When you’re building or remodeling a home, it’s exciting when the hardwood flooring finally shows up. Naturally, you want to get it installed as soon as possible.
But with real hardwood, sometimes the best thing we can do is wait.
At In the Groove Hardwood Floors, we won’t install hardwood until we’re confident the home and the wood are ready. That can occasionally mean pushing the installation back, but there’s a good reason for it.
Hardwood Is Always Moving
Real wood reacts to the environment around it.
When the air is humid, wood can absorb moisture and expand. When conditions are dry, it can lose moisture and shrink.
That doesn’t stop after your floor is installed.
Our goal isn’t to prevent hardwood from moving. That’s impossible. Our job is to install it under the right conditions so that normal seasonal movement doesn’t turn into a bigger problem.
The House Needs to Be at Normal Living Conditions
One of the most important things we look for is a functioning HVAC system.
Ideally, the temperature and humidity inside the home should be close to what they’ll be when the homeowners are actually living there.
Think about installing hardwood in a cold construction site in the middle of winter. The wood adjusts to those conditions, gets installed, and then the heat gets turned on.
The environment changes dramatically, and the hardwood changes with it.
That can lead to gaps, movement, or other problems that could have been avoided.
Wet Trades Matter Too
Paint, drywall mud, concrete, tile work and other parts of construction can introduce a surprising amount of moisture into a home.
That moisture has to go somewhere.
Hardwood can absorb some of it.
This is one reason we don’t want flooring delivered or installed too early in the construction process. Whenever possible, we want the wet work completed and the home stabilized before the hardwood goes in.
Acclimation Isn’t Just Leaving Wood in the House for a Week
You’ve probably heard that hardwood needs to “acclimate.”
That’s true, but acclimation isn’t simply dropping boxes or bundles of flooring inside the house and waiting a certain number of days.
We’re trying to get the moisture content of the hardwood appropriate for the conditions inside the home.
Depending on the flooring and the conditions, that may happen quickly. Other times it can take longer.
The calendar doesn’t tell us when hardwood is ready.
The wood does.
We Also Pay Attention to the Subfloor
The hardwood isn’t the only thing that can contain moisture.
The subfloor matters too.
Before installation, we want to know that the conditions we’re installing over are appropriate for the flooring and installation method being used.
Once thousands of dollars worth of hardwood is installed, fixing a moisture problem underneath it gets a lot more complicated.
It’s much better to catch a potential problem before installation starts.
What Happens If Hardwood Is Installed Too Soon?
Sometimes nothing happens immediately.
That’s part of what makes moisture-related flooring problems frustrating.
A floor can look beautiful when the project is finished and then start showing problems weeks or months later.
Depending on the situation, you could see excessive gaps, cupping, crowning, buckling or other unwanted movement.
And once that happens, the solution isn’t always simple.
Sometimes the Professional Answer Is “Not Yet”
We understand that flooring schedules affect painters, cabinet installers, general contractors, homeowners and move-in dates.
Nobody wants to hear that their floor needs more time.
But we’d rather have an uncomfortable conversation before installation than explain a preventable flooring problem afterward.
Real hardwood can last for generations when it’s installed and maintained correctly.
Waiting a few extra days to give it the best possible start is worth it.
At In the Groove Hardwood Floors, we specialize in hardwood installation and refinishing throughout Salt Lake County and Utah County, Utah. Our goal isn’t simply to get your floor installed. It’s to install it in a way that gives it the best chance of looking and performing beautifully for years to come.
