Hardwood flooring may be installed in rooms throughout the house except around bathtubs or shower stalls. Only use contract installers licensed within your area of residence. Check references provided before engaging any installer.

The sub floor must be completely dry and free from paint, oil, grease, dust and other types of residue. It must also be level to within no more than a quarter inch drop across a ten feet distance. If plywood is used as a sub floor, the moisture content difference between the plywood and solid wood floor and between plywood and engineered wood floor should be no more than 2% and 4% respectively. For optimum protection, apply a layer of 15-lb felt paper between sub floor and wood floor as moisture barrier. Allow 6 overlap when laying this paper.

No acclimation is needed for engineered wood floors. Engineered wood floors can be glued down. Use only urethane-based glue. Follow the glue manufacturers instruction carefully on glue application. Roll whole floor with a 150-pound roller within 6 hours after installation.

Solid wood floors require a 7-day acclimation period under normal weather conditions, no longer in extreme climate zones. Solid wood floor can be nailed down. If the house is situated in a geographical area that is hot and humid, the solid wood flooring will expand after installation. Hence it is necessary to leave a small gap between flooring pieces at the time of installation using spacers. Remove the spacers when done.

Leave at least 1/2-inch gap between wood flooring and the wall. This is to allow for expansion. Once the wall molding is installed, this gap will disappear.

Wood floorboards on their own are just semi-finished goods. Once they have been properly installed on the floor in a room, they then turn into the final product that you can enjoy.