Recommend table saw for hardwood floor installation

Boy am I glad I've ignored advice like that over the years. It's not bad advice, mind you. It's never bad advice to tell someone without a clue to hire a professional or go get a teacher. It just isn't much fun for the person seeking to instill himself with cluefulness.

Reply to
Silvan
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I think you would be well advised to start with something smaller, simpler, and less permanent. Take a basic woodworking class, build a birdhouse and a shelf. That way you will find out if you have, or can develop, the skills you will need, without sinking a ton of money into tools. If you start with a floor, and it doesn't go really well, you are stuck with an eyesore for a long long time.

Also, add up all the costs you will incur for tools you may never use again. They don't just nail floors down; you need specific tools to force the boards into place and hold them while you fasten them. Unless you are really good with a hammer, you will need a nailer to keep from denting your floor. What about the subflooring? You will need the skills and knowledge to evaluate that, and possibly replace at least some of it. What about clearances for doors and moldings? What about evaluating the lumber; not every supplier will give you quality goods.

Not to be hypercritical, but I think you have the skills involved mixed up. It is much harder to install a floor than to finish one, so I would defer this until you have evaluated and honed your skills; if it has to be done right away, I would put your money into a skilled installer, and do the finishing yourself. Even if you screw up the finishing, which is hard to do with the finishes available today, it is a lot easier to sand it off and refinish, than to salvage a poor installation.

Hav> Hi All,

Reply to
William Brown

Better check with the finishers first on prices. My brother finished building his own house 2 years ago. Unfotunately ;-), I live 350 miles away and couldn't help him much. But when he shopped around for a drywall finisher he got quotes like "$3,500 if I hang the drywall, $5,500 if you want to hang the drywall yourself" Many of the guys gave him the same type answer. The pros find it easier and less time consuming to finish a job they did the prep work on. They also might not give you any kind of warranty if you lay it.

Reply to
Ray

While we're on the hardwood floor topic... I live in a ranch house with a full basement so I have access to the subfloor. You know whats coming, right? I have squeaks everywhere! The subfloor is 6" TG pine and the floor is oak 2" by 3' and 4'. The house is about 50 years old and yes I still ocassionally find remants of a staple from the carpets that were pulled up before we bought. Any remedies for squeaks besides pull & reinstall?

Reply to
Ray

Yup. A bit painstaking, but from down in the basement try to find the squeaks as someone walks across the floor. A small amount of shimming in the subfloor should quiet everything down.

Reply to
Mike Marlow

I just finished putting hardwood flooring in our dining room and I used a table saw. There were no angle cuts only cross cuts at 90 deg. and a couple rip cuts lengthwise where the boards were wider than the space I had left.

Rick

Reply to
RKG

I guess I better get a pallet of cedar siding and get started! Thanks, maybe I'll try the hallway first to see how many shims it takes. I have A LOT of squeaks.

Reply to
Ray

Sometimes adding some bracing between joists can help, too.

Reply to
William Brown

Unless you are in need of the miter and/or compound features of the chop saw, my vote goes for the table saw. You can do many more different cuts with a table saw than with a chop saw.

If you buy a inexpensive saw be sure to buy a good carbide tipped blade for it, it will make all the difference in the world. If it's one of the smaller, table top types of saw, get some cheap roller stands and/or make some provision to support longer pieces.

DJ

Reply to
DJ

I suspect you'll find it does not take that many. Usually, once you kill one you kill several. Your shims will be quite thin so don't be fooled if it looks like the sub floor is tight. If it squeaks, it's not tight.

Reply to
Mike Marlow

"Joydeep Buragohain"

actually, in terms of skills, i would personally lean towards the opinion that finishing is easier than laying - nothing complicated, just mind-numbing, backbreaking labor to sand and exposure to nasty chemicals to finish... but not technically demanding!

Reply to
forrest

I just found this web site and so this may be of no use to you. I used to have a business installing and refinishing hardwood floors. Your tool needs are of course based on a few criteria. First the type of flooring you will be using. If you are installing the standard tounge and groove strip flooring measuring 2. 1/2" wide by 3/4 inches thick in random lengths then any chop saw will work. If you don't plan to use the tool a lot after this project then I would go for an inexpensive brand and spend the money for a good blade. Freud is a decent brand of blade available at most home improvement stores. An 8 1/4 inch saw will be adequate. Delta makes a good one for less than $100.00. This next issue is where I disagree with most of the answers you seem to have gotten.If the dimensions of your room will require cutting any boards lengthwise (ripping) then you are only safe using a table saw. In addition a table saw will include a miter attatchment which will work just as well to cut any short ends to length or at an angle.If you are installing a plank floor ( board widths greater that 3.5 " then you will have to have a chop saw wth a 10 to 12" blade which is quite a bit more expensive. Here again the table saw will do any width. If you plan to install laminate flooring the table saw again is your best bet. However with laminate flooring you will need to use a blade made for this type of material. These blades have more teeth. Again with the table saw spend less on the saw and more on the blade. A carbide blade is best and a small 10' benchtop saw will do nicely. The saws are also available on-line or from companies like Harbor Frieght Tools or the Tool Crib. The short of it is the same advice I give to any novice woodworker asking what the one most useful cutting tool is. The table saw is the most widely useful tool in woodworking of any kind. If you have any other questions on this matter feel free to e-mail me. snipped-for-privacy@bresnam.net. Also if you opt for my advice invest in a good push block and safety glasses and follow the safety instructions included with the tool. A power saw will not even slow down as your fingers pass through the blade!

Reply to
mwarren

No, but there's a real skill/art to getting a good job. One definitely does want to start off w/ a power sander on an expensive floor w/o having practiced somewhere not so critical first! :)

Reply to
Duane Bozarth

Thanks for your detailed reply. I plan to install standard 3/4" T&G flooring in 3" or 4" widths. So looks like I need to get a 10" miter saw and a smallish table saw.

Reply to
Joydeep Buragohain

Or, a nonish table saw. Or, you don't really need a miter saw. For the few boards you're going to rip, you could easily get them ripped by someone with a table saw and the miter would perform most of the work you'll need to do. On the other hand, my father laid the maple floors in the house I grew up in using only a table saw. You can easily get very precise cross cuts on the table saw and then you don't need the miter. You can spend more money on a betterish table saw that way.

It really comes down to what you want to end up with after the job. If you're going to be doing woodworking then either tool is a good tool to have in your shop, but depending on what kind of projects you envision yourself getting into, one might be a better first tool to have in the long run.

Of course, when faced with a project, there just is no better reason to go out and buy tools. Lots of tools. Hell, buy both saws, but don't buy a smallish table saw. Buy a biggerish table saw.

Reply to
Mike Marlow

Reply to
nospambob

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

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

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