood or tile, carries its own special brand of satisfaction. The job, once you've finished, is beautiful. You can admire it, you can call in half the neighborhood to admire it and you can bask in a luxurious flow of praise. Remem­ber that this is definitely a part of the job you can look forward to—the thought may ease the humdrum routine of nailing, sanding, scraping, etc.

First and foremost, the underpinnings for a new floor are impor­tant. Putting down a subfloor, however, involves nothing more than a bit of straightforward carpentry.

Conventional subflooring is built with square edge boards called, quite appropriately, subflooring. This is a pretty common lumber­yard item. When you put down your money you'll either get Ix4s or Ix6s. If you buy what's known as number one grade, the lumber will be reasonably straight, not too beat up and without knots that affect strength. Number two grade is not quite so elegant, a little harder to work with and quite a

Tile floors are often favored for recreation rooms (see section on tile). Game patterns can be pur­chased or added to a standard pattern, as shown above, with Scotch plastic tape of various colors.

bit cheaper. Whichever type you decide upon, be sure to specify common grade lumber. If possible buy from a lumberyard that stores the stuff under cover so that it will be seasoned and dry. On no account should you buy sub-floor boards wider than 6 in.

For greater strength, lay the subflooring diagonally across the joists. Where two lengths must be joined just butt the ends to­gether, but make sure the junction is over a joist. Otherwise you may find yourself with a rather springy board here and there with the loose end flapping in the breeze. Leave space in be­tween boards—about Vi in. is fairly safe.

Nail the boards down solidly to each joist. Use two 10-penny nails driven through the face of the wood into the joist at each point. If you're the type who likes to wear both belt and suspenders, it's not a bad idea to buy rosin coated nails for this purpose. They hold like crazy.

Some types of finished flooring can go down over a subfloor of 3/4 in. plywood. Nailing this stuff to the bare joists gets the job over in a very short time.

Specially designed plywood subfloor is 4x8 sheets with tough hardboard laminated on one side.

Layer of 15-lb. asphalt paper is put down over the plywood before laying wood strip flooring.

There is a special plywood now recommended. Three-quarters in. thick, it has a layer of tough hardboard laminated onto one side and is installed with this surface facing down. There's a reason for using it: Over the years plywood can be compressed when it's used as a subfloor and the surface can be­come a little bumpy. The extra tough layer eliminates the problem.

Use 4x8-ft. sheets and be sure that the joints between the pieces fall exactly on the joists so that you get full support. Fas­ten down the plywood with rosin coated nails spaced about 10 in. apart around the rim of the sheet and in a line down each joist that the plywood covers.

Old floor may make good subfloor. First nail down all loose boards through surface of wood.

Pry up the shoe molding on all sides of the room so that the new floor can be installed on top.

At this point you're ready to install the finished flooring, but let's backtrack for a moment. Perhaps you already have an old floor in the room that's pretty well shot. Although it's beyond the point where it can be spruced up with scraping and refinishing, it's still sturdy enough to make a perfectly decent subfloor. What do you do in this case? You use it

If old floor is in really rough shape, clean it up with a sander before installing a new floor.

as a subfloor. Re­member, though, a new wood floor is only as smooth and sound as the floor it rests on. For this reason tighten up all loose boards and eliminate squeaks.

Just nail right through the old floor using 6-penny screw-type flooring nails. Countersink the nail heads a little below the surface. If the guy behind the counter at your local hardware store just shrugs his shoulders at the idea of screw-type flooring nails, don't despair. Buy rosin coated nails of the same size. They will hold almost as well. If there are any warped boards, plane them down until the surface is reasonably smooth.

Pry loose the shoe molding (it's usually just quarter round molding tacked into place at the joint between the baseboard and the floor) on all sides of the room. Sweep the floor clean and if the area is unusually dusty get out the vacuum cleaner.

Putting Down Strip Flooring

Once caught up on the preliminary work, you're ready to fasten down new wood strip flooring over either a new subfloor or exist­ing floor. The following paragraphs apply to both unfinished wood flooring and the new type that comes factory finished and waxed (Crestwood by E. L. Bruce Co.).

To keep the new floor from being marred by any dust or moisture that may work up from underneath, put down a layer of as­phalt building paper. Buy the lightweight variety known as 15-pound paper. Lay the stuff at right angles to the strips of the old floor or subfloor. Lap the seams of paper approximately 4 in.

The starter course (the first strip of wood you put down) should be installed at right angles to the old floor or, if you have installed diagonal subflooring, run­ning the long dimension of the room. At two points along the wall, measure IVz in. out from the baseboard and draw a guide line across these two marks so that you can put down the first flooring strip parallel to the wall. Lay several long strips of floor­ing end to end along the guide line. The grooved side of the wood should face the wall. Nail the entire*length of wood in place through the face into the subfloor. Countersink the nailheads. Later you can cover them with wood putty or filler.

Also blind-nail the entire strip. There's a little technique involved here. Space the nails about 6 in. apart. Start the nail in the groove where the tongue meets the shoul­der of the strip. A look at the photograph will clarify this. Angle the nails about 50 degrees so that they go in diagonally. If you are using prefinished flooring, a pack­age of the right type nails probably came with it. If not, use lOd flooring nails for the job. Be rather careful when you blind-nail. Don't try to drive the nail all the way in using just the hammer—you'll batter the projecting tongue. Instead, use a nail set to hammer down the last V2 in.

Trung Cork Co. Cupped or warped boards should be smoothed down with plane to make subfloor perfectly flat.

The first course of strip flooring is face-nailed: countersink heads so they can be concealed.

Use a scrap of flooring to hammer strips together. This avoids damaging the tongue of the strip.

Before you go on with the job, open up the cartons or bundles of flooring and lay them out loosely on the floor until you get an attractive arrangement. There'll be some variation in color, grain, etc. The odds are slim that you'll be able to cover the entire length of the floor with one board. Each strip will probably have to be pieced. You can plan this phase of the job now so that all the joints don't wind up at one end of the room. Keep end joints 6-8 in. apart or the floor will look as if you should have bought more lumber but didn't.

Tips on Technique

It's a good idea to utilize as many full lengths of flooring as you can. You will still have to trim some strips and will wind up with a sizable pile of cut-offs. Tradition­ally these are used for closet floors. As a matter of fact, some closet floors look like they were made by a jigsaw puzzle manu­facturer on his day off. Don't worry about this little gimmick. If you can use the cast off pieces for small areas, fine.

Start adding on the rest of the strips to complete the flooring. Fit the groove of each new board into the tongue of the pre­viously nailed strip. From here on the nailing is all blind (through the tongue at an angle so the nails will be covered by the groove of the next piece). Complete each run of strips all the way across the floor before you start another row. Don't cut the strips to lengths so precisely that they have to be jammed up against the baseboards at either end of the room. The rule is to loose fit with 1s in. at either end.

Occasionally you'll come upon one strip that is a little cupped or warped so that you can't just press it into place. Don't hammer on it to force the boards together. Hunt up a small scrap of flooring that has the grooves still intact. Slip this over the projecting tongue and do all the hammer­ing on this makeshift driving block. An­other tip is to stand on the strip that you're forcing into place. When you have it ham­mered firmly up against the rest of the floor it won't move away. Still standing on it, you can bend over and blind-nail it to hold it in place.

To prepare for block flooring, rough-sand old floor, put on a very thin layer of adhesive and put down a layer of polyethylene film as below to shut out moisture. Overlap the film strips about 4 in.

Blind-nail strip flooring through the tongue, angling nail about 50 degrees and starting it where tongue meets the shoulder of the strip; space nails 6 in. apart. Note how joints are staggered in the photo.

One other bit of advice: To make sure that you have a solid, squeak-free floor, make sure you hammer in a nail not less than 4 in. from each end of each strip. Space the rest of the nails at 6-in. intervals in between.

Finishing Touches

As you go across the floor, you'll finally get so close to the opposite wall that it will be impossible to continue blind-nailing. Fasten these last few strips with nails driven through the face of the wood (just as you did with the first strip). Space the nails close to the tongued edge. As before, you can countersink the heads and later cover them up. Unless the stars are in a lucky position for you, the final strip will have to be cut to a narrower width to fit the last remaining space on the floor.

To finish off the job, put back the shoe molding on all sides of the room. If you ripped it to bits getting it loose when you were preparing to start the job, just go out and buy some more quarter round molding of the same size. It's quite cheap. Inci­dentally, be sure you nail the molding to the baseboard, not to the floor. There's a reason for this gambit. As the flooring shrinks, and you can be sure that it will shrink, it will move underneath the shoe molding. However, the piece of quarter round will stay fastened to the baseboard and hide the little gap.

When it comes to the job of scribing flooring to fit around molding and trim, you can run into a nasty problem trying to scribe the stuff to fit. The answer is simple. Don't even try. There's another method that will work just as well and is a cinch. Place a short piece of scrap flooring on top of the old floor. With this as a guide for height, make a pencil mark along the trim. Then, holding the saw parallel to the floor, saw through the wood trim along this line. Just slip the strips of new flooring under­neath the cut out portion.

Block Flooring

There's one other type of finished floor­ing that's becoming quite popular. It's called parquet or block flooring. Just as the name indicates, the finished surface is in the form of square wooden blocks that have interlocking edges. Some of these are made up of one solid hunk of wood; others, in the traditional parquet pattern, are formed of several narrow strips held to­gether by a metal clip underneath.

The mastic for the block flooring goes down over the layer of moisture-proof polyethylene film.

nterlock tongue and grooves of prefinished blocks and drop into place; tap edges to position them.

Actually, two sanders should be used. Secure a floor edging machine to sand the floor along the edges of the room.

New flooring is finish sanded before applying the protective coaling. Rent a sander for this job.

Make sure that the room and floor are absolutely clean before staining and finishing new floor.

After the stain (is used) is dry. apply several coats of sealer, steel-wooling first and second.

The E. L. Bruce Company has a line of blocks called Blendwood. It's reasonably priced and is designed to be put down in that gummy black mastic, similar to the stuff that you use for asphalt tile. Quite similar and equally popular is Flor-Tile by Tibbals Flooring Company. The finished effect is quite handsome and the project moves along at an amazing clip. Both Blendwood and Flor-Tile are completely prefinished and waxed so all you have to do is install them.

Advance preparation is pretty much the same as for a strip floor. In addition to nail­ing down loose boards and planing the high spots, however, it's a good idea to rough-sand the old surface to remove any var­nish, paint, shellac, wax or chewing gum. It's also a good idea to put down a layer of polyethylene film before you start the in­stallation. Just smear on a very thin layer of a black gumrry adhesive called Bruce Everbond Cold-Stick. Be as careful as you can in spreading this adhesive because you can waste it like crazy pushing it down through the openings between boards. Un­roll the strips of polyethylene film right on top of the mastic. Don't worry about stretching out the wrinkles; you won't be able to. Overlap strips by about 4 in.

If you already have an old asphalt or vinyl tile floor in place, you can lay the wood blocks right down on top as long as the old surface isn't crumbled, loose or in poor condition. Check over the floor to make sure that all the tiles are firmly bonded. Go over the surface with a power sander

After surface is completely dry, apply coat of paste wax and buff floor with electric polisher.
Another type of prefinished flooring is the "peg" flooring shown below which offers a traditional touch. F. i. u

With tile floors, it's a good idea to cover old floor with a hardboard or plywood underlayment.

As first step in laying tile, measure and mark off the center of two end walls (see below, right).

Photos courtesy Armstrong Cork Co. Space 4x4 sheets of underlayment with a knife edge as shown below. Drive in nails 4 in

Connect the center points of two end walls with a chalk line snapped across the center of room.	Measure to the center of chalk lines and mark a right angle with a carpenter's square (see right).

and some ooarse abrasive to remove all traces of floor wax. Vacuum the area carefully so you don't contract that lung malady that coal miners get. If the tiles are in dreadful shape you will have to remove them, scrape up all the old mastic and then sand the floor. Don't bother with the poly­ethylene film over a tile floor.

If you're going to put down the blocks over a concrete subfloor, you'll definitely need the plastic film treatment. Sweep the surface and prime with Bruce Everbond Primer. Allow this stuff to dry and then apply the Cold-Stick mastic. Slosh it on with a straight-edged trowel and try to keep the layer about 1 64 in. thick. Allow it to dry for about half an hour and cover with the polyethylene film.

Laying the Blocks

Most people nowadays like to have the blocks laid out in a square pattern similar to the way that resilient tile is handled. To start the job, measure and mark two points approximately 4 ft. away from one wall and draw a guide line connecting them. Measure and mark the center of this guide line.

Start spreading the mastic on the side of the line away from the wall. Incidentally, this adhesive comes in two types. Make sure you get the variety that is applied cold; the other has to be heated and it's an awful nuisance. Apply the stuff with a notched trowel. This gadget spreads the adhesive out in a series of grooves.

A second chalk line is snapped at right angles to first, making cross at floor center (see left).

Lay test rows of tiles along the chalk lines as shown, making an L-shape (see below, right).

Photos Courtesy Armstrong Cork Co. Adjust test rows so border tiles will be at least one-half tile wide; snap two readjusted lines.

Place the first block at the center of the guide line with the grooved side toward the line and the slats parallel to it. Lay the second and third blocks to the right and left of the first one. Keep the slats at right angles to the first one. The tongues and grooves interlock so that it's almost im­possible to put the squares down in the wrong way.

There's a little trick to this part of the job. When you're positioning blocks, first interlock the tongue and grooves and drop the block lightly into place. Tap gently on the exposed edges to ease the block into the exact position. However, don't try to slide them into place. The mastic will just pile up on the edge and make a mess of the job. Incidentally, you can use mineral spir­its (a paint store item) to remove any mastic that slops over onto the face of the blocks or gets on your hands, as it inevi­tably will.

Continue adding blocks, interlocking them. Work in a kind of pyramid pattern and then fill in the sides. When you have one side of the room completely covered, move all your tools onto the new flooring, spread mastic over the remaining area and finish the job.

This process just described gives you what's called a "floating floor." The idea is that the individual blocks can move back and forth as they expand or contract be­cause the mastic never completely dries. You have to make some allowance for the expansion along the edges of the room, however. For this reason, don't bring the tiles right up against any one of the four walls. Instead leave about 1 in. of space between the last tile and the wall. What do you do with this little area? You cork it. Along with the flooring you'll get some special cork material. Trim this so that you can force it into the narrow slot that re­mains. Just cut off small blocks of cork and jam them into place at 4-in. intervals all the way around the rim of the room.

Finishing Wood Floors

Unless you've bought the finished mate­rial, you'll also need to know the proce­dure for finishing a floor. First sand it and then apply a protective surface after the entire floor has been laid. For this job, rent a sanding machine. As a matter of fact, you'll need two sanding machines. One of these is a large affair with the sandpaper wrapped around a big rotating drum. When you rent the machine be sure to buy an assortment of sandpaper sheets in various grades. You will also need a floor edging machine. This is a little disk sander affair that is used along the edge of the room to take in the area that can't be covered by the big machine.

To start, spread mastic on about one quarter of the floor. Use a notched trowel for thick mastic.

Some mastics 90 on with a brush. If necessary, allow mastic to dry before laying any Ules.

The big sander has two controls; an on-off switch plus a lever that lifts the sanding drum or lowers it to contact the floor. Raise the drum and then turn the machine on. A word of warning: Raise the drum if you ever have to pause for an instant. When the drum is lowered you must keep moving at a slow but even pace across the floor. Don't ever stop to light a cigarette with the drum still chewing away at the floor or you will suffer dire consequences. You'll have a deep gully carved in the surface and will have the devil's own time trying to get the floor to look smooth again.

First put on the coarsest paper (No. 1 grade). Abrasive is also available in much rougher and tougher grades than No. 1, but this is intended for removing old paint or as a treatment for floors that are in really terrible condition.

When the mastic is dry, there should be a tick­ing sound and none of it should stick to thumb.

Photos courtesy Armstrong Cork Co. To lay tile, butt edge against previously laid tile and simply plop it into place in the mastic.

New flooring needs only a gentle touch. Lower the drum and start walking the machine across the floor at a slow, even pace. Begin along one wall and gradually work back and forth in parallel strips until you've covered the room. This first pass should be at right angles to the flooring.

Switch over to the next smoother grade (No. Vz). This time, sand parallel to the boards but work in the same back-and-forth pattern. Finally attach the fine paper (No. 00) and sand with this. It's a good idea to slip out of your shoes before you start the final sanding so you don't add any dirt to the surface you've labored so hard to clean and smooth.

Switch over to the little disc sander and follow exactly the same sequence, starting with very coarse sandpaper and winding up with the finest, to sand the little rim of floor around the edge of the room that you couldn't cover with the jumbo sander.

Stay in your stocking feet while you vacuum up every last trace of sawdust. "But," you say, "there's a vacuum cleaner attachment built into both sanders!" They do help, of course, but they aren't com­pletely efficient. Some of the dust is bound to escape. For this reason, wipe down the walls carefully, pay special attention to all crevices and vacuum. If you leave any bits of sawdust in place, they're sure to float down at just the wrong moment and be­come embedded in the floor finish.

Finishing Preparations

At this point you get involved with per­sonal preferences. Many people like a floor finished in penetrating sealer. The stuff is easy to apply, it preserves the look and feel of wood and it gives a soft lustrous sheen (not

To trim border tiles, put A over last laid tile, overlap with B and scribe tile A to fit the space.

a shiny gloss) to the finished floor. Several companies put out this product including DuPont, Bruce, etc.

Pour the sealer into a shallow pan and apply it with a lambs' wool wax applicator. Dunk the applicator into the pan of sealer and then swab it back and forth over the floor. Keep dunking and swabbing until you've covered the entire floor. Allow it to dry overnight and then use steel wool on the surface. Your best bet here is to rent a floor waxing machine and use a large cir­cular pad of steel wool that's intended just for this purpose. Apply three coats of sealer, steel-wooling the first and the second. After the surface is completely dry, wipe on a coat of paste wax and buff the floor thoroughly using an electric polisher. Repeat this last procedure once more.

There are, of course, several other types of floor finishes. If you prefer shellac buy this finish from a paint store that does a large volume of business. Shellac has to be fresh. If it's more than six months old it won't dry properly. Put it down follow­ing the instructions on the container. First coat should be half shellac and half alcohol, next one a little thicker and the final coat almost full strength. Allow plenty of dry­ing time in between coats and wax-polish the completed floor using a paste wax (not a liquid type).

You may prefer varnish. If so, here are a couple of tips. First of all don't stir this material; it doesn't need mixing and you'll just trap a lot of air bubbles in it that will show up in the finished job. Varnish should be flowed on. There's a little technique in­volved. Dunk the brush into the varnish but don't scrape it across the side of the can. Instead, quickly move it over to the floor. Hold the brush at a sharp angle to the floor (almost flat) and ease on the fin­ish in a full generous layer. Keep the brush quite wet and forget about any of this back-and-forth brush work. Here again the only result will be trapped air bubbles.

Tile Floors

Before you can put down a resilient tile floor (such as Kentile or Armstrong's Ex-cellon), you'll need some advance prepa­rations. Fill holes or cracks in a concrete subfloor. If there's wood under foot, plane down the high spots and renail the loose boards. Make sure the finished surface is smooth and completely free of wax, paint, varnish, grease and other nonsense.

If the under-surface is in bad condition (or if you only have a single layer of wood) it's a good idea to cover the old floor with either plyWood or a special underlayment (Armstrong Temboard is one brand and other firms make similar products).

Some tiles can be cut with shears as above: others must be heated in oven and cut with a knife.

Photos courtesy Armstrong Cork Co. Cut tiles to fit around pipes, etc. Very stiff tile (not shown) is scored and snapped like glass.

Install this stuff with the "rough" side up. Don't butt the joints too closely. Allow about :tj in. (the thickness of a dime) between each 4x4-ft. panel. Stagger the joints as shown in the pHoto. Nail down the under­layment with coated nails spaced about 4 in. apart along the entire panel and all the edges. You'll wind up with a checkerboard effect.

Measure and mark off the center point of the two end walls of the room. Connect these two points with a chalk mark running down the center of the room. Measure over and locate the center of this line. Using a carpenter's square, draw a perpendicular line jutting off from the center sfripe. Following the second line, strike another chalk line extending between the other two side walls. At this point you have a large chalk cross in the exact center of the room.

Following the chalk lines, lay one test row of uncemented tiles from the center point to one side wall and to one end wall. As you can see, this gives you an' L-shaped set of tiles.

Measure the distance between the wall and the last tile. If this is less than 2 in. or more than 8 in. shift the center line (the one that's parallel to that wall) AVz in. closer to the wall.

Spread a coat of mastic onto one quarter of the room. Try not to cover the chalk line. Some mastic goes down with a brush. You'll find other types that are quite a bit thicker; for them you use a notched trowel.

Tile Tips

If there's any trick to putting down a re­silient tile floor, it's handling the adhesive properly. With some mastics you can start laying tiles immediately. Others must dry out first, and this takes a few minutes up to several hours, depending upon tempera­ture and humidity. To test the mastic, press your thumb lightly into it. When it's dry enough, there should be a slight "ticking" sound and none of it should stick to your thumb. As procedure varies from one brand to another, check instructions first.

To put down the tiles, start at the center and place them one at a time into the mas­tic. Make sure that the rows of tile, running along the chalk line, are perfectly flush. It's impossible to slide the tiles, so handle them this way: Holding the tile up at an angle, butt the bottom edges against the adjoining tiles and then lower the tile into position.

Photo courtesy John*-Mum We Beautitul floor highlights the decor and helps divide dual purpose room into sitting and game areas.

After the entire floor is covered, cut and fit the border tiles. Some can be trimmed easily with household shears; other types of tile must be heated in the oven and then cut with a knife. The very stiff tiles such as asphalt can be scored with an ice pick and then snapped like a sheet of glass.

To fit the tile around pipes or other ob­structions in a room, first make a paper pattern to fit the space exactly. Then you can trace the outline of this onto the tile and cut it perfectly. Pliable tiles can be eased into place around obstructions. Heat asphalt tile gently in the oven until it be­comes as soft as shoe leather, then mold it into place and pat it down flat.

Keep the room warm while you're work­ing. Allow the tiles to set overnight. Then, to get a professional looking job, you can either rent a roller or hold a party. Your friends marching back and forth over the new surface will "walk in" the floor.

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