Your Hardwood Flooring Installation Will Be Much Easier with a Little Preparation
Preparing your home properly for hardwood flooring installation can save you time and money. Unlike engineered or laminate floors, your hardwood flooring receives the finish after it’s been installed. You can ruin your new finish if you walk on it prior to it being fully cured. This means it cannot be walked on or furnished for a few (perhaps even several) days.
The length of time you’ll need to stay off depends of course on weather and humidity. In the Reno/Tahoe area, time of year plays into that as well. Some people might need to find an alternate place to stay, depending on how much of the floor is being installed, and where.
Empty the Rooms Being Worked In
Remove all the furnishings from the room(s) where new hardwood flooring will be installed. Those rooms should be completely empty. You’ll want to remove all pictures and other decor from the walls. Anything you want to remain clean and safe from damage needs to be elsewhere. This includes all closets and even moving your refrigerator. There Will Be Dust, no matter how careful your installers are.
Doors and baseboards will need to be removed. We can do that, or you can do that ahead of our arrival.
Mask Off Cupboards and Other Openings
Blue painter’s tape is your friend. You can leave it on virtually any surface for as long as you need, and it won’t leave glue residue behind when you remove it. Tape all your cabinets, closets and cupboards, even in rooms where the floors won’t be installed. Putting in hardwood floors creates dust even when we use “dustless” equipment. Taping your cabinets will help keep the dust out.
As your contractor, we can minimize dust elsewhere by installing plastic curtains between our work areas and the other parts of the house.
Turn Off Your HVAC
Your AC or Heating systems should be turned off during the installation, to minimize dust in your ducts. You can also place a fan in an open window to vent the dust outside. There’s no perfect solution to ending dust and its ability to get everywhere, but these tricks should help.
Secure Your Pets
Your pets will need to be secured in another part of the house until the floor finish has cured, or you might want to consider leaving them with family, friends, a neighbor or a boarding facility.
Call Us With Questions
Anything you do before we arrive will save us time and you money. Here at Artisan Hardwood Floors we are of course happy to perform all of these tasks and more for you, I’m simply offering you my best advice. If you have any questions about preparing your home for hardwood flooring installation, please don’t hesitate to contact me right away.
Sorin Giurca
Master Craftsman, Owner