How to Tell if You Hired a Reliable Hardwood Flooring Contractor
Having known the benefits of installing hardwood floor and identified ways in which you are going to pay for the new floor, what you are left with is having it mounted. Laying down a hardwood floor is not rocket science, but if not done right, then bad things can happen. If you are not confident about your DIY skills, it is best that you don’t try installing hardwood flooring yourself.
Even if you know an excellent handyman with high rates, you still need to take your time before hiring them. A professional hardwood flooring contractor should know the potential pitfalls of lousy floor installation and how they can avoid them. Here are ways of knowing a good hardwood installer.
Provide a Thorough and Detailed Price Quote in Writing: A written quote that you get from your hardwood floor installer is a legal and binding document. Almost all professional hardwood flooring companies will ask you to sign the document before they can begin working. Check to ensure that the document includes all the information incuded in the installation cost as well as information about the hardwood flooring and the preparation. It sill outline the details of they will be doing for you as well as how much you will be paying for the installation services.
A hardwood floor expands and contracts along with the moisture content of its immediate environment. The wood will expand during the humid summer months and shrink during the dry winters. It is crucial that your contractor ensures that your hardwood is properly acclimatized to your home before nailing it down. It is important also that your installer takes the moisture content meter readings of the flooring and sub-flooring to make sure that they are not more than 4% apart.
Prior laying the hardwood planks, the subfloor needs to be thoroughly prepared and this means that it needs to be clean, flat and dry. The installer should remove any debris from the subfloor that could interfere with the installation. The the installer should check to ensure that the subfloor is not holding more moisture than the hardwood flooring.
If your hardwood installation team turns up and starts laying your hardwood floor, and they are already nailing planks down within a few minutes after their arrival then you might have a cause for concern. The the best installer will plan the layout of each room carefully in order to avoid problems down the road. Not all rooms are perfectly square, not all planks will look the same and there are some areas that need to be thought through like the top of stairs, in between doorways and around the fireplace. By taking these factors into consideration, making early calculations and planning the layout will avoid headaches later on.
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