How to Lay Random Length Wood Flooring | Expert Guide

When you start furnishing your home, you think about curtains, furniture, cabinets, lighting, arranging accessories, designing the kitchen, and choosing the right floor. The main thing at our homes is the floor which shouldn’t be rough or slippery, and it should be well installed. It depends on the personal preference that which they choose for their home to look more classy. Most people prefer their home floor made with wooden planks. There are many ways to install the hardwood floor. Here you will find some of the helpful tactics of how to lay random length wood flooring.

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When you move into your home, you feel accepted because your home welcomes you as the person you are. It holds you tight on chilly nights and embraces you on dog Days. It’s a place where we share our happy moments with our loved ones and hide tears when you lost and scared. Its sentimental value is beyond our words. You want your home as a beautiful and peaceful place. When it comes to decorating homes, people feel that it’s a tiring job, but it’s not. Decorating and designing a home is not rocket science—all you need to have a creative mind and artistic designs.

Designing a floor with the addition of food gives our home an instant facelift. When you add a wooden floor, it looks classic and more expensive, although they are less in the budget. There are almost several ways by which we can install hardwood flooring. Some of the most popular are: 

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• Random 
• Diagonal 
• Chevron
• Herringbone
• Parquet

How to Lay Random Length Wood Flooring

Factors to decide which method to use

Before applying the wood on the floor, we have to see some factors to decide which method would be more preferable according to these factors. 

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Size of the room 

It depends on the room’s size, whether longer boards will be suitable for that room, or whether the wooden floor’s random layout will be more adequate. Mostly the large rooms suits with the long strips of woods on the floor. 

In small rooms, mostly long and short wood lengths are being considered, and this random layout of the wooden floor looks more suited to these small rooms. By using the mixture of lengths make the floor more interesting and stylish.  

The difference in time while fitting 

While installing the hardwood floor, we have to keep in mind that we can make the floor in less time and make it more meaningful. Random length of wood sometimes gets a more extended period to get fixed on the floor. So we have to keep in mind that whatever we are choosing, we should see the room’s length first and then choose the wooden planks according to that. 

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Amount of wastage 

Most people prefer the random method for their flooring, but they forget that most cut-offs of the wood planks from the different sizes adjust them on the random method floor. So before choosing the method, we have to see that which would be more beneficial and create less wood waste.  

The surface where we fit 

Before installing the wooden floor in our homes, we also have to determine which method we should use by which all the planks will be fitted perfectly.

Things require for wood flooring:

• Nail gun or pneumatic stapler
• Finishing nails
• Hardwood glue
• Table saw

Site Conditions to ensure before installation: 

Before installing hardwood floors, we also have to keep some site conditions in our mind. We have heard about the risen of wooden floors or large gaps opening in between the floors. These all conditions can be avoided if we check the site conditions before installing or fixing the floor. We have to test a few things in the room to ensure that it is safe to apply the wooden floor. 

• Using a hygrometer, we have to check the room’s air humidity, which should be 45 to 65%. 
• Subfloors should also be tested for moisture, and they should not have a moisture content of more than 12%. 
• Uneven floors should be repaired or leveled up before fixing the wooden floor. 

Considering all these conditions will minimize any expansion or shrinkage in the hardwood floor that may occur after the installation. 

Pre-installation preparation 

Before laying the wooden planks on the floor, it’s necessary to remove all the unnecessary parts present against the wall. The 1/4-inch gap should be left against the wall around the flooring edges to expand the floor. This space should be maintained from every side of the wall in the room if the floor is concrete, so it would be best to use a 6-millimeter polyethylene sheet to avoid moisture.

Installation of wooden planks on the floor, the room’s width should be measured so that the floor’s last row will be at least 2 inches wide. We can find the last row’s width by dividing the width of the room from the width of the floor’s face. That remaining number will be the width of the last row. 

Installation of Random Wood Flooring:

• Measure the distance of 1-2 inches around the wall’s corners and draw the line with the chalk. 
• Apply the wooden planks of random length in the first row along the chalk line drawn in the first step. 
• In the beginning, install the random pattern to create a stair step. When the First row will end, the final cuts will be used to install the second row. 
• Do not use any hard think or hammer to place the boards. Instead of that, use soft tools to fix them on the floor. 
• Pre-drill the First row of strips using 7d flooring nail. 
• Face-nail the first row by hand. 
• On top of the boards, pre-drill the holes at a 45-degree angle down. 
• 8. The next row should be nailed respective of any spot. 
• Lay down the rose consecutively. Make sure the flooring should be done type together from both sides and end joints. 
• The last two rows should be laid down by providing 3/4″ room for expansion from the wall line. 
• When the random lay of wooden planks was done on the floor, clean the floor and finish lines. 
• The remaining amount of boards can be saved for later use if there comes any need for repair.

Advantages of Random Wood Flooring

• Cause the Lowest installation cost
• Good choice for open spaces and rectangular rooms
• Add the element of uniqueness

How to Lay Random Length Wood Flooring: FAQs

How long should wood floors sit before installing? 

It is essential to place the wood floors before installing them, but the question that arises here is how much time we should acclimate the wood before using them? According to the national wood flooring Association, wood floor acclimation is “the process of correcting the moisture content of wood flooring to the surroundings in which it is expected to perform.” Wood flooring can be best done when it is performed where the environment is controlled and remains within a relative humidity range from 30 to 50%.

The period has nothing to do with the wood floors to place before installing them. Dealers ask to place the wood floor for some time before using them to be dried out, and there doesn’t remain any moisture in them. It’s just a precautionary measure for clients to be informed with such information which would be best for their flooring. It’s just a condition that is applied in different scenarios for different reasons. 

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Can hardwood be installed on an uneven floor? 

You are installing the hardwood on an uneven floor without making the floor smooth causes cracking and breaking boards and sections. If you want to install the hardwood on an uneven floor, you should use the leveling compound first on the floor to make it smooth. It’s not very difficult to place the leveling compound on the floor to make it smooth so that you could apply hardwood on the floor.

Do you lay wood flooring vertically or horizontally? 

It doesn’t matter which you choose to place the hardwood on the floor. It mostly depends on the client’s preference that which method you want to use for his wood flooring. The choice of using the wood floor vertically or horizontally depends on the size of the room and the shape of that room. But the most common way to lay the hardwood flooring is by aligning the wooden planks parallel to the long wall in the room. Today there are number of ways by which we can lay the wood floor in the room.

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Conclusion

To conclude this topic, each person has a unique reason to acclimate the wooden floors. Let’s take an example of North East. In North East, we have a different climate. In summer, it is hot and humid, and in winter, it is cold and dry. If we place the wood floors for more time in both of these Seasons, it will damage the hardwood flooring. That is why it is best to place or install the hardwood flooring in their condition at the right moment. There are situations where wood flooring will need to acclimate.