Recommended Hardwood Floor Installation Tools
DIY Floor Installation Tools
Installing hardwood floors is a great DIY project that will add value to your home and save you money at the same time. Most flooring sub-contractors get between $2 and $6 per square foot to install hardwood flooring. That’s just the labor cost not including the cost of the actual wood flooring. So if you live in a 1500 square foot home you could easily save$3000 to $9000! So if you’re going to install your own hardwood floors then you need to buy some tools that will make your life much easier.
Jamb Saw
Whether you’re installing laminate, engineered, hardwood or even tile flooring the first tool I recommend you purchase is a powered jamb cut off saw. This saw allows you to cut the door jambs off very neat at the exact thickness of your new flooring. This allows the flooring to fit under the door jamb snugly so it has a nice clean appearance. The saw is really easy to use, you sit the blade on top of a piece of scrap flooring and turn it on, then you cut the door jamb at that height. I like the Bosch Finecut Power Handsaw and it’s worked great for me on both of our houses.
I recommend you buy the Bosch Finecut Power Handsaw and use it for your project then turn around and sell it on Ebay or Craigslist to recoup some of your money. I’ve done that successfully for several specialty power tools and it ends up being cheaper than renting the tools. The saw only costs $80 and it’s totally worth it in the time it saves you and the quality of the finished job.
Hardwood Floor Nailer
The other tool I recommend you buy is a pneumatic flooring nailer or stapler. If you have a really small job then go ahead and rent one. However, if you’re doing a decent sized job then I say buy the tool you want to use and then sell it afterward the job is finished. You won’t be rushed to return the rental and chances are it will be cheaper in the long run.
The type of flooring that you select will dictate which type of tool to buy. If you’re installing 3/4 inch or thicker hardwood then you should go with a pneumatic floor nailer. If you go with laminate or engineered flooring that’s 1/2 inch or thinner then pneumatic floor staplers are the better choice.
Recommended Hardwood Floor Nailers
The two tools that I recommend are both made by
Bostitch. I’ve used both of these tools on my own floor and they worked great. I used the Bostitch Pneumatic Flooring Nailer to install 3/4 inch thick Bruce Oak flooring in my first house. I used the Bostitch Laminate Flooring Stapler to install Brazilian Cherry engineered flooring in our new house. In both cases I bought the pneumatic nailers online and then sold them on Ebay.
Miter Saw
The only other tool you’ll need is some type of miter saw. You can use anything from a handsaw and miter box to my favorite the Bosch 12 Inch Sliding Miter Saw. As with any job having the right tools for the job is the key. The money you save doing the job yourself will more than cover the expense of a few new tools.
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That’s a nifty little door jamb saw!
I agree with Jennifer, always had to do that with a small piece of flooring and a hand saw!
Nice write up though Todd!
what about a table saw? You will need one of those too..
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