I can help you with questions 2 and 3. We recently had over 2800 sf of Brazilian Teak installed in our new home. We did not do it ourselves, but our GC did install it himself (and he is a plumber by trade).

Pre-drilling is not necessary, but a pneumatic flooring nailgun is. This stuff is extremely hard. As an FYI -- if you are planning shoe moulding, I would not recommend getting Brazilian Teak. We returned ours as the finish carpenters could not get their nails through the BT shoe mould into the BT floor. We went with another wood and had it stained to match -- can't tell the difference.

Here's a pic of some of our new floor. Good luck!

{{gwi:1550898}}

Lots of wood is as hard as teak and it can be difficult to work with. I would not put down plastic - I use felt (tarpaper) and it works well. You can use any gun that will get the nail thru - just adjust the setting right and try a few shots before you put the floor in. I use an old fashioned kind of thing where you just pound it hard with a mallet - works well enough on Brazillian cherry, bloodwood, mesquite, and various other woods that are also hard.

You pre-drill the first planks and use a flooring nail to secure, after which you can use the gun. You bought pre-finished flooring, so if you have never done this, take a couple of the warped pieces that you are going to have to scrap anyway and use them for experimenting. Nail a couple to the middle of the floor where you can easily rip them out. See what kind of difficulty you may have. And if you are going to nail thru the tongue, definitely pre-drill and then slightly ream the hole and then use a nail set to make sure that the nail head sinks properly, otherwise you will have a gap. If you do not do this, you can split off the tongue. Try one of your sample boards w and w/out pre-drilling to understand what I mean. Always make your mistakes where they won't hurt you later.

One problem w some of the hardwoods is that they can split and splinter more easily than you might think, so be aware of that or your hands can get shredded.

Also, get a good new saw blade. Where you cut the boards, you do not want any chipping, so slow and accurate is the rule and you get nicer edges. Also, don't expect everything to be a perfect 90 degree cut, even on the boards you buy. I have never found the edges to be perfect. Since I'm a little fanatical, I make them perfect.

Make sure you have a good router too - you may want to route the ends. Some people don't but I do where they lock into the border, unless you are not putting in a border and then you can simply run them into the wall.

Good luck.

thanks to both of you!

The floors were delivered to the house today. I cant wait to start installing. But I am going to wait about 1 to 2 months before I get there as I have read that this wood takes a long time to acclimate.

gardenchick1 - I have seen that picture before. Those floors turned out awesome and I hope mine turn out somewhere near that beautiful.

Thanks for the awesome tips on installation! The floor kicker pieces are expensive, so I think I will just do the stain thing. Great advice.

rosesinny-
I am thinking I about buying the Bostich stapler gun and then selling it on ebay when I am done. ( I figure that as a rookie flooring installer, getting a good stapler will help me out and be worth the money. Besides, I will sell it after I am done anyway...) Should I still predrill even if I am stapeling? Is there a way to not predrill with this wood? Thats alot of predrilling! :( .. :) Or are you referring to when they are the first board from the wall?

I am hip on the good blades for cutting. Will take your advice on that. And for the router. Good call on that too. Thank you for the help!

I just put in french drains, but its still moist under the house. I still need to put down the vapro barrier and I am also going to put insulation under the floorboards since we dont have it now. I hope this also helps keep the vapor down as well as keep the house warmer.

thanks!
Dustin

also invest in a wood flooring moisture meter.

you want to test the installation area and the wood to ensure both are within the humidity requirements of the manufacturer.

Here is a link that might be useful: wood flooring moisture meter

Acclimation is not a time thing. It is a moisture content equilibrium thing.

I have needed to let wood acclimate 2 months(the longest yet)
I have taken readings right off the truck and been good to go.

gardenchick1 - Are those floors from simplefloors? If not, what teak is that exactly?

My floors are from Wood Flooring International and the species is Brazilian Teak. Other flooring retailers sometimes call it Cumaru.