Recommend table saw for hardwood floor installation

I installed an oak floor with a circular saw. The primary difficulty is rips but there are not very many of them. Actually, there really isn't a whole heck of a lot of sawing to do overall.

Reply to
GregP
Loading thread data ...

In almost all cases, you have to rip flooring for only one wall of the room you are flooring. So unless you have truly large rooms, the likeli- hood is that you will have to rip a maximum of 30 feet of wood. Buying a table saw for 30' of cuts sounds excessive. If I *were* to buy a tool just for this that would be safest, it would be a band saw anyway. But beyond that, one has the option of finding someone with an existing saw.

Another, which takes a bit of work, but can be done reasonably safely, is to mark the boards, clamp each one on end, saw down to the mark witha sharp manual saw say evey 2 feet or so, then clamp the wood flat down and rip with whatever saw you have and keep reclamping the wood as you move along. I used a heavy conventional circular saw for this, running the flooring strips between two tables with a second strip a few inches away to provide more surface for the base of the saw. If I were to do this now, I would buy a cheap & light 18 volt and use that instead.

Reply to
GregP

Hmm.... A Powermatic 66 will do the trick....

Reply to
no1herenow

"forrest" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@individual.net:

I was going to read everything before responding but that advice is so wrong! A good finish job is the most important part aand can cover up a myriad of other goofs. It is the part that stands out and will be noticed by everybody. Additionally it is a skill that requires sometimes years of training and practice before its really learned. Joe blow homeowner cannot even buy the good finsh. Sanding and finish will cost about $2-3/ft. You will get what you pay for as well.

That said, I have always felt(20 years in hardwood flooring) that if I could have only one saw, it would be a jig saw. it will rip, albeit slowly, it will make rough crosscuts (which is all he will probably need anyway, most if not all cuts will be covered with base), and yes, it will make clean crosscuts and angled cuts with a simple square. Cut around pipes? The jig. Clean up the table saw circular undercut? The jig. No other power saw is as versitile, nor safe. It needs to be a good jig saw tho, I use the Bosch. It will do most everything those other two do, its small and costs about $170. I wouldn't recommend any table saw to a rookie with no training.

If you really must, for speed, buy a cheap Ryobi chop saw at the home Despot. Good enough. It does make your end cuts much faster than the jig saw. Forget the table saw and go for the jig saw.

If somehow you decide you need something more, save it all up for one day and rent it.

Reply to
tweaked

I know some people hate laminate, but it's not junk if you buy the quality stuff. Very durable, withstands spills well. Installs easy. If you don't like the look, I can respect that, but it's a quality product that wears well and is very durable.

I've seen a couple amatuers attempt to install hardwood flooring, and it did not come out well. They particularly had trouble doing the last few courses near the wall. When you can't get the nailer between the studs (since the drywall is up), it's difficult.

I think you overestimating the typical amateur here. I've seen bungled up jobs. I don't know the original poster, but it seemed he had very little experience.

Reply to
bf

In my case, the pros started at the opposite wall and got to within 6 = inches of my archway before realizing that the wood strips would not fit = in the strip. As well, the installed a 4 inch bullnose instead of a 6 = inch with the result that the curved portion of the steps did not meet = properly with the straight part. The only thing they did right was have = the curved portion sublet to a stair manufacturing company.

By the time I was done fixing their stupidity, I had ripped out the = bullnose and replaced it with proper 6 inch and cut and "Frenched in" a = thin filler strip to finish their screw-up. If you didn't know it was = there, you wouldn't see it

I now have over 2,000 square feet of excellent flooring and a serious = compressor to show for my effort. Now I can even do my own spray = painting (very limited ability here)

The pros did, however, pay to fix their error.

=20

--=20

PDQ

Reply to
PDQ

HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.