Cut Your Own Wood Flooring

Planks can be cut with a hand saw circular saw or flooring cutter and most laminate flooring comes in planks that simply snap together with a tongue and groove system making it quick and relatively trouble free.

Cut your own wood flooring.

The saw will wander all over. I left the bark on. If that happens that would result in a pretty big gap. How to lay down your own inexpensive wood floor and make it look gorgeous.

Yes i did the sanding hence no photos of that step. I sanded each board one by one top ends and knocked the sharp edges off the corners for a worn farmhouse feel. In a past life i had thought of the idea of buying solid oak plywood cutting it into strips and using it as inexpensive solid oak flooring and i was told that i was an idiot and carpet was chosen instead a far more expensive option when i had already exhausted my budget. We ll cut it off when we turn the planks into flooring.

Put the end against a 3 4 inch spacer and seat the edge snugly against its neighbor. Find a piece and lay it alongside the hole and flip it over. You can either pile those pieces off to the side and return them to the mill later to cut the bark off or deal with the bark as part of the milling process. That piece is a keeper.

Cut it if necessary so the end is offset from the end of the board in the previous row by a minimum of 6 inches. That gives you a guide of sorts. Cut it straight through the center to make it manageable for your band saw. This removes the groove which you ll re create in the next step.

Scc cut all the 8 ft planks into 4 ft pieces then cut about 6 of those in half again to 2 ft sections. A circular saw is sort of like a table saw just with the portability of a reciprocating saw. Make sure when you make the mark to cut off the wall side not the room side. Measure the face width of the existing flooring add the width of its tongue then set the table saw s fence that same distance away from the blade.

Set up the shaper or router table with a tongue and groove cutter. Now cut the new boards to width by running the tongue side against the fence. Adjust the fence and cutter height using a scrap piece of material adjust the cutter height and fence position until you have it set up correctly to run your flooring. Often when you cut like this the saw will cut out stringy wood.

Start by cutting a line all the way down where you want your cut to go. Don t try and cut from the top down straight through. Cut the last length to fit leaving a 3 4 inch expansion gap and nail it in place. This makes it great for basic cuts or for a more skilled installer good for basic cuts for wood flooring as well.

The second cut will produce a piece that has two good faces but bark on two edges. Make sure to always cut the wall end of the wood so that you do not cut off the groove that fits to the tongue. Put the first board of the new row in place.