Hardwood Floors April May 2018

Wood Stock

ONE BOARD AT A TIME

By Megan Lhamon

Joshua Crossman, owner of PTL Hardwood Floors, in Yelm, Washington, has learned a lot about wood oors since opening his business in 2004. Dedicated to continuing his education, learning new techniques, and providing customers with quality oors, Crossman was an excellent choice for this tricky installation. Unfortunately, not uncommon to the trade, there was a time-consuming surprise waiting for Crossman and his teamwhen they arrived on the job site. What they thought was going to be an easy tear-out, turned into an entire day of removing carpet and the particle board underneath that was glued and nailed down to the sub oor. Once the sub oor was properly prepped and moisture testing took place to make sure the wood was acclimated, the teamwas ready to install the pre nished acacia. PROCESS DETAILS “We used a combination of the jigsaw, table saw, and angle grinder to make the curves,” says Crossman. “We scribed around the board and nished it o with the angle grinder.” Another element that made this installation tricky was the varying height of the tile. “To create a smooth transition between the tile and the wood, we had to shim up each board individually to match the height of the tile that coordinated with each board,” adds Crossman. FLOOR FEATURE “Something unique about this job was the spiral staircase,” says Crossman. “We had to go around the staircase very tightly with the boards. en we scribed them to match the hardware of the staircase to make it look as if it is coming out of the oor.”

Photos courtesy of Joshua Crossman

SHIMMING A shim was used to match the height of this

transition between wood and ti le. For more information on shimming, read “Flattening Wood Subf loors” in the February/March issue of Hardwood Floors at hardwoodfloorsmag.com.

Crossman used a scribe to cut an opening in the boards around the staircase rods.

hardwood floors www.hardwoodfloorsmag.com

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