Installing

• 1). Use your hammer and prybar to remove the floor trim. If you're planning on re-using the same trim, remove it carefully, making sure not to break it. Roll out your flooring paper perpendicular to the direction of the floor joists (determine the joist positions by the nail patterns in the floor, or check from the basement). Staple down the paper with a staple every 2 or 3 feet. Cover the floor completely, overlapping the sides by an inch or 2.
  
  
• 2). Set your first plank of flooring into place 1/4 inch from the wall, running in the same direction as the paper, with the groove side toward the wall. Nail it in with your nail gun, sinking the nails at an angle from the exposed side of the board, just above the tongue. Set another piece in place the same way, butting them end-to-end. Cut the last piece to sit 1/4 inch from the wall.
  
  
• 3). Lay your next course of planks by tapping them against the first course with your mallet, locking the groove of the new piece around the tongue of the previously laid piece. Nail it down in the same way. Continue to lay four courses this way, cutting the end pieces to sit 1/4 inch from the walls.
  
  
• 4). After four courses are laid, bring in your pneumatic floor stapler. Sit it on the laid floor, with the nose hooking down over the edge of the new course of planks. Hit the firing trigger with your mallet, driving the piece into place and firing in the staple. Proceed like that across the floor, until there's no longer any room to swing the mallet in front of the opposite wall. Install the last few courses in the same fashion as you did the first few.
  
  

Refinishing and Resurfacing

• 1). Sand down the entire floor with your drum sander. If you're taking off old finish, start with the 60-grit paper. If you're sanding a newly laid floor, start with the 80-grit paper. Either way, repeat the process with 100 and then 200-grit paper, getting the floor smooth, clean and free of any gloss or stain. Clean up the dust.
  
  
• 2). Put on your rubber gloves. Starting in the furthest corner from the entrance and working in sections, spread your stain onto the floorboards, letting it pool there. After a minute, wipe it up with paper towels. Do the whole floor, then let it dry overnight.
  
  
• 3). Gently stir your polyurethane gloss, to avoid bubbles. Starting in the same corner as before, pour down a line of gloss as long as your floor applicator, across the widths of the boards. Set the applicator into the gloss and slowly pull it across the floor, spreading it evenly. Do the whole floor, adding more gloss as needed. Let it dry overnight.
  
  
• 4). Hand-buff the entire gloss surface with 220-grit sandpaper, taking off the shine. Clean up the dust. Reapply the gloss as before, let it dry, and buff it again. Apply a third coat and let it stay shiny after it dries.
  
  
• 5). Re-install the floor trim to cover the 1/4-inch gaps at the wall from the floor installation.