Installation

What to expect from us during the installation process

Wood selection:

We have the ability to source all species, widths, and grades of wood available on the market today. When circumstances allow, we firmly believe the best wood floor system is a ¾” unfinished solid wood floor that gets sanded and finished in the house, not the factory. We also have the ability to source prefinished solid and engineered wood floors at the customer’s request.

Acclimation:

Acclimation is the most important part of the installation with regards to long-term dimensional stability. Outdated acclimation methods such as simply leaving wood in the house for 7 days have been found to not yield satisfactory results. Our acclimation procedures, guided by the NWFA are as follows:

• We first need to prepare the house. Post-job completion home conditions are to be kept between 30 and 50% rH. We recommend preparing the home at a relative humidity of 35%. This is because the moisture content (MC) of wood that is losing moisture is HIGHER than the moisture content of wood that is gaining moisture when the ambient rH is the same. Therefore, if we acclimate the wood floor at 40% while wood is drying, it will dry out further during the first winter, and when the home gets back 40% in the summer, the moisture content of the wood (which is now gaining moisture) will be lower than it was when first acclimated, leaving permanent gaps in the floor.
  
  
• A hygrometer, dehumidifier, and humidifier will be left at the house in order to measure and adjust the relative humidity prior to delivery and during acclimation of the wood. We will need the assistance of the homeowner to make adjustments on (de)humidifiers and also to monitor the rH within the home throughout the acclimation process.
  
  
• When we deliver wood, we want to have as many areas to put the wood as is tolerable to homeowners. This ensures we aren’t putting undue stress on floor joists in one particular area from the weight of the wood. Approximately 3’x9’ areas are needed to stack wood.
  
  
• Wood will be stacked in rows with wood spacers called stickers between each row to allow air to circulate around each bundle of wood. With prefinished floors, it is recommended that boxes are left unopened during the acclimation process unless stated otherwise by the wood manufacturer. Some contractors falsely believe that the ends of the boxes should be exposed during acclimation. This causes the end joints of the wood to swell and lead to lack of uniform width and thickness of wood being installed. This should be avoided.
  
  
• We currently are recommending that wood acclimate for 5-6 weeks prior to installation in order for wood to reach its equilibrium moisture content (EMC) at 35% rH. EMC is the point at which wood is no longer gaining or losing moisture. It is possible for wood to take less or more time than 5-6 weeks to reach its EMC at 35% rH but wood acclimation is a much slower process than most people believe. Therefore we feel safe with 5-6 weeks as a general rule of thumb.

Job start time:

Once we start installation, we try to be at the house between 7 and 7:30 each morning.

Floor prep:

Floor flatness requirements are that subfloors be flat within ¼” in 10 feet and within 3/16” in 6 feet on wood subfloors and within 3/16” in 10 feet and within 1/8” in 6 feet on concrete subfloors. This will include the use of sanders (particularly on plywood seams), roofing shingles, and additional plywood on wood substrates and concrete grinders, leveling compounds, and skim coats on concrete substrates to achieve these requirements. Remember: level is ideal but flatness is required.

Layout:

When doing the layout of the floor, we will check rooms for square and attempt to square the floor to the most prominent focal points. When possible we like to start an installation in the middle of the longest length the floor will span in the house and then install the floor in both directions. This allows for the best squaring of the installation and also divides the amount the floor can expand in half (wood floors typically only move in the direction of the tongue).

Installation:

Once floor prep and layout is complete, installation can begin and continue through until it has been completed. Flooring will be fastened to wood subfloors with staples and to concrete subfloors with a modified-silane adhesive. An air compressor will be running for the majority of the day on nail-down installations. Please plan accordingly with regards to the extra noise. On wood substrates, where the nailer can no longer fit between the wood flooring and the wall, most contractors will top nail the flooring and fill with a putty. We utilize adhesive instead to avoid the use of unsightly top nails.

Glue assist requirements:

Hardwood flooring less than 4” wide can be nailed only. Wood between 4” and 6.5” requires a glue assist with glue extruded from a caulk gun, wood greater than 6.5” wide will require a full spread adhesive with a trowel in addition to nails. This will help reduce movement of the floor both vertically and laterally.

Dust control:

The installation process does not create considerable amounts of dust. We will set our saws up outside or in the garage depending on weather conditions.

Quarter round:

We recommend all hard surface floors get a quarter round in addition to existing baseboard. Quarter round is flexible enough to conform to any small undulations in the flooring much better than baseboard can. This can be started directly after finishing installation on prefinished floors and following curing of the finish on jobsite finished floors.

Post-installation care plan:

It is recommended that following installation, home conditions be kept between 30% and 50% rH. This can be achieved with supplemental humidification in the winter and air conditioning in the summer. With regards to cleaning, regularly sweeping to remove grit is the top priority. It is also important to only use APPROVED cleaners for the finish on the floor. Please call us if you have any questions in this regard. If the floor is unfinished and is going to be sanded, a week between installation and beginning of sanding is required to let the floor settle and any adhesives to off-gas.