Installation

The 4 services in this area

The subfloor decides more than the species does

Subfloor type, condition and moisture determine which materials and methods are available, and whether solid wood is appropriate at all.

Plywood over a conditioned basement is the straightforward case and supports solid hardwood. A below-grade slab is not, and usually points toward engineered flooring or luxury vinyl plank.

We measure before quoting. A number produced without moisture readings is a number based on an assumption about the variable most likely to make the floor fail.

Site-finished or prefinished

Prefinished is faster and arrives with a factory finish and beveled edges; site-finished gives a continuous flat surface and a custom colour, at the cost of more days on site.

Neither is better in the abstract. On an occupied house with a hard move-in date, prefinished often wins on schedule alone. Where the floor has to match existing rooms or run seamlessly through an open plan, site-finished is the one that can do it.

Acclimation is a condition, not a countdown

Material is ready when its moisture content is in equilibrium with a conditioned space — not when a fixed number of days has passed.

Stacking boxes in an unheated house for a week is not acclimation. If the space is not being held at the reference temperature and humidity, the flooring is equilibrating to conditions that will not exist once the house is lived in.