New Hardwood Floors Coming on Friday. What do I need to know?

[Fairy]

We're getting new hardwood floors Friday. On Wednesday they're delivering the wood; that's 2 days to sit. Someone just told me that we're destined for failure with warped wood if we don't let it sit at least a week, but two is better. I was shocked. This is pre-finished, BTW. It's going in dining room, family room, and kitchen. Anyone agree wtih this or are they full of it? Anything else I need to know?

[bubbaray]

I too have heard to let it sit at least a week, but I live in a rainforest, so more humidity than where you are. Maybe call around to a few other installers and ask what they recommend??

[ciw]

Yes, please, please, please let it sit at least a week. Two would definitely be better. Mine sat for a month. And I still had problems when I went from WOH to WAH b/c when I was home full-time, the heat was on full time so the air was drier and the flooring contracted. (When I WOH, I turned the heat way back during the day). My problems could have been avoided by running a humidifier. I was soo lucky in that once humidity was restored to my house, the flooring did expand again. (I have a hardwood floating floor. It is real wood, about half an inch thick, but it clicked together like laminate flooring so it didn't have to be nailed down. Had it been a traditional nailed down floor, I can't imagine what a mess I would have had once it contracted and expanded).

I don't anticipate you'll go through what I did with my floors but I would still strongly suggest you let the flooring acclimate for at least a week before you install it. The wood needs to get used to your house before it's installed. Wood expands and contracts based on the humidity. And if it does that after it has been installed it is not a pretty sight.

[ciw]

Also wanted to add that it doesn't matter that it's pre-finished. It still needs to sit.

[Fairy]

Ok, now I'm really worried. We kind of don't have the time. I will call tomorrow first thing and ask them to get the wood here immediately, and then maybe we can push back the installation a week. Which will suck like you have no idea. But ... ohmigod. I'm really worried now.

[ThreeofUs]

Where has the wood been sitting? If it's in a place like your house - climate controlled, etc. - you really don't need to worry all that much.

Also, exactly what are you laying down? Pre-finished also means engineered wood to me, so I'm assuming it's built not to move a whole lot. If it's solid (one piece of wood all the way down), and it's been in a different environment, then it needs to sit. For a long time.

Frankly, two days sounds fine to me. JMHO, but I've never had my wood floors sit around for weeks and I've never had trouble with them. (But I also never put down solid wood, which is a little too finicky for my uses in old houses.)

But, sure, call around to other installers and see what they say.

And good luck! It's wonderful to have new wood floors - you're going to be so happy!

[hellokitty]

Hmm, I have never heard of that. We got our entire first floor re-done with HW floor over 7 yrs ago and it did not, 'sit.' It was pre-finished, they installed all of it in one day, unloading the slats from the van (yes, we made sure we found ppl who could do it all in one day), and we have never had any issues with warping. We live in an area that sees all 4 seasons. My mil has issues with her flooring, BUT that's b/c she wouldn't listen to the installer (who also did our floors). She got unfinished floors, so they ended up being sanded. Basically, she didn't want to lay the floors facing the direction opposite of the floor joists (sp?), b/c she didn't think it looked good, so the installer did what she wanted to do and now she gets that gap every yr. However, it wouldn't have happened if she would have listened to the installer and had it done the way he had told her it was supposed to be done (she always does this, looks are her #1 priority, and in the end it bits her in the ass). It looks particularly bad on her flooring, because it's been sanded and smooth.

[Fairy]

Hmm. I'm just not sure what to do now. We are in Chicago, we see all 4 seasons, and the stuff has been sitting in two different warehouses in the Chicago area for the last few weeks. Our house is generally between 70 and 80 degrees at all times. Really, 72 - 75, but I crank it up or down on extreme days. I guess I'll still call tomorrow and see what they say.

[DrSally]

Well, at least it's prefinished, so you don't need to worry about sanding and dust all over. We have "prefinished", but it's real wood (birch), the boards just came already finished. Supposedly, it's not as thick as non-finished wood, but you could still sand it and refinish it once or twice if you wanted to. I'm not sure at all about the letting it sit part.

[ciw]

Fairy, I've been thinking about your question some more. I know the store that sold my flooring suggested letting it sit at for a week or two. But I do think that the manufacture instructions that came with the flooring had a lesser requirement...I'm thinking it was three or four days. I just searched online seeing if I could find it on their web site and I couldn't. I did find requirements from other manufacturers and they were all of the board -- ranging from 24 hours to a week. But I did see another suggestion that I thought was excellent. Many floor installers have a tool that lets them measure the humidity of the flooring and that of the sub-floor. It's a go if it's somewhere between two and four percent (check the manufacture instructions that come with your flooring -- it should say). Maybe you could check with whoever is measuring the floor and see if they can check the humidity of your floor and subfloor before installing? If they can check it and the difference is within the allowable percent, I think you'd be good to go. I installed my own floors (with some help from family) so I didn't have the benefit of such a handy tool. Of course, in my case, neither the tool nor a longer acclimation period would have helped -- the problem was the sudden decline in indoor humidity. And like I previosly mentioned, if you run into a humdity drop after your floors are installed, you just need a humdifier. Good luck....but right now I'm thinking you might just be okay with a 48 hour acclimation.

[Fairy]

Fairy, I've been thinking about your question some more. I know the store that sold my flooring suggested letting it sit at for a week or two. But I do think that the manufacture instructions that came with the flooring had a lesser requirement...I'm thinking it was three or four days. I just searched online seeing if I could find it on their web site and I couldn't. I did find requirements from other manufacturers and they were all of the board -- ranging from 24 hours to a week. But I did see another suggestion that I thought was excellent. Many floor installers have a tool that lets them measure the humidity of the flooring and that of the sub-floor. It's a go if it's somewhere between two and four percent (check the manufacture instructions that come with your flooring -- it should say). Maybe you could check with whoever is measuring the floor and see if they can check the humidity of your floor and subfloor before installing? If they can check it and the difference is within the allowable percent, I think you'd be good to go. I installed my own floors (with some help from family) so I didn't have the benefit of such a handy tool. Of course, in my case, neither the tool nor a longer acclimation period would have helped -- the problem was the sudden decline in indoor humidity. And like I previosly mentioned, if you run into a humdity drop after your floors are installed, you just need a humdifier. Good luck....but right now I'm thinking you might just be okay with a 48 hour acclimation.

Thanks so much, this is great info. Our floors, I forgot to mention, are solid blocks of wood, not the engineered, tho we almost did that. And I'll ask the installer about that tool and the humidity range. Thanks so much!

[ThreeofUs]

Solid wood and two different warehouses? I'd let them sit.

[Momit]

We purchased pre-finished hardwood flooring from Lumber Liquidators and installed it ourselves (nailed down to a wood subfloor). We bought it during the week and it sat in our house for a few days until we installed it over the weekend. This was over the summer. We never had any problems with warping etc. and we lived in Michigan, so the climate should be similar to Chicago. The only problem we ever had with the floor was that our (75 lb.)dog's nails scratched it some and the warranty didn't cover that. Good luck!

[Fairy]

Well, I called, and he basically said 2 weeks is insane, he's heard of a week, but it's excessive, two days is more than enough, we've been doing this for 50 years, we know what we're doing. I REALLY dislike our sales guy, so calling him at all is always yucky, but I basically said ok, great, thanks, and hung up.

I think ultimately, sitting a week sounds right, and I wish we'd scheduled it that way. But I am out of patience for dealing with this. Literally, I'm ready to go off the deep end I have so much sh*t that i'm doing and dealing with and have decided to just let it go. I am worried about the wood, but knowing that this community is such a great cross-section and had experience here, even if it's experience I won't be acting on as fully as I'd like, was really helpful. Thanks much, guys.

[ThreeofUs]

I'm sure it will be fine. Don't stress about it any more!