How to Install Armstrong Bruce Flooring
- 1). Set the Armstrong Bruce flooring around the room in stacks to let it adjust to the environment. Allow it to sit for a minimum of one week.
- 2). Lay underlayment paper over the whole floor in rows, cutting each row at the end to fit with a utility knife, and overlapping the edges by about 1 inch. Staple down the paper with regular staples, one every few feet.
- 3). Set a straight line alongside the wall with a chalk box where you want to start, putting it 1/2 inch from the wall and parallel to it.
- 4). Lay the first course of floor boards along the line with the grooved sides of the boards facing the wall. Lock the boards together end to end, nailing each one down with your nail gun as you go, with one nail per foot along both edges of each board. There will be a 1/2-inch gap between the boards and the wall to allow for floor expansion.
- 5). Lay the next course alongside the first one, locking the boards together by their tongue-and-groove edging. Nail them all through the top, as before. Cut the boards at the end as needed on your miter saw. Lay four or five courses this way, until you’ve laid enough so that your floor stapler can sit on it.
- 6). Set up the floor stapler with its air tank. Set it on the installed flooring, with the front nozzle of the stapler hanging down over the next course of boards. Tap the boards in place with your rubber mallet, then use the mallet to strike the trigger pad of the stapler, hard. The force of the mallet will drive the boards tightly together while triggering a burst of pressurized air that will drive the floor staple in the side of the board and down into the underlayment.
- 7). Continue stapling the course with one nail per foot. Cut the last board as needed on your miter saw. Proceed to do additional courses in the same manner, working your way across the floor. (Note: Choose different lengths of boards as needed to ensure the ends are staggered between courses.)
- 8). Staple the rest of the course, sinking staples about every 2 feet. Staple down subsequent courses in the same manner, cutting the end pieces on your miter saw. Stagger the ends of the floorboards.
- 9). Switch back to the nail gun for the last few courses, top-nailing when the far wall is too close for you to use the flooring stapler. Use a table saw to length-cut the last course to fit by the wall with a 1/2-inch gap. Floor trim will cover the gap.
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