Well, the floor is finally in for the living room, dining room, and kitchen, and the tung oil finish has been applied. Here are some thoughts and observations for anyone considering such a project.
1. It is a LOT of work! Even at the start, the flooring was delivered to our garage, and we had to carry each bundle of flooring, which covers 14.4 square feet and weighed probably 50 pounds, into the house to acclimate. We had ordered about 900 square feet of flooring, so that is about 60 bundles and 3,000 pounds of wood to carry and store. It took an entire day simply to add screws to better secure the subfloor to the joists. It took 4 solid 10+ hour days to lay the floor. The two pallets of flooring took up an entire bedroom for 5 months as we worked on other projects.
2. It was hard work. There is a lot of bending down, kneeling, and lifting. Even moving the floor nailer around takes some effort and awkward bending.
3. A lot of tools are needed. A chop saw is needed to trim boards to length. A table saw or circular saw is needed to rip boards. I set up a router station for adding grooves back into a few trimmed pieces. A flooring nailer is needed, which runs off an air compressor. Fortunately, I had most of these or was able to borrow them, but each tool you buy cuts into the savings of doing it yourself.
4. Rent the right sander. A drum sander is too aggressive for unfinished pine plank. An oscillating sander with one pass of 100-grit sandpaper was all that was needed.
5. The right tool makes life easier. I borrowed a pneumatic handheld cleat driver, which I used for the last three rows when the flooring nailer would not fit between the board and wall. I also used it in the stairwell, a closet, and under the kitchen cabinet toekicks. Without it, you are either pre-drilling and hammering in each cleat, or face-nailing multiple rows.
6. I had planned to do most of the sawing on the porch, but because the installation got pushed to November, I set up my woodshop in the basement. That meant that for every cut, usually one or two per row, it was up and down a flight of stairs.
The floor came out great and we are very happy with it. But be prepared if you decide to take this on as a DIY project.
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