Learn a little bit about how your floor will be installed and you’ll be in a better position to communicate you expectations and desires to your contractor. It needn’t take a lot of research. The tips and questions below will go a long way towards putting you on a firm footing for getting the most from your floor installation.

4 ways to make sure you get the most out of your wood floor installation

• Parquet floor patterns can be direction sensitive, that is they may look great when laid out in one direction but not so good when arranged the opposite way. Ask your contractor to do a “dry lay”. Have him lay out the parquet over part of the room before applying the adhesive so you can verify that you’re getting the “look” you want.
• Wood floors need plenty of room to expand and contract. Make sure that an adequate expansion gap is built into your floor installation (Link) View video clip.
• Uneven areas of your sub-flooring will affect the smoothness of your wood floor. Make sure both high points are smoothed down and low points are marked to avoid nailing into them.
• The moisture of your lumber must be equalized to the moisture in your home. Make sure your lumber is placed in the remodel area at least five days before the installation to allow that process to take place. (Link) View video clip.

Some important questions to ask a potential wood floor contractor.

There are lots of important questions you should ask a potential wood flooring contractor before hiring them to do work for you. Most of these relate specifically to your flooring requirements. But here are a few questions that relate to just about any flooring project. Some are more specific to new installations. Others relate more to site finish jobs or refinish projects.

Installations:

• What type of fasteners do you use?
  Nearly all nail down floors are installed with either cleats (barbed fasteners made specifically to fit into automatic floor nailing machines) or staples. Note that some floors are installed entirely by a mastic either a continuous bed that the flooring is laid into or down the tongues and grooves of each board when the flooring is installed utilizing a “floating” method. Some floating systems utilize metal clips and other utilize a “dry lock” system where no glue is used. Old style “top nail” flooring can be nailed down through the face of boards with 4 to 5 penny brads by hand or with an old style mechanical nailer or with 6 penny finish nails through pneumatic nail guns.
  
  My concern (and possibly yours) is the use of staples. Although staples are considered satisfactory by both the NWFA and the NOFMA, I recommend against their use for wood flooring. Years of consulting work for insurance companies, attorneys, flooring mills, etc., in storm, fire or flood ravaged buildings has show me that staples are maybe not the best idea for wood flooring. Staples hold tighter than cleats. Usually their holding power and their cheaper cost is how they are sold. Unfortunately, they hold too tight (in my opinion), and when they break loose from significant shifts in the moisture content of the flooring they are holding. SNAP! They completely loose all holding power. Cleats, nails, and even screws will tend to re-grab, providing additional holding power even after a significant shift in size from a moisture content change. This can be extremely important in a floor where significant shifts in relative humidity and therefore moisture content are likely or where large areas of wood flooring are involved or when blind nailing plank flooring without the use of screws, mastic or face nailing. Call me old fashioned but I still will not sell staples in my wholesale company to wood flooring contractors who insist they want to buy them from me.
  
• How far apart do you space your flooring fasteners?
  The recommended fastener spacing for blind nailing flooring exclusively is 8 to 12 inches for 2-1/4” flooring. It’s 4 to 6 inches for 3” to 4” flooring. Any plank wider than that should not have fasteners spaced more than 2 to 4 inches. I like to see 2 to 4 inch spacing with any exclusively blind nailed installation. In addition, a fastener should be placed within 1 to 2 inches from the end of every board end.
  
• (With a full glue down or a glue and nail installation) What mastic will you be using to install my flooring?
  I always recommend utilizing an MDI mastic for any glue down wood floor installation or in a glue and nail scenario. Sometimes budgets force otherwise for certain products but solid ¾” products that are glued down or glued and nailed or wood flooring installed over radiant heat should always be installed with an elastomeric version of an MDI mastic specifically made for that purpose. I usually recommend Franklin’s “Titebond 811 Advantage” urethane adhesive. It’s an excellent wood flooring mastic specifically formulated to work with even solid wood flooring products.
  
• (With radiant in-floor heating under wood flooring) What species and cut of wood will you be utilizing for my floor?
  Will you be blind nailing my flooring only or gluing and nailing? If you plan to glue as well as nail, what is the name of the mastic you intend to use? Insist on a stable species in a quarter sawn or quartered and rift cut profile and rarely wider than 5 or 6 inches even with a stable species unless humidity controls within the structure are assured to keep everything stable (moisture content wise). I always recommend gluing and nailing solid wood flooring over radiant heat. Once again, always insist on a good MDI mastic, with flooring cleats at the correct spacing.
  
  Under no conditions should you allow a general purpose construction mastic be utilized to glue down your solid wood flooring. Even the occasional header, nosing or fill piece should only be installed utilizing a quality mastic with elastomeric properties such as Franklin’s “Titebond” construction adhesive.

Site Finishing and Refinishing Work:

• How many coats of finish will you be applying?
  I always recommend 3 and occasionally 4 coats of a urethane mastic, 2 or more for a penetrating oil. Often times contractors will not specify how many coats of finish they intend to put on your floor. This allows them the flexibility to get by with 2 coats if they so choose – and they usually do if they have bid your job competitively. Less finish means less time and less money. Your bid should reflect this when comparing it to other contractor’s estimates.
  
• What is the brand name of the finish you’ll be using on my floor?
  This is particularly important if you plan to have a waterborne finish or a polyurethane finish applied to your floor. So called Swedish finishes are quite similar in makeup but other finishes can be quite different from one another particularly waterborne products. Make sure you are really getting a true “Swedish Finish Product”. Swedish is not a trade name so a number of companies of late have started to call their products a Swedish Finish. Recent environmental issues have caused some of the Swedish Finish manufacturers to refer to their products as conversion varnishes. Although this term is technically accurate it is not a precise description. It does however serve to help eliminate the phony Swedish Finish suppliers because a true Swedish Finish IS a conversion varnish.
  
  There are some extremely cheap waterborne urethanes and their durability’s reflect it. The best waterborne coatings are expensive and well worth it. I hear a lot of flooring contractors say that waterborne products are not durable. I guess what they mean is THEIR waterborne products are not durable. The single toughest finish available for site finishing wood flooring is a waterborne product. It’s very expensive but well worth every penny. You see you really do get what you pay for.
  
• My old floor moves a lot, will you still fill it?
  I recommend against it. Movement is natural for an old wood floor. It’s part of the character of an old house. If you put a new floor in you can fill it if you want. But, we never fill old floors we’re refinishing unless the owner insists and then we tell them the bad things they can expect from their decision. While we’re at it, I recommend against filling floors over radiant heat, sports floors, and all floors made from conifer species. Do we do it? Sure, when we’re required. But, we always attempt to let the owner know the ramifications of their decision to do so.
  

Is your floor a good candidate for wood flooring?

Choosing the level of installation that fits your budget

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