Category Archives: How To

What is Best Way to Install Staybull Flooring?

Staybull Flooring Installation

What is the best way to install Staybull flooring? There are a couple ways to install the brand of hardwood flooring made by Staybull®. All you need to do is determine which method will work best in your situation.

Nail or Staple Method

The most straightforward method, nailing or stapling your floor is relatively fast and cheap – as long as you have an acceptable substrate already in place. An acceptable substrate is one that will hold nails and staples well. Obviously, this method will not work on a concrete subfloor.

Glue Down Method

By gluing the floorboards directly to the subfloor, you get a quiet and solid-feeling surface. Because the entire surface area is glued down, this method can further enhancee the cupping and buckling resistance that Staybull® already offers. However, this method can be messy, expensive, and labor-intensive method if done improperly. Additionally, some common glues contain toxic chemicals, so you have to be careful when selecting your adhesive. We recommend urethane wood flooring adhesive. The glue down method is recommended for installing over an aged concrete slab.

For detailed instructions, check out our How-to Install Staybull Flooring® guide.

Can Recycled Wood Flooring Be Refinished?

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Can recycled wood flooring be refinished? The answer: Yes! Consider how Staybull™ recycled wood flooring is manufactured. It is basically narrow strips of solid wood flooring. This means it has all the benefits of solid flooring, including a thick wear layer that can be sanded down and refinished multiple times. Additionally, because Staybull™ uses 100% eco-friendly glues during the production process, you do not have to worry about toxic fumes being released into the air you breathe while sanding.

Here’s the simplest way to refinish the Staybull™ brand of recycled wood flooring:

Use 80 grit sandpaper to remove the original finish.
To achieve an even and smooth surface
1. Use 100 grit sandpaper to remove any marks,
2. Then use 120 grit sandpaper to make the surface nice and smooth.
Remove all dust and debris from the surface.
Apply new, water-based eco-friendly flooring finish per the manufacturer’s instructions.
Let the new finish dry.
Enjoy your new eco-friendly floor.

What’s a good finish to use? We recommend using Loba Wakol products as they have some great finish products whether you are just recoating the factory finish or sanding and doing a new finish. Their 2k series will even stick to UV cured finishes. They also have finish for starting from scratch

The truth is that no floor is impervious to damage. When you compare flooring options, you need to know that every product will start to show scratches and dents. Because our recycled wood flooring can be refinished, you give yourself the opportunity to extend the life of your floor, thereby increasing your return on investment. Ultimately, with its rejuvenated look you can enjoy Staybull Flooring™ for years without spending an arm and a leg to replace it.

Staybull Flooring® is The Best Choice for Concrete Subfloors

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Staybull Flooring® is the best choice for concrete subfloors. How can we claim that our brand of recycled hardwood flooring can be installed over concrete?

The answer lies in the way Staybull® is made and how it naturally resists the stress moisture can place on wood flooring. Most of the problems that arise with wood floors have to do with moisture, and this remains especially true when installing flooring over concrete. The problem with concrete subfloors is that they tend to retain moisture, and when they exist on or below grade, changing moisture levels can aggravate the problem even more.

Traditional solid hardwood flooring, already prone to warping, twisting, and cupping, will perform poorly when installed over concrete. In the past, this led people to settle for engineered wood flooring. However, while it is more dimensionally stable than solid planks, engineered flooring has such a thin wear layer that it cannot be refinished, so it does not have as long a lifespan. Unfortunately, many people find this out when they first attempt to refinish their engineered floor. Needless to say, they end up replacing it after a few hears. As you might expect, replacing any floor after such a short time will significantly lower their return on investment.

Staybull Flooring®, however, combines the best of both worlds. Because of its unique manufacturing process, it is more stable than solid flooring, and can be refinished more often than engineered flooring. The result is an eco-friendly flooring option that can be installed directly over an aged concrete subfloor. You do not even have to worry about spending time and money on a substrate when dealing with Staybull Flooring®.

Learn how to install Staybull Flooring® over concrete.

How to Replace Carpet in your Home or Office

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Many homes come with carpets already installed. While carpeting offers many benefits such as warmth, softness, and sound dampening, it also comes with a host of problems including dirt retention and off-gasing of potentially harmful chemicals. Here are some tips on how to replace carpet in your home or office, so you can avoid these problems.

There are several options for hardwood flooring, but we recommend Staybull’s eco-friendly flooring brand the most, since it combines the beauty and strength of solid wood with the stability of engineered flooring. Here is how you replace carpet with Staybull recycled wood flooring:

Using a flatbar and hammer, take out the base trim. If you intend on keeping the original trim, then be careful not to break it, and mark each piece somehow so you know where it came from.
Slide the flatbar under the old carpet using a hammer, and pull up on it until you can grab it with your hands. Proceed to pull up the carpet, rolling it up as you go. If there is foam padding underneath the carpet, pull it up as well.
Underneath the carpet you will find tack strips, thin pieces of wood with tiny spikes to hold the carpet down. Again, using your flatbar and hammer, remove and dispose of these.
Now just clean up the bare surface. This may involve pulling out or nailing down old nails, and sweeping up any debris. You also may have to sand down bumps or fill depressions.
Now it is time to install your new hardwood floor. There are a few ways to go about this. The recommended methods are detailed here: Install Hardwood Flooring.

When you are done, you will have a healthier, longer-lasting floor that will never go out of style.

Using Gypcrete, Vinyl, and Radiant Heat as Subflooring

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In our last post, we discussed the different types of subfloors over which you could install the Staybull® brand of eco-friendly wood flooring. This time, we will take a look at using Gypcrete, Vinyl, and Radiant Heat as subflooring as well. However, these subfloor options are not recommended for our brand of recycled hardwood flooring. If you choose to install Staybull® over one of these subfloors, you do so at your own risk. We cannot honor the warranty for the reasons outlined below.

Gypcrete

Gypcrete is like lightweight concrete, and is relatively weaker than a traditional concrete subfloor. Many people who glued down a wood floor on top of gypsum concrete reported that changing moisture levels caused it to expand and contract. Some people even reported that the subfloor itself was brittle enough to be torn apart under the pressure. Because of this, if you’re 100% certain you want to use this product, we recommend other flooring options that are suitable for floating installations. Because Staybull Flooring® is unsuitable for floating installations, we do not recommend using a gypcrete subfloor.

Vinyl

We do not recommend vinyl subfloors underneath Staybull Flooring®, either. Vinyl can trap moisture beneath the floor, and further aggravate that problem by preventing the wood from breathing on the bottom side.

Radiant Heat

Heat and moisture can cause countless problems with hardwood flooring. That is one reason why we do not recommend radiant heat subfloors for Staybull Flooring®. The rapid heating that occurs over radiant heat subfloors can cause rapid moisture changes, which leads to warping, buckling, and cracking. Only floating installations are suitable over radiant heat subfloors, and Staybull Flooring® is unsuitable for such installations. We’ve discussed this with engineers and people who know wood inside and out and they tell us time and again that it’s just not a good idea to install ANY hardwood floor over a radiant heat source. Too many things can go wrong and you can end up throwing a lot of money at the resulting problems.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask using the comment form below.