Solid Hardwood, Engineered and Laminate Flooring - new install of hardwood floors

We have decided to invest in hardwood flooring for our living room which is approx. 40 sq. yds. The room is an "L". Our entry way has it already it and the boards run straight on in from our front door. My gut is telling me that I should run the new boards in the same direction as to what is already there. Am I right?
Also we are taking out an ugly, non-functional knee wall, that seperates the 2 areas to open it up and I don't want a noticeable seam. We already have a sturdy subfloor, so nailing to joists is not an issue.
Any thoughts on our approach??
Also are there any tricks on using a pneumatic flooring stapler?

Thanks in advance for your help

Usually you run the flooring in the longest direction of the room. The most important factor is structure. The strongest floor is when the flooring is run accross the rafters and not in the same direction as the rafters. When you install the floor where the existing flooring goes in the same direction as the new flooring. Finger the new boards into the existing floor by pulling some of the boards out and running the new flooring into their place. Pound a 1/2"-1" chisel across the grain into the old board and hit the chisel blade to knock the board toward the open floor. When you have moved the board far enough away from the existing board. Put a pry bar against the end of the board and hit it towards the the open floor with a small sledge hammer untill the piece is out. When installing new board in its place make sure that it does not align with the board in the row above or below it. For more information go to the NOFMA site and look at installing wood floors.

Good Luck, AL

Al did a good job of explaining the install.... You don't want the short end joints of the floor in line with one another, they need to be staggered, and if you check the website he mentioned, they will go over that. As far as the air stapler goes, use 2" staple for 3/4 " thick wood, run the compressor at about 80 to 85 lbs PSI, and make sure that you are not splitting the tongue badly on every board. A split or two isn't too bad, but not a lot of them or you may have a squeaky floor! If they split, try adding duct tape to the back of the plate on the nailer (near where you put your foot. Start with two strips, and see how she does. Good luck!

Thanks for the advise. Since we are taking out the kneewall, we will have to pull up a couple of boards and replace them. Approximately 3 feet long by 7 or so inches wide. Fortunately for us, the previous owner left a few of them in the basement, which we will use in the front entry way to fill in the gap to the new floor.
I had been warned about the seams, so we will be careful to not have them line up.
The nailer will take some getting used to, and I will have the duct tape ready just in case.
I really appreciate the help and will let you know how things turn out. We start Friday am bright and early.
:D

Steve:

I didn't try that tip that was suggested by Cosgrove. Did it work? In that Tampa Braz cherry job I mentioned it was probably the stapler rented aty HD that was the cause of tongue splitting. Low and behold once I got my hands on my Bostich to do the upstairs hall there was no splitting at all.

It did help, but this is my second Bostich, and they have both done it. Oddly enough, it doesn't do it on raw, unfinished wood, just the prefinished. Most of the 3/4 I install is raw, but from what I saw, I hope to be installing a lot of the prefinished Brazilian Cherry. It's really nice.

Thanks for all of your input for this project. I have to say, we did a really nice job. Now the refinishing begins.
The nailer we had was a Bostich and it was great. We moved quickly and finished in one day. A whole day ahead of schedule.
For all of you D.I.Y.'rs, definitely rent the pneumatic nailer. We split only a couple of tongues and there were times when we didn't hit it hard enough and the staple didn't go all of the way through. Other than that, it was one of our easier projects.

Thanks again.
:D