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There is a need for you to make a series of relief cuts at every outside and inside corners so as the flooring will lie flat over the floor, after the flooring has been positioned. For outside corners, you have to start at the top of the lapped-up flooring and cut straight down to the meeting point of walls and floors. For inside corners, you can diagonally cut the excess flooring; gradually trimming it away until the flooring lies flat in the corner. The material that has been lapped up against the walls have to be removed after trimming down the corners.

Pressing the flooring into a right angle where the wall and floor join, should be done by using an 18 to 24-inch-long piece of 2 by 4. The flooring material should expand without buckling. So a gap of 1/8-inch should be left between the edge of the flooring and the wall to allow for the expansion of the material after trimming down the material by laying a heavy straightedge along the wall. You have to ensure that the wall base will overlap the edge of the flooring by a minimum of 1/4 -inch, if you plan to attach a wall base.

Trimming around doorways : There should be a tight fit of flooring around the doorways and other locations because there will be a absence of floor molding to provide a finished appearance. One of the most effective ways to hide the exposed edge of the flooring over a doorjamb is to cut away that much of door casing so as to provide a slip through for the flooring under the casings.

Finishing the job : You have to carefully clean the surface once the flooring is in place. Use a specific floor cleaner recommended by the manufacturer that leaves your flooring unharmed. For the purpose of wiping away adhesive that is still left over on the surface use a solvent recommended by the manufacturer. You have to ensure that the flooring is set firmly into the adhesive if you have installed a flooring using an adhesive. The air bubbles that remain under the floor can be worked out by starting at the center. For this purpose, effective use of a floor roller is recommended.

After the floor is clean, flat and well settled, replacing the baseboards removed can be done. Leave a gap of 1/32 to 1/16 -inch between the flooring and the bottom of the molding and reattach the shoe molding. The movement of the flooring can be slight without buckling, if the nails are always driven through the molding into the baseboards and not through the flooring. Register or vent covers and fixtures that were removed can be replaced now.

Vinyl wall base is an alternative to baseboards and shoe molding. Vinyl wall base is available in a range of attractive colors. The tools used to install vinyl wall base are the same as the tools used to install resilient flooring, except for the adhesives that are made specifically to be used on surfaces that need vertical attachments. One of the characteristics of vinyl wall base is that it is flexible and is also available in rolls. With it’s lower edge on the resilient flooring, the vinyl base can be fastened directly on to the wall. It should be out of contact with the surface of the floor.

The manufacturer’s recommendations should be followed in installing the wall base, by spreading the adhesive with a notched trowel or by a brush. By allowing the adhesive to set, start at an inside corner, begin to install the base by pressing it strongly until it gets stuck. Stretch the vinyl at outside corners, pressing it strongly against the wall. You have to cut the vinyl to exact fit, by using a sharp utility knife to miter the ends, for the purpose of forming inside corners. For trimming a joint less inside corner score the back of vinyl and bend it to fit tightly into the corner.

You have to finish the sheet flooring as per the recommendations of the manufacturer.
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Home floor cleaning is probably on your mind if you’ve recently moved into a new home with hardwood floors, or renovated your existing home’s floors. Unlike carpeting, which is simple to clean and maintain, hardwood floors do require a bit more care. Fortunately, once you learn how to properly maintain your hardwood floors you will be able to look forward to years of easy care with stunning results.

The first thing you will need to do before cleaning is to figure out what kind of floor you have. If you are lucky to have a new sealed floor, it is probably a surface sealed floor which requires relatively little care. If your floor is older, it is probably a penetrating seal treated floor. This type of floor needs more involved care with waxes and oils.

For cleaning hardwood floors, in the case of a surface sealed floor, you merely need to mop using a product recommended by your flooring manufacturer. Products like Oil Soap solution (which don’t generally contain oil) are usually safe. A damp mop and a little soap are often also safe for this type of floor. Make sure to dry the floor completely when you’re done, since sitting water can damage a surface sealed floor.

If you have a penetrating seal treated floor, you will not be able to mop with water-based products. Instead, for routine cleanings, you can simply sweep or vacuum your floor. Every once in a while, for a deeper cleaning, you will need to strip the old wax coating and apply a new one. You can do this once or twice a year, if you like.

Use a stripper, and follow the manufacturer’s directions. Allow the hardwood floor to dry and try to ensure proper ventilation. Then purchase a product for waxing your floor that is approved by your floor manufacturer. Follow directions and apply one or two coats, or as many as desired.

The final - and most important - step is applying a hardwood floor buffer. This process is necessary to allow the wax to properly sink in and seal the floor, as well as to achieve a beautiful shine. Most people opt to rent or purchase a hardwood floor buffer machine, since it makes the job much easier. You may be interested in knowing that by purchasing the hardwood floor buffer machine, it will pay for itself after just three to four cleanings!
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If you’re interested in learning how to install wood flooring in your new or existing home, the good news is that there is a special type of hardwood floor that is very easy to install. It’s called a “floating hardwood floor”, and it works just like it sounds - it “floats” over the top of a substrate with no gluing or nailing required to adhere it. Even better, floating hardwood floors can be installed over the top of an existing hardwood floor, meaning that there is no need to do demolition.

Before you begin to install wood flooring, you will need to make sure your subfloor or substrate is completely clean and level. A joint compound that is self-leveling can be used to remedy any leveling problems. You will also need to decide what direction you would like the planks of your hardwood floor to lay.

When installing hardwood floors using floating flooring, a tongue and groove construction is used to “lock” the planks together. However, you will also need a special flooring glue to apply between the planks in order to create permanent adherence. Don’t use too much glue, and try to wipe away any excess.

The first three rows of planks are the most important, and it is these rows that can often become skewed or not fit together tightly when you are learning how to install wood flooring, therefore creating problems with the rest of the rows of flooring. You will want to use clamps or straps to make these first three rows fit together tightly until the glue dries.

Around the walls, you will want to leave a little bit of a gap in your floor during the floor installation. This is because the floor needs to be able to expand and contract from summer to winter. The instructions you receive with your floor will tell you how much room to leave. The molding on your walls will end up covering this space, so it won’t be visible.

After the planks are laid and glued, the floor will need to set for a while (consult instructions to find out how long you will need to leave it.) Then, you will need to sand the floor and use a finish to completely seal it. Many people prefer to hire a specialist to perform this step.
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Hardwood floor scratches are inevitable. At some point, scratches will happen. If you have hardwood flooring, it’s important that you learn how to do simple scratch repairs yourself. However, before you start fixing any scratches, you’ll need to learn how to differentiate between scratches and gouges on your hardwood floor.

A scratch is typically a visible, but not deep, marking on your hardwood floor’s surface. Hardwood floor scratches can be caused by dragging furniture across the floor or by glass that has fallen and cut the surface of the floor. A gouge, however, is much deeper than a scratch. Think of a gouge as a “flesh wound” a hardwood floor could sustain.

Dealing with a scratch is much different than dealing with a. For instance, it’s useless to apply hardwood floor scratch remover on gouges.

You’ll need to be sure that you really are dealing with a scratch instead of a gouge before you can initiate any kind of scratch repair work. Between scratches and gouges, scratches on hardwood floors are much more common. It’s near impossible to keep hardwood floors from getting scratches.

Moving pieces of furniture across or dropping sharp objects like glass are not the only things that can cause scratches. You may be causing scratches on your hardwood floor when you sweep it with a broom with not-so-soft bristles or you wipe off spills using a hard piece of cloth.

Again, scratches are nearly impossible to avoid, so the best thing you can do is learn how to deal with the scratches, like learning how to do simple scratch repairs. It’s pretty simple; you don’t have to hire a professional to do it for you.

Follow these steps:

1. Using a fine steel wool or sandpaper, rough up the scratched area.

2. Rub the whole length of the scratch. Cover both margins.

3. Make sure to rub in the direction of the wood grain, or rub in a circular motion to avoid damaging the wood and floor finish too much.

3. Dampen a soft cloth with mineral spirits. Use the soft cloth to wipe off any wood and dust particles on the scratched area of the floor.

4. Let the solution dry up on the floor. Depending on how big the scratch is, the scratch removal solution and how much of it you use, drying time may take from several minutes up to a few hours.

5. Take a fine paintbrush, dip it in the finish originally used on the floor and brush it across the scratched area. Wipe with a soft cloth.

6. Be careful and gentle when you brush in the finish onto the scratch. Too much or too little and the area will look much different from the rest of the hardwood floor. Brush in just enough finish so that it looks almost the same as the rest.

7. Give the new finish some time to dry. This may take between 30 minutes to a few hours.

If you followed the directions carefully, the scratch on your hardwood floor should be gone.

Linoleum or Vinyl Flooring as it is called today has seen some major improvements over the years and has become one of the easiest flooring types to maintain. Vinyl flooring is normally used in rooms that require extra maintenance as a rule, like kitchens, bathrooms, and mudrooms. Occasional spills are likely to happen in these rooms from ketchup and hairspray to sand and mud being dropped or brought in, proper daily maintenance will need to be performed to keep your vinyl floors looking great.

Vinyl Flooring - Manufactures usually have their own or recommended cleaning products for their vinyl flooring. Once you purchase your flooring be sure to read their recommendations as some cleaners will actually harm the vinyl’s protective coating and or dull the natural sheen of the flooring. General maintenance is a must sweeping, dust mopping or vacuuming should be a daily routine.

Many manufacturers will have a two or three part system for keeping the vinyl flooring looking new. This usually consist of a cleaner a stripper and a refinishing product and they each have recommend times for use make sure to follow their recommendations if you want to sustain that just laid down look.

Normally a cleaner will be used on a weekly basis but can be used more often if necessary. It is typically diluted and then used to mop the floor making sure to repeatedly rinse your mop is a good idea on especially dirty floors.

Strippers are commonly used once a year their main purpose is to remove the soapy build up from your normal cleaning and mopping of the floor which does build up after time giving your floor a dull appearance.

The refinishing product is used to help bring back your floors shine. Refinishing should not be done to often so make sure to follow the manufacturer’s recommendations or you may not only ruin your finish you may well void your warranty.

With out proper precaution vinyl flooring can be damaged by moving furniture and appliances so use care when doing so. It would be well forth the cost of getting felt type protectors for furnishings which are used in your rooms with vinyl flooring these can be purchase at most any hardware or flooring store. Chairs and other furniture with rollers on them should not be used on a vinyl floor as these will eventually damage your floor over time.

Should your floor become damage by a small cut or tear it is best to repair these immediately to protect from any further damage that may occur. Using a small amount of the manufacturers recommended seam sealer will seal these cuts and tears and protect your floor from further damage. (Seam sealer is used to bond pieces of vinyl together)

Vinyl flooring is an affordable and durable type of flooring as long as you know its limitations. Following these steps will keep your vinyl floor looking great for years, just remember that vinyl flooring does have its limits. Use felt floor protectors or at least some type of protector on all your furnishings, perform regular maintenance, follow the manufacturers’ schedules for your flooring type, and enjoy your vinyl floors for years.
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There are basically two methods of installing carpet on stairs. One is the waterfall method where one piece of carpet covers each riser and tread. The other is the cap and band installation. In this case the cap is a piece of carpet installed over the treads and the band is the piece that will cover the risers. In this article I will show you how to install carpet using the waterfall method. These instructions are for basic stairs and not for spiral stairs which would require additional procedures.

Tools Needed:

Tack strips
Staples or upholstery nails
Measuring Tape
Knee Pads
Knee kicker (check your rental store)
Stair Tool (check your rental store)
Utility knife
Hammer
Safety glasses

Obviously you’ll need to remove all the old carpet. Get rid of the tack strips and don’t try to use the old padding. Make sure any nails and staples are removed and sweep down the area to be carpeted.

Before you get started you’re going to have to figure out how much carpet you’ll need. To calculate the width simply measure across the tread. If your stairs are open on one or both ends make sure to measure under the nosing to where it meets the riser and add it to the total width. Figure the total length of your flight of stairs by measuring the tread and riser. Assuming your going to use carpet pad make sure to add at least 3 inches per stair. If your steps have nosing add one foot to the total flight measurement.

Okay, let’s get started. Apply the tack strip to the stair crotch location. Next you’ll need to tighten the carpet by tucking in the crotch. You can do this by using a knee kicker. It is a tool used to install carpet in small areas and stairs. It consists of a piece of metal tubing with a pin plate attached to it. On the other end it has a padded cushion where you can position your knee to apply pressure to the carpet. You should be able to find one at your local rental store. Simply place the padded end several inches above your knee and add pressure.

This is where you will use the knee kicker:

To attach to the tack strip you need to use the knee kicker to stretch the carpet straight from the center of the tread and hook it to the tack strip located at the crotch. Once the carpet has been hooked to the tack strip you need to firmly attach it by sliding your carpet tool back and forth to compress the pins. Using your utility knife or carpet knife trim as needed. A carpet knife is better as it has two sides and is sharper than a utility knife. Repeat this process on each side of the tread. Before going to the next tread make sure the carpet is smoothed out on the riser and then staple to the stair lip. I would recommend you staple about every 2 inches. Don’t forget to also staple along the edge of the riser.

Make sure to step back and take a look at your work before going on to the next tread. Is the carpet smooth? Did you kick it in evenly? It is also a good time to give your knees and back a rest. If everything looks good the continue onto the next tread. If not you’ll have to pull the carpet off and install it again. Repeat this process until you are finished.

Once finished stand back and admire your work and give yourself a pat on the back. You now have a beautiful looking staircase.
Jerry Holt is a writer for the website Do It Yourself Today. Please go to www.diytoday.net for do it yourself home improvement and carpet tips and advice.