Thinking seriously about ripping out a very worn and disintegrating carpet and replacing with hardwood. I helped a buddy with this many years ago, but I was just labor on that one. What do I need to know about the process? I'm assuming I'll be renting an angle nailer to tack it in. Plywood under the carpet should be in good shape, if what I've seen in the rest of the house is an indication, so hopefully it will just be installing the flooring itself.
Screw down the subfloor while you have the carpet up
buy wider flooring - the narrower it is the more time it takes to install (I did 2.5"... regret)
Just buy the angle nailer and brad nailer from HF. Both work great and with a coupon are pretty cheap
Measure the whole room, scribe a center line, and measure outward to your start point. Don't just start off one wall or everything might be all kinds of not-straight.
Pull the baseboards, install hardwood, reinstall. Looks a lot better than 1/4 round.
Budget like 10x as much time as you think it will take.
I'm sure there is more, but thats what jumps to mind. I ripped all the carpet out of my house and did continuous hardwood through the whole thing about 2 years ago. It looks great, but it was a long and painful process.
Make sure you get the first two rows perfectly straight and solid. You won't be able to use the nailer that close to the wall. Pre-drill the first boards such that the holes are under the molding and screw or nail them. Then pre-drill just above the tongue at a 45 degree angle, nail and sink them so the heads don't fudge the union with the next board.
It's pretty tedious until you get far enough from the wall to use the nailer. Also - when using the nailer - make sure the boards are tight before you fire and never fire into where there is a knot in the lumber. If the boards are long sometimes they warp - have a long screw driver and a "bumper block" (piece of scrap wood about 4" long) so you can tap it with a hammer and not damage the tongue or scar the wood. The long screw driver is to hammer into the subfloor and apply leverage when simple tapping won't get it done.
Other than that - get good knee pads if it's a large area. The kind that don't pinch into the back of your knee. A good chop saw that is easy to change angle on is essential.
I did my whole house a few years ago - 3400 sq ft of 3/4 hardwood, closets and all. It takes a long time and it's boring work but when you are done it makes such a huge difference in the look, easy clean up and value of the space that it's well worth it.
I've done true 3/4" hardwood and 5/16" hardwood. The 5/16" is amazing!!! It looks just like the full thickness stuff and feels the same (unlike laminate, that stuff feels weird). But it's way lighter, easy to handle, doesn't require cutting door bottoms, and is installed with an air stapler (purchased off ebay for $79.95). No big mallet floor cleater!!
Prefinished is so hard you'll never wear through it anyway but you can sand and refinish it once or twice if necessary (in 25 years).
At this point I'm just looking at doing one room. There's already hardwood in other parts of the house, which I'm not looking to mess with or match. It's only about 250 sq ft, simple rectangle. If it goes well, other rooms off the hall and the hall itself can be dealt with; doing it all at once isn't going to happen, ideal though it might be.
Putting the wood down is the quick part. Sanding/finishing/drying is what takes forever, and you pretty much can't be in the house due to the fumes.
There is a trick to putting the wood down though, when you get to the edge or a wall where you need to cut a piece. Flip the piece over, and then just line it up with your edge or wall, and draw your line. The cut then will be right in the right place with no measuring or figuring. I'm sure there must be a video of this trick somewhere.
I have the HF floor nailer and it is cheaper to buy than to rent one from Home Depot if you use for more than one job. I have also installed floating floors that click together and they are easier to install since there is no nailing.
My other tip is to get (or use if you already have one) one of those oscilating multi tools to cut the door jambs as needed to get the flooring under them. It is faster and easier than a hand saw, just a lot louder.
Hit me up when you get to the polyurethane part (if you're not doing prefinished)
Is it just a rectangle, or do you have any foyers or landings? If so, just reverse your tongue and face nail at the threshold. (I can explain more if you need)
I might also suggest a palm nailer. When using a flooring nailer, the first few rows have to be face-nailed before you can get the flooring nailer in there. If you have a palm nailer, you can avoid the face nailing. That one can be rented at HD for something like $16 a day. Totally worth it.
Agreed on pulling baseboard. Its cheap. Just re-do it.
Leave 3/8" gap between the floor and walls. Expansion isn't a huge deal with a nailed floor like it is for a floating floor, but its super handy if you want to run speaker wire or an HDMI in a hidden spot.
Don't do it alone. A good helper doesn't cut time in half, it cuts it at least 75%. Once you get a rhythm going it goes down pretty quick. I agree on the HF nailer, it works great. I did two big rooms and a hallway in our house this year with prefinished oak. Its not difficult, and you'll be happy with it afterwards.
Thanks for all the info. I'm planning on doing prefinished, so that should save a bunch of time and effort.
In reply to 02Pilot:
Be careful where you put your tools and how you bump the boards together. When I first started doing mine I placed the saw stand on the already installed pre-finished surface so it wasn't in the way as I worked backward. More than one scar in the finish came from dropping things while walking to the saw with a hammer/nailer, boards and a tape measure in my hands. Stuff falls.
Get a Japanese saw to cut around door molding.
+1 on HF nailer-you'll spend at least 1/2 it's price to rent. +1 on gap.
I agree the correct way would be to pull the baseboard, but 1/4 round is down and dirty, and flat works. Obvious, but just in case, Do Not align any seams. Try to make as much like bricks on a wall as you can. Stronger, and prettier. Get prefinished for a small room.
Just put down engineered bamboo floors this weekend in my master bedroom and closet. Prepare to be sore the next day. Great advice already, but I will give my experience and tips:
Go to your closest lumber liquidators. Great experience low pressure salesmen that will talk you through what you want and what the room needs. We got our floor for 2.12 a square on sale. No where else could touch that price. We went with the snap and click floor that doesn't need nails. Also went with their in house matting that is awesome for sound and overall solid feeling. Lumber Liquidators sells saws and nailers of Harbor Freight quality and pricing along with nearly any other tool you'll need.
My best tips is also to have a second set of hands and eyes. I'm not very smart, but I am an engineer. I made some measuring and cutting mistakes that my father in law caught. As others have said, make sure the first row is straight and true. Read the directions. No, seriously read the manufacturers directions. They had some great advice in them regarding requirements and helpful hints. Also, pick out the baseboard you will be using and cut a 1-foot piece. Keep that in hand to measure gaps to make sure you don't have daylight between the floors and the walls.
Good luck. The finished product is so worth the hard work.
My band saw was a great asset during installation. Other than that, I don't think anyone mentioned a plug cutter. I used that to cover the screws that I was forced to use where the angle nailer wouldn't fit.
No experience with true wood flooring, but I have done the hardwood flooring that uses tongue-and-groove connections and basically floats over the subfloor. I picked mine up for one room at Lumber Liquidators at a clearance sale. Originally $6.00 a sq/ft, I got it for $.89 sq/ft. I had to buy a whole pallet, which was about 15% more than I needed, but there was about 10% waste because it was clearance stuff. It included the padded backing, so it went right on the subfloor. This made the job pretty darn easy. I also bought one of these:
Made everything SO much easier. Easily cut strips to length or to width, I would not do a flooring job without one. The floor looks great, is easy to maintain, and has held up exceptionally well over the past 5 years.
Scooter wrote: Go to your closest lumber liquidators. Great experience low pressure salesmen that will talk you through what you want and what the room needs. We got our floor for 2.12 a square on sale.
Agreed on the Lumber Liquidators. Great products and experience. Keep an eye on HD as well. I bought up a pallet of prefinished bamboo in 5/8" for $0.99/sqft. My buddy used some for his camp, I built a new top for my workbench, covered the top of my tool box, and then did the bed of a customer's 66 Chevy pickup. Still have a few boards left :)
Look at waterlox for coating. It gleams like polyurethane but can be recoated at any time. Flexible so very good for softwood floors. Dont go hard finish if you have kids or pets.
I just had a guy do my hallway and three bedrooms last week and then next week they are doing some rooms downstairs. I checked out their nailer - HF.
All great tips, I didn't see it but also don't forget to let it acclimate to your houses humidity if using real wood.
Ideally you need three guys, two nailing and one cutting. You will get an awesome groove going at some point and feel like your are going to knock the project out by lunch time. When the nail gun jams (again) and you finally step back to see the awesome work you've done you will realize you have cover exactly....one linear foot of the room.
I've laid down snap-together laminate and real staple down hardwood. The staple down stuff was damn near demoralizing while we installed it, but it was nice when we were done. This was the pre-finished stuff, so once it was down we were done.
Laying the hardwood huh? I got nothing 
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