Hardwood Floors. Laying, Sanding and Finishing

Customer Reviews

Helped me Successfully Install my Hardwood Floor

2008-08-09
Very practical and useful guide to installing a hardwood floor. I would not have had as great a result without it. If you are installing or thinking about installing a hardwwod floor, get this book. It gives you all of the tips and tricks to do the job properly. Well worth the price.

Good Book Overall, But Some Flaws

2007-11-03
Overall, this book will give you the information you need to install and finish a new hardwood floor or re-finish an existing hardwood floor as painlessly as possible. The subject is covered thoroughly, from choosing lumber types and patterns to types and methods of finishing. However, I strongly suggest that one hint made by the author be ignored completely. On page 111 and perhaps other pages of the Sanding and Finishing chapter of the 1990 edition of the text, the author proposes the use of a floor buffer to fine screen between coats of finish to take the tops off and help successive coats of finish adhere. What this did for me, even with the finest grit screen available, was leave lots of spider web type scratches in the finish that reflected artificial light in every direction at night, and made what was supposed to be a high gloss polyurethane finish look dull in the daylight. This tip wasted two coats and two days of finish work. My suggestion is to use a drywall pole-type sander with 220 grit or finer sandpaper and always sand in the direction of the grain. This method takes much longer than the buffer method, but won't produce the spider web scratches that the buffer does. One other suggestion the author makes is to mix fine sanding dust with a water-based filler base called Wood Stuff to make perfectly matched filler. I thought that this was a great idea, because you'd get the closest match and you could mix a huge batch of filler right on the floor and trowel the entire space very quickly. I wanted the water-based Wood Stuff because I was using a water-based polyurethane to finish. The problem was that I couldn't find Wood Stuff or any comparable water-based product online or in any hardware or woodworking store. I ended up using several one-pint batches of Famowood filler hole-by-hole, which took days because my salvaged hardwood was full of tack holes. I'm just commenting on the suggested product's availability, here, which is not the author's fault. Maybe the book is a little out of date. Ultimately, with the other information in the book, my floor came out great. I just wish I used the floor buffer for the final wood sanding only (not on the finish).

A "must read" for hardwood do-it-yourselfers

2007-09-28
Author Don Bollinger stares in, writes, or is quoted in just about every video or book about installing, sanding and finishing hardwood flooring. I came across his video 15yrs ago while researching my first hardwood project. Of the four books I checked out from the library on the topic he was pictured and quoted in all of them. He is a master of his trade and in this book he lays out the very basic and clear steps to a beautiful floor. I read this book again before every flooring project and finely I just bought it. It takes all the uncertainty (but none of the hard work) out of laying and finishing a hardwood floor. Like most do-it-yourself books this one covers the basic principles and standard practices for the first timer as well as instructions and ideas for the adventurous. What sets this book apart from the others is the focus on common and not so common mistakes that will always result in a expensive disappointment. Once you nail down a wood floor you will realize it's never coming up again. That's a bad time to discover you should have read this book first.

Great book. Very helpful

2007-07-10
I bought the book and the DVD and both provided information very useful for my first DIY install of hardwood flooring.

Like many projects it's the prep work that pays off in the end and it's also true with installing hardwood flooring. A sub-floor that is flat and secured to the joists along with that straight first row goes along way in ensuring a successful install.

This is a great book.

2007-05-13
This book is very informative. If you are going to lay flooring then this will be very helpful.

Hardwood Floors: Laying, Sanding and Finishing

2007-01-10
Using crisp photos and drawings, Bollinger goes step by step through the process. You will learn how to estimate materials, select the right kind of wood, prepare the subfloor and achieve a blemish-free finish for an old or new floor. Bollinger also provides numerous tips and tricks, and sources of supply. The book is indexed for easy reference.

Check out Hai Nguyen review

2007-01-01

Click on Read all my reveiws for this guy... He hates everything.

Confidence Builder

2006-03-02
This book is wonderful. I've been reading everything I can get my eyes on regarding installation of solid hardwood flooring. Most places I see the same general points, but not many details. Not this book. Here are answers to the dozens of questions I had in response to reading all of the other stuff.

One of the books on the topic (the DVD is good too)

2005-12-31
However, I agree with the person below that you should really seek out a continuous belt sander, and avoid drum sanders due to their tendency to create very subtle chatter marks over the entire floor surface. They cannot be seen or felt prior to finishing the floor, but once you have the floor finish applied, you can see them. Also, the author says that a screen buffer is optional, but if you use a drum sander, I think it is pretty much a necessity if you want to lessen the effect of the chatter marks that a drum sander produces, compared to a continuous belt sander.

excellent -- thorough and helpful

2005-03-11
An excellent book. Provides good details, anticipates a lot of problems, good graphics/drawings to explain.