- 1). Remove all the floor trim with your hammer and pry bar, keeping it intact as you pry it out. Set it aside. Clean and dry the floor.
- 2). Lay hard foam underlayment down along the base of the starting wall. Cut it at the ends with a utility knife to fit. Lay additional courses alongside the first, taping them together at the edges with long strips of duct tape. Cover the whole floor.
- 3). Set your first course of floor planks along the starting wall, snapping them together end to end with the grooved side of the boards facing the wall. Put 3/8-inch wood shims between the boards and the wall to make a gap there so the floor can expand with environmental changes. Cut the pieces at the ends on your miter saw to fit against the side walls, as needed.
- 4). Lay the next courses of flooring in the same way, snapping the edges together and cutting the ends to fit at the side walls. Make sure the ends of the boards don't line up from course to course (the planks will come in varied lengths to accommodate this).
- 5). Cover the whole floor. Cut the boards for the final course lengthwise, on your table saw, so they'll fit against the ending wall with a 3/8-inch space left there.
- 6). Pull out all the shims you set to make the gaps by the walls. Put your floor trim back in place, installing it with a trim nailer so it covers the gaps by the walls. Make sure when you're installing it that you're nailing it into the walls and not through the floor.
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