How to lay wood flooring in 10(?) easy (?) steps

I spent the first three days of this week helping Greg lay wood flooring in three bedrooms, a hallway, and a big living room/dining room of a house that's been totally rehabbed. We had a great time working together, and I learned how to use the chop saw! I'm pretty impressed with myself! I also have THE MOST incredibly sore leg muscles - probably from all the squatting and running up and down stairs, or maybe because I'm just a majorly out-of-shape weinie. :)

So of course I took my camera one day, and here's the process, start to finish!

First, you start with a clean, empty (ugly) room.


Then, I pulled up all the staples and carpet tacks, and Greg screwed the floor down tight (to eliminate squeaks).



Next, construction paper is laid in rows and stapled down, so that when the floor expands and contracts with temperature, the paper will allow it to slide freely instead of buckling or cracking.


This is a small pile of the flooring pieces that come in boxes of varying lengths that have to be separated and stacked - yep, that was my job!!


Lots of the pieces could be laid as is, but anytime we came to a doorway, or a closet, or anything other than a perfectly straight line, the pieces had to be cut to fit. Greg's job, definitely! I got to cut the end pieces of each row - straight, easy cuts that I could handle just fine once I got over the stomach butterflies of using that scary saw!