What to expect during hardwood installation
It’s hardwood installation day! Make plans to be home this day to answer any questions or help solve issues that arise for your installers. In addition to keeping kids and pets away from the installation area, you will need to designate an area for your hardwood installers to keep tools such as drills, hammers, nails, a table saw, jigsaw, nail gun, mallet, hand saw, sanders, and more. Since your hardwood installation involves centering rooms, expansion gaps, working around doors, closets, and stairs, and cutting planks for tricky floorplans, your new floors can take multiple days to complete.
Before Installation
In the rooms that are receiving new hardwood, you will first need to remove all furnishings from the room, closets, and walls. Since new hardwood cannot be installed over existing flooring, the old flooring will need to be pulled up and disposed of. Hardwood installation requires a completely level subfloor, so any imperfections will need to be fixed or leveled ahead of time. New hardwood planks will need to acclimate in your rooms for at least 48 to 72 hours before installation.
After Installation
Once your hardwood installation is complete, now is the time to walk through with your installers and ask any questions that you may have. We recommend waiting at least 24 hours before walking on your new hardwood floors. Wait at least 48 hours before returning heavy furniture into the room and letting pets inside. You can place area rugs on your new hardwood floors after one full week, but make sure your rugs do not have sticky or plastic backing that can be harmful to the wood.
