Huntington, WV, January 3-- Cedar is an especially aromatic wood and has other benefits too. Moths hate cedar, making the material an excellent choice for hope chests and closet flooring, according to the Huntington, West Virginia Herald-Dispatch.
And although a cedar closet floor alone can do much to protect against moths, there is nothing like the wonderful aroma it exudes and the feeling that you’re in a forest.
Installing a cedar closet floor is really simple. With a cedar floor, installation consists of interlocking tongues and grooves and fastening the material to the floor. That really is all there is to it.
OK, there are a few simple rules:
• Purchase premium material. With premium material the planks are straighter and flatter and that means easier installation and less waste. A box of premium cedar closet flooring has fewer short pieces and that means fewer joints and a faster installation.
• Make sure that the floor to be covered is flat. No bumps or lumps. No dirt or debris. Anything that doesn’t belong there will telescope through the flooring as an ugly lump. A cedar closet floor will only be smooth and flat if that is the condition of the floor it covers.
Once the floor is completely clean, staple down a layer of building paper. We use 15 lb. felt. Random stapling is all that is needed here, just enough to hold the paper in place. Overlap seams (edges and ends) 3 to 6 inches. This acts as a vapor barrier, an important part of any wood floor installation. Vapor emanating from below the floor can cause hardwood flooring to buckle and twist.
• Use a caulk box to snap a straight line through the middle of the closet. Snap another line parallel to it half the width of one of the cedar planks. Doing this will place the first plank dead center in the closet with the alignment line along the edge of the plank. Purists, who insist on hidden nailing, will not want to start with tongue of their first against the wall and work across the closet from there.
• Leave space for expansion. There should be about a quarter to a half inch of clearance between the flooring material and the wall. This must be covered with baseboard (or in the case where baseboard already exists, a trim piece must be used). The floor must have room to expand and contract at the perimeter of the space.
• Finally, make sure that the cedar flooring is the last step in your remodeling process. Working with wall board, oils and other construction materials over a finished cedar floor can easily damage the cedar. And although it is somewhat repairable by cleaning and sanding, cedar is very soft and porous and easily damaged.
And that’s all there is to it.
