Get on the floor. Seriously—take the wood out of those boxes and let it do its thing.
I wish it were that easy. Laying oak flooring takes serious time and care, but when it’s finished it looks incredible. In short: installing wood floors is time well spent. The right hardwood can transform bedrooms and hallways, creating a cohesive, durable surface that stands up to daily life.
Don’t mind the dusty path coming from Clara’s room—we still had a few spots to sweep.
We chose solid oak hardwood for the four upstairs bedrooms and the hallway because it matched the medium-toned oak downstairs and on the stairs. Solid oak is a durable, classic choice for high-traffic areas, and we wanted continuity through the upper level. But a major complication arose: the subfloor.
Our subfloor was particle board, which can be problematic beneath nail-down hardwood. Some installers have success installing directly over particle board, but results are inconsistent and many hardwood manufacturers void warranties if floors are nailed down to particle board. That wasn’t a risk we wanted to take. After researching, we narrowed our choices to three imperfect options.
- Return the nail-down flooring and buy a floating floor instead. We loved the oak we had already chosen and didn’t want to give it up, especially since floating options didn’t match our existing stairs and downstairs hardwoods.
- Remove the particle board to reveal plywood beneath. This would have been labor-intensive, lowered the finished floor height (causing door and threshold problems), and removed the sound-deadening layer that helped reduce upstairs echo.
- Install plywood over the particle board. This addressed the nailability issue but raised the floor level, requiring door trimming and altering the top stair step, and it added material and labor costs.
A fourth option was recommended by the flooring specialist: an adhesive underlayment called Elastilon.
Elastilon is an adhesive, elastic underlayment developed in Europe to allow hardwood installation over surfaces that can’t be nailed, like concrete or tile. Instead of nailing, the wood adheres to the underlayment, effectively creating a glued-down floor system. After watching installation videos and reading positive reviews, we decided it was the best compromise.
- It includes a lifetime warranty and is designed to last as long as the hardwood.
- Its elasticity helps boards expand and contract with seasonal changes, reducing cracking, gapping, and warping.
- Installation requires only a utility knife and careful handling, eliminating the need to buy or rent a nailer.
- It’s non-toxic, zero-VOC, and low-odor for an adhesive product.
The main downside was cost: Elastilon ran about $100 more per roll than our originally planned sound-deadening underlayment. In the end we spent roughly $500 more than expected, but we avoided a $4,000 installation charge by doing the work ourselves, received a store discount, and saved the expense of a nailer.
Once we learned the installation rhythm, Elastilon made the process straightforward. With clean, dry subfloors, we rolled out the Elastilon, leaving a small plastic flap along the wall as directed. After positioning the boards and deciding on the first straight row, we peeled back the plastic to expose the sticky underlayment beneath the board ends, securing them permanently.
Laying the first row is crucial because it determines how straight the whole floor will be. We used our longest, straightest boards and ran the first row along the longest wall, extending into the hallway to ensure a straight line. We rough-set multiple boards before committing to placement.
The installation sequence was consistent: lay a few rows, snug them together with the tongue-and-groove connection, tap them in place with a rubber mallet, peel back the protective plastic to adhere them to the Elastilon, and then continue. The boards bond strongly to the underlayment; removing a board after it has adhered requires real effort, which gave us confidence in the long-term hold.
We used a bead of wood glue in each end groove and occasionally taped boards together to prevent shifting during installation. With two people, one applied glue and handed planks while the other clicked and tapped them into place. We rotated tasks every few hours to avoid fatigue.
The result was a tight, gap-free surface that still allows for seasonal movement without cracking or buckling. It should be stable and long-lasting.
The install still took time. Our largest bedroom took about ten hours spread over two days—our first room and the largest one—so it wasn’t a quick weekend job. There were inevitable surprises: for example, we had to remove baseboards rather than trying to hide the new flooring beneath them. Leaving the baseboards in place would have left them looking short by about three-quarters of an inch and wouldn’t properly conceal the expansion gap needed to maintain the warranty. In the end we removed the baseboards and planned to reinstall them with quarter round, which meant a little touch-up painting later.
We made good progress and finished the job over a long weekend, reinstalling most of the baseboards and adding quarter round where needed. The floors look fantastic and feel solid underfoot—so much better than the old carpet.
One of the best parts is the seamless run through all four bedrooms and down the long hall. There are no awkward transitions at most doorways, giving a clean, continuous look. The only exceptions were the two tiled bathrooms, which required proper transitions.
We moved in on schedule, having completed the floors just in time. Final tasks included finishing packing and bringing furniture back in. Even now, the imagery of laying row after row of oak stays with us—DIY flooring is rewarding but immersive.
PS — We later published a follow-up detailing how we handled transitions, angled walls, door jambs, and how the wood met the top of the stairs.
More Flooring Projects
If you’d like to read about other flooring projects we’ve tackled, here are some related topics and guides:
- Refinishing Hardwood Floors 101
- How To Install Hardwood Flooring Yourself
- How To Select Hardwood Flooring
- How To Install Click-And-Lock Cork Flooring
- How To Paint A Floor
- How To Stain A Concrete Floor
- How To Remove Carpet