New Wood Flooring Prep 101: Getting Ready

Hardwood Floor PrepHere’s what you need to know to get ready for your new wood flooring:

You need to ensure that there is an adequate amount of space available, and that the condition of the space is acceptable.

Perhaps the most important factor is the humidity level of the area where you intend to acclimate the wood flooring prior to installation. Wood is “happiest” at about 40% Relative Humidity, plus or minus 10%. An unconditioned basement, or a room where plastering or sheet rock is being taped is NOT an acceptable environment. Wood is a sponge and will eventually equalize to whatever conditions it finds itself in. Too much moisture will expand the boards, and when they dry out in the middle of a dry winter you will find unsightly gaps.

We provide “stickers” to be inserted between each row of planks as they are stacked in your house to facilitate air movement for complete acclimation, so the stacks will take up about 70% more space than if everything was nested together with no gaps. Generally speaking you can figure that 500 SF piles will take up about 4′ wide, 12′ long and 3′ high and will weigh 1200 − 1500 pounds.

Finalizing Details for Your New Wood Flooring

Generally, unless other arrangements have been made, you will receive a call or email to scheduled delivery to confirm the details and go over any remaining payments due. Sometimes we may have to reschedule due to inclement weather conditions – one thing we don’t take any chances with is our drivers’ safety or your material being damaged due to rain or snow.

Delivery

Our Truck

We generally deliver orders within Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts on our own truck. We always need at least person on site to unload the flooring from truck. Every piece must be handed off the truck, carried into the stacking location and placed on stickers. With larger orders it’s best to have three or four helpers. Our driver will off load from the truck to the helpers on site, we do not stack or sticker flooring.

Our driver will have a copy of all applicable paperwork, including the stacking instructions and acclimation information. Please review it all and ask for clarification on any items you don’t understand.


Private Carrier

Large orders (typically 2000 SF or more) within the New York and New England may be delivered by a private carrier. They have a “Moffett Lift”, which is a forklift that rides piggyback on the back of the truck or trailer, so you don’t have to have additional help unloading at the time of delivery. You or your contractor will be responsible for moving the flooring into the conditioned space for stacking and stickering. This should be done in a timely fashion and the flooring should not be left outside for any extended periods of time.

Freight

For long distance delivery (as far as Hawaii!) we utilize a variety of Less Than Truckload (LTL) carriers. When your order is complete we will contact you to make sure you are ready to take delivery. Your delivery will be set up with an appointment, so the trucking company will call you the day before with a delivery window, usually a 2 hours range.

The flooring is shipped in a custom made crate which is screwed together and banded with steel strapping to a pallet. To unload the material you will want a Torx T20 bit, preferably mounted in a cordless drill/driver, and a pair of tin snips. Please note that the trucking company DOES NOT unload the crate off the truck – you will need to dismantle the crate in the box trailer and then unload the flooring and dispose of the pallet and crating materials.

PLEASE NOTE: the trucking company allows 30 minutes for unloading. If the time exceeds that they may charge for “Delay of Equipment” which will be back-billed to us and then we will bill you. For a relatively small order such as this you will probably have time, but it wouldn’t hurt to have a few extra hands to make it go more smoothly.

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