Hardwood flooring isn't too difficult. you need a few basic tools; a compressor, a good
floor nailer for thicker flooring (3/4") or a
smaller one smaller one for thinner flooring (3/8"), and a couple of standard brad/finish nailers for tight spots, provided you have a plywood sub-floor to nail into - if not, then it can become more difficult. OR you can glue down a floor, or the engineered snap together kind like Matt is showing. For a basement, the engineered type is also more dimensionally stable as basements tend to be more humid.
Either way, you'll also need a
chop saw and a
table saw table saw.
So once you're past the $2000 or so in tools, the rest is pretty easy - be prepared to have a learning curve. With either traditional tung/groove nail down or the snap together kind, you are bound to tap an edge too hard and damage the finish, and you'll make wrong cuts so extra material is needed.
I've done several 1000+ sq feet installs of pre-finished 3/8" and 3/4" tung and groove nail down. The first floor I needed 15% overage, the last floor I did was under 5% overage. I've also done a "standard" nail in unfinished oak floor, belt/drum sanded it, then finished with a marine varnish (it was a laundry room). I prefer the refinished stuff.
Leave plenty of room around the perimeter for expansion, and let everything for the install sit in the room where its going in for at least a week, open the boxes of wood - wood expands much more width-wise (against the grain) than length-wise.
I paid for an install
once, and it was a complete FUBAR. We had a slab floor and wanted nail down t/g, so a plywood subfloor was needed. The contractor ended up with a fresh batch and it was still wet from the treating process. He knew, but didn't say anything... After about 2 months of having the most beautiful santos mahogany floor, it started to cup, then it started to buckle, then small mountains, 4-6 rows wide and 6" tall!, across the length of the room, started to pop up. Called the installer and he said he installed it correctly. Called the flooring Mfr and they said "you installed it, its yours to keep!" So we were stuck in the middle. We repaired the mountains and lived with the cupped floor for years, but ended up replacing it all before we moved. In the process of tearing it out we found all the nails were rusty. We had done a moisture test on the slab prior to the install and it was dry, so it had to be wet plywood dumping its moisture into the flooring. Live and learn.
SO if you have a large enough room, DIY pays for the tools compared to having it installed.
