Moisture in Spring and Summer
Fall is a perfect season for hardwood flooring installation because the cool, crisp weather exposes your hardwood flooring to less moisture.
Not Resistant to Humidty: Wood can be damaged by spills, standing liquids, and humidity which is why wood floors are not recommend for areas of high moisture and humidity such as full bathrooms.
In summer temperatures, the organic material of hardwood expands. Should you put down your floors, they're sure to look perfectly fine once the installers are done. Issues won't crop up until the winter season when your boards contract and lose the moisture soaked up in the summer.
Solid hardwood floors move in sync with fluctuating conditions in their environment. They expand when the humidity increases, and contract when it decreases. During the winter months, contracting floors will often leave thin cracks or gaps between the planks.
You probably have heard that wood expands in the humid conditions of summer and spring, and then contracts in winter dryness. For this reason, it is usually recommended that you install hardwood floors during the cold months. Because as the days warm up, the wood will expand, maintaining a good fit.
The safe temperature range for hardwood floors is typically between 60 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit.
At a minimum, you should wait at least 24 hrs before walking on the floors; for hours 24-48, it's best to wear socks only (no shoes, no bare feet). Ideally, you should wait a total of 4 days before moving furniture back. This is to allow enough time for the floors to dry and cure.
Installing flooring before your cabinets is the best choice for most hardwood floors. When professionals install floors then cabinets, it's easier to get everything to standard heights. It's also a safer installation process for your cabinets since you won't risk any damage to them as professionals install the floors.
On average it takes 1-3 days to install hardwood floor. Typically, a 2-person crew of installers can lay 750 to 1,000 square feet of flooring per day with the average size of a job being 1,000 to 1,500 square feet.
Hardwood floors are resilient and long-lasting. With proper maintenance and care, they can last centuries. The greatest advantage of hardwood flooring is that it is easy to clean and maintain. While spills and stains on a light-colored carpet can be a disaster, on a hardwood floor you can simply wipe them away.
If you're worried about hardwood floors being cold on the feet, don't be; they're actually better for keeping your home warm. Hardwood floors help heat move through your home. The bottom line is that wood is a conductor, and the carpet is an insulator.
Generally speaking, gaps in a wood floor are normal for boards up to 2¼ inches wide if the gaps close during more humid times of the year. Normal gaps can vary in width, ranging from hairline gaps to the thickness of a quarter.
Hardwood floors are beautiful, last a lifetime, and are easy to install. With no special tools, you can go from subfloor to breathtaking in as little as a day.
While refrigerators and stoves can be removed easily to install the flooring, the same cannot be said for kitchens with a dishwasher. However, it is possible to install laminate flooring under a dishwasher without completely disconnecting it.
In most cases, given standard flooring heights, you will install the cabinets before the floor covering. Floor covering, or finish flooring, is the surface that you see and walk on, not the subfloor (under the underlayment) or underlayment (between the subfloor and finished layer).
Yes, just make sure that you cut the flooring cleanly with a tile saw so it aligns with the cabinet base. Replacing kitchen flooring without removing cabinets saves you time and money. You won't have to install flooring under the cabinets that no one will see.
No. By all means, avoid sleeping in the house after refinishing surfaces using oil-based products. Oil-based polyurethane emits a strong smell that's uncomfortable to be around. It is neither safe nor smart to expose yourself and others to such a highly toxic environment.
How long do I have to wait to use my room after my floors are refinished? We recommend waiting 6 hours before walking on your new floors in socks. After 24 hours you can walk through with shoes on. Allow 48 hours before setting furniture and returning pets.
Wait 48 to 72 hours after the hardwood has been refinished/ finished before "PLACING" furniture back in its place. Keep a steady temperature and humidity within your home. Dramatic swings in temperature will cause hardwood to shrink or to cup. Sweep/dust and mop often.
Hardwood Floors Have a Comfort Level to Keep in Mind
Domestic woods are usually more tolerant of extreme seasonal changes than exotic wood species. Humidity can cause your wood floors to warp or buckle in severe cases, and natural wood floors are affected by humidity more than engineered hardwood flooring.
Wood does not expand in the cold. However, when there is moisture in the air, it expands.
When temperatures rise and, or humidity levels rise, your wood will expand and if there has been an insufficient expansion gap left around the perimeter of your room, the risk is that the wood will pop up as it expands, because there's nowhere for it to go.