How to Install an Anchored Hardwood Floor on a Concrete Basement Floor

Go over the concrete floor with a push broom, and sweep up the debris. Pick the debris up with a dust pan, and throw it away. Run a wet mop over the floor to get any dirt that remains.

Measure the length of the room, and cut moisture barrier underlayment sheets to this size. Lay the sheets side-by-side so that they overlap by 6 inches until you have laid enough sheets to reach all the way across the floor. Moisture barrier rolls generally come in widths of 5 to 10 feet, so the number of sheets you need depends on the width of your room and the kind of roll that you bought. Tape the edges of the strips together with plastic tape, and tape the places where the barrier meets the wall to the wall.

Attach 3-inch-wide wood boards that are about three-fourths to an inch thick to the edges of the room to create a 3-inch-tall border around the basement perimeter. Use a circular saw if you need to cut the boards to fit, and secure the boards to the floor with 4-inch concrete screws every 5 to 6 inches.

Go to the longest wall in the room, and measure across the board that you attached along the base of that wall, marking the wood every 12 inches. Once the board has been marked all the way across, go to the opposite side of the room, and measure every 12 inches so that you create marks directly across from each other on the two boards.

Measure across the floor between the marks that you made on the opposite walls. Cut 3-inch-wide wood boards to this size, and place them across the concrete floor at these 12-inch intervals from one side of the room to the other. Use more than one board in a row, placing them end to end if single boards are not long enough to reach all the way across the room, and cut boards down with a circular saw as needed. Use 4-inch concrete screws to attach the boards to the concrete floor.

Cover these floor joists with panels of plywood, starting at the far corner of the room. Secure each panel to the joists with 1 1/2-inch screws. Anchor the hardwood flooring to the plywood floor that you created. Install the flooring as you would on any other surface.