- 1). Measure your room with a measuring tape and pre-cut each piece of prefab flooring with the circular saw to fit your room.
- 2). Lay sheets of asphalt felt over the subfloor, the unfinished base of plywood that supports your prefabricated floor. Place the sheets so they overlap 3 inches. Insert staples with a staple gun to secure the felt to the subfloor.
- 3). Tap the subfloor with the hammer to find the joists underneath; you should hear a hollow sound when you reach a joist. Mark the location of the joists with the chalk line. Place the flooring so it is positioned perpendicular to the joists.
- 4). Draw another chalk line at the center of the room, parallel to the wall where you will be laying the first planks of prefabricated hardwood. Measure the width of the room with the measuring tape, doing so from a number of places to find the center of the room. Draw a third chalk line, parallel to and 1/2 inch from the wall where you'll be starting. Lay the starting edge of the first prefabricated plank along this line.
- 5). Drill holes with the power drill into either end of the plank, adjacent to the wall. Hammer finishing nails through these holes so they penetrate the subfloor below. Insert and hammer a set of finishing nails through the length of the plank, into the subfloor every 10 inches. Use the nail punch to sink the nail heads. Place the punch against the nail head and hammer the end of the punch with the hammer to drive the head below the surface of the wood.
- 6). Place the second prefabricated hardwood plank with the ends 6 or more inches from the ends of the first plank. Drill holes into the end of the plank with the power drill; drill them at a 45-degree angle into the tongue of the plank. Hammer finishing nails into the holes; continue hammering nails every 10 inches into the tongue at a 45-degree angle along the length of the plank. Hammer nails into the pilot holes just as you did with the first plank.
- 7). Position the second plank firmly against the first; use a scrap piece of planking to lay against the edge of the second plank and tap it with the mallet.
- 8). Lay the remaining prefabricated hardwood planks in this manner until you come to the last board. Insert the last board with a pry bar so it fits snugly. Drill pilot holes in the end of the board and hammer in the finishing nails as you did the first board.
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