How to Install Teak Flooring

The right kind of flooring adds a finishing touch to every home decorating project. Amongst various types of flooring, hardwood flooring has always been immensely popular for a number of its attributes. Hardwood flooring is eco-friendly, inexpensive, and pretty easy to install. Along with all these features, it imparts that elegant oriental appeal to the entire décor, which is ideal for Asian or rustic home décor. One of the most popular and durable types of wood flooring is teak flooring, which is fairly popularly selected by many home owners. A common tropical hardwood option, teak is gaining popularity in the Western world too for its unique appearance and extreme durability. Teak flooring is ideal to be installed on stairs, patios, and in fact, all the other parts of the dwelling. The best thing about teak wood is that it is extremely resistant to water. When it comes in contact with water, it gets natural patina which is credited to its natural oils. So teak flooring is by far cited to be one of the best hardwood flooring options by many.

Selecting the Best Teak Flooring

Before we actually being with the installation project, it is important to learn a few facts about teak flooring. Teak flooring boards are available in unfinished and prefinished types. The prefinished boards are sandpapered and well polished, while the unfinished ones need you to do that extra work. Now, if you are totally new to a DIY hardwood flooring installation project, then it is better to go with prefinished wooden boards rather than the unfinished ones. There are various types of prefinished teak flooring that are determined on the accounts of its width, characteristics and grading. For instance, Rhodesian teak is considered to be the best type of teak wood. They come in a variety of widths and lengths. The reddish brown hues offer a natural appearance to your décor. Brazilian teak is also a popular type of teak flooring option. Sometimes, teak flooring boards are available with pale shades of sapwood. Depending on the various species of teak, you can get the teak boards in a variety of colors and sizes. You can choose the width as per your requirements. Typically, ¾-inch teak boards are preferred. However, if you are installing teak flooring on concrete slabs, then go for thinner choices like ⅜-inch teak boards.

How to Install Teak Flooring

Here is detailed information about teak flooring installation. Before following the instructions mentioned below, make sure that you have gathered all the required material. You may also want to purchase the pneumatic flooring package, which is easily available at local home improvement stores. This package includes, various types of saws like chop saw, table saw, hardwood flooring wood putty, sets of nails, and safety gear like goggles and earplugs.

Material

• Flooring paper underlayment (vapor barrier paper)
• Teak flooring tongues
• Teak flooring planks
• Staple gun
• Pneumatic floor stapler
• Trim nailer
• Razor knife
• Miter saw
• Table saw
• Tape measure

Instructions

• First of all, measure the length and width of the room with help of the tape measure. Then calculate the square area of the room by multiplying the length and width. Add a 10% margin to the end sum, to cater for an error for any cutting mistakes.
• Confirm that there aren't any squeaks in the floor. If there are, cover them up with drywall screws. Once you are done with preparing the flooring surface, sweep it clean before starting the installation process for hardwood flooring.
• Now, roll down the underlayment for the flooring, that acts as a vapor barrier. Place the underlayment paper all over the sub flooring and staple them well. While doing so, don't forget to overlap the papers so that they secure the entire sub flooring. Lastly, mark the joints of each underlayment paper with a chalk.
• Start laying the first row of teak boards from the starting or the longest wall of the room. Use straighter boards for the first row of the flooring. Before installing the boards, remove decorative shoe molding (if any). Then, place the boards at least ½ an inch away from the wall. Since wood expands with weather, leaving this space is necessary.
• Align the board edges with chalk lines. Then start drilling pilot holes through the boards, joist and sub flooring. You need to face nail each and every board. Face-nailing means securing nails in a perpendicular direction from the surface of the boards. Then set them with the nail sets.
• Once the first row is installed by face-nailing, you again need to drill pilot holes into each flooring tongue. You need to make it in such a way that there is enough space left there for the pneumatic nails. Then place the pneumatic nail gun at the edge and secure the nails firmly with mallet.
• While installing teak flooring at crucial locations like the doorways, baseboards or a threshold, you may need to adjust their size by cutting up the boards as desired. This is the reason why you should try to utilize longer and straighter boards first. After which, you can cut the uneven shapes with the help of a circular saw.
• Also, when it comes to cutting out teak boards for baseboards of the flooring, make sure that you are keeping at least a 10-inch margin, which you need to cut off while laying the next row. This action will save you a lot of time, that you may need to cut out and nail the boards, otherwise.
• Continue laying teak flooring in the same way and keep securing it with a floor stapler. As you reach the opposite wall of the room, repeat the first step of teak flooring installation that involves leaving at least ½ an inch room for wood expansion. Once you are done with the entire floor, install floor trim and clean the flooring!

This needs a little bit of patience, the right tools, and adequate knowledge about home improvement projects. If you have found the above tips a bit hard to understand, then the best thing to do would be to contact professionals to do the job for you. All the best!