" We've removed the old tile floor and the old wooden floor underneath. We've cleaned up the floor and lay down our 1st row of 15-pound felt paper. Now it's time to lay down the new floor. The 1st thing we have to do is to make sure that the 1st course of flooring will clear the trim of the register. In this case, the 1st course fits. If not, we would have had to cut the 1st course of flooring to fit around the register trim. To set up the position of the 1st course of floorboards, measure the width of the floorboards and add 3 inches to allow room for the snap line so that it won't be in the way of nailing the floorboards. Then, hammer a nail in place and attach the snap line. Now lay out the snap line and line up the Starter board. Check to make sure that the width of the molding will be wide enough to cover the inside edge of the floorboard. Because the wall in this room is bowed, we're going to set back the starter line 1/4 of an inch closer to the wall so that the molding will be covering the space between the bowed wall and the starter. Continue to line up the boards until the entire starter line is laid down and ready for nailing. The space in front of the threshold of the closet can't be covered by the molding so we're going to cut a filler to fit. Transfer the measurement to a length of floorboard, and cut the filler with a circular saw. Set the filler in place. Next, we'll dry fit the trim for the register vent. In this case, no adjustment is needed. The 1st strip is base nailed towards the grooved image so that the baseboard molding will cover it when installed. We carefully aligned the 1st row of flooring with the strain so that it's as straight as possible. Try to place the face nails into the floor joists to hold the 1st row in position as we blind nail the next several rows. If we keep the 1st 3 rows perfectly straight, then the rest of the floor will look better and it will be easier to install. Now holding the drill at roughly a 45-degree angle, drill a pilot hole into the tongue edge for each nail then nail in 8 penny finish nails so that the nail will be hidden by the next course of flooring. This is called blind nailing. Countersink each nail with a nail set so that the nail is flushed with the tongue of the floorboard. You can speed things up by drilling a series of pilots and setting the nails all at once. The 2nd course of floorboards is also blind nailed by hand. Set each nail flush with a nail set. "

" we're more than halfway done. Working steadily across the room, note that the next dozen or so courses are laid out by length, ready for installing. When you reach the other side, we switch back to setting the nails with a hammer as there's no room for a power nailer. For the last 3 courses of flooring, the floorboards are pressed into place with a power Jack. As we move along, we press the last course into place. Drill a pilot hole and top nail the last course. 2 more pieces fill out the space in the doorway. If a piece doesn't fit, don't force it. Measure the difference and carefully trim it to size. Taking your time will assure a perfect fit. Be sure the piece is snug by tapping it in place with a mallet or hammer while using a scrap of wood as a buffer. Now insert the Opel mosaic. Again, be sure it's snug using a hammer and a piece of wood to protect the bull nose. Next, drill pilot holes and then drive and set the finishing nails. There's 1 more small space that should be filled before we install the molding. This strip is less than an inch wide. Measure and cut a strip of wood and fit it into place. Tap it in place with a hammer, then using a pry bar, bring it up snug to the last course of wood. Next, drill pilot holes for each nail and hand nail them in place. Finally, we put the molding back in place. Nail the molding into the studs behind the wall and set the nails. With this last step, your floor is done and your room is ready for furniture."

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