Engineered hardwood flooring is a great alternative for carpet or tile, and installation is easier than you think. Check it out!

The very first thing you need to do before installing any type of flooring is to remove all the old nails, screws and staples which may exist in the previous flooring. Then you want to sweep vacuum and wipe the floor clean of any dust with damp cloth or mop.

Once your floor is totally clean and clear, it is recommended that you roll out a layer of felt paper, also known as tar paper and staple it down. This underlayment will provide a vapor barrier which will stop any moisture from coming up from below the floor and womping it.

Okay, the floor is prep, now it's time to prep the planks. Layout several boxes of the flooring and pullout several pieces from each box, mixing the pieces up. This will ensure that you do not have areas of flooring with noticeable similar color variation. Didn't think about that, did you?

With any floor installed you want to keep cuts from highly visible areas. So I am beginning in this large entry way with full planks. Unlike traditional hardwood floors where you start with the thumb side facing out, manufacturers of Engineered Flooring recommend that you begin with the groove facing into the room.

Start by running one full row, the entire length of the wall, keeping it about three-eighths of an inch of the wall for some expansion. Now I say some expansion because Engineered Style flooring doesn't react the changes in the humidity like 3 quarter inch traditional flooring does.

You want to rent yourself a pneumatic flooring stapler, this tool uses a compressor to drive a staple through the groove at a 45 degree angle down into the sub-floor. You may also want to pickup a rubber mallet from banging it together; some of those are really stubborn scenes.

Continue laying the floor in two or three rows at a time. Remember to space out different sized pieces to continue the staggered scene look, keeping the previously laid rows ahead to create a step effect.

Use a miter saw to cut the final board in each row to the right length.

Working close to the walls as is the case in the last row or two, you won't be able to fit the flooring staple over the groove due to the wall. So in this case we probably want to abandoning the flooring stapler, face nailing for last few plank pieces.

You will be finishing off the flooring, we always have a transition to another room in the form of a threshold. In finishing tip number 2 you will need to install baseboard trim which will cover the entire perimeter of the room hiding all the cut ends of the flooring.

And there you go; this simple installation only took half a day and with minor maintenance like daily sweeping you will have a beautiful floor that lasts a lifetime.