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Wood Floor Installation

With products ranging from 3/8″ to 3 /4″ in thickness in engineered as well as solid wood flooring, you can have the warmth and beauty of hardwood in any room in your home. However, bathrooms and laundry rooms are not recommended for wood flooring, since they contain more moisture than other rooms. Since wood flooring can be refinished instead of being replaced, wood floors are an investment in your home for years to come. Wood floors can be nailed, glued, or floated over a variety of existing surfaces. They are also available in a variety of different species as well as colors. We offer two types of wood floors, which are custom wood floors and prefinished wood floors. Visit our showroom and compare them side by side.

Custom Wood Floors

Custom wood floors allow you to personalize your floor. You can specify your own
thickness, width, color, and sheen. Your options are limitless!

Custom wood flooring is unfinished flooring that requires installation, sanding, staining, and finishing onsite, so it is the most commonly used type of flooring in new construction and remodel projects. Since custom wood flooring is sanded onsite, the floor has a flat service over the entire area. This is the process:

The installation process begins with tearing out any existing flooring, if necessary. Preferably tearing out all other floor surfaces is recommend, so the wood floor can be laid as close to the subfloor as possible to improve the stability of the wood floor.
Then the subfloor is prepped and a moisture barrier is laid.
The tongue and groove wood floors are installed by nailing, gluing, or floating.
The floors are then sanded and stained, if preferred. Three coats of finish must then be applied. These coats are applied one per day and each coat will need the appropriate drying time of 8-10 hours again before you can access the floor. Depending on the size of the floor, the installation process could range between 5-7 days to be completed.
Three days after the final coat of finish has been applied, you can move your furniture into the areas where wood floors have been installed. Felt protectors will need to be placed on all chairs and furniture prior to placing them on the wood floors. The finish is still curing for thirty days after the final coat, so no area rugs can be placed yet on the finished floors. Any rug, cloth, runner, etc. left lying on the floor for several days during this period, will leave an imperfection in the finish.

Prefinished Wood Floors

Prefinished wood flooring is factory finished wood flooring that requires only installation, so it is recommended for projects in existing homes. Since prefinished wood flooring is not sanded onsite, there is a defined edge between each individual plank.

Most prefinished floors can be completed in about one third the time it takes to install, sand, and finish a floor on site. Depending on the size of the floor, it could range between 2-3 days to complete a prefinished installation. With factory finish already cured, you do not have to wait the normal three days to move back your furniture or wait the traditional 30 days before area rugs can be placed. You can start using and maintaining your floor right away!

Without the job-site sanding machines in your home, there is no need to plastic off the room. For most jobs, there is little dust since cutting can be done outside or in the garage.

Another benefit to prefinished flooring is the absence of odor that custom onsite finishes traditionally create. Our prefinished flooring has up to ten coats of fully cured factory finish applied before being installed in your home.

With the ever increasing demand for prefinished flooring, the manufacturers of custom medallions and borders have had to include prefinished items as well. Many of their borders and medallions are available in prefinished, which then can be inlaid into your new prefinished floor.

Every prefinished floor we sell at Heartland Wood Floors has a manufacturer warranty for the structure of the product. Most are for the lifetime of the floor. Wear warranties on these floors vary slightly from manufacturers ranging from three up to twenty-five years.

The prefinished lines of wood flooring are not in stock but are available upon request.

Refinish

If your floor is showing considerable wear, or perhaps you would like to change the color, your best option will be refinishing. One of the real advantages of wood floors is that they can be refinished many times before needing to be replaced.

Before you would reach a depth where the floor would be weakened or unable to sand, it can be sanded and finished several times (five to six). An exact number cannot be given due to the fact that no two people sand the floor alike and no two floors are the same. Normally, the floor will be sanded with three different grits of sand paper (coarse, medium and fine). In some cases where it is feasible, only two runs will be made. The condition of the floor is always the determining factor.

During the sanding process, the three runs will remove approximately 1/64″ to 1/32″ of wood. If the floor has been abused (scratched or gouged), it may require a heavier sanding to reach a flat surface. In those instances, it may be more beneficial to replace the damaged boards then to sand over the entire area.

A 3/4″ wood floor is considered a life-time product. Under normal conditions and with proper maintenance it will last as long as your home.

The refinishing process begins by sanding the floor down to the bare wood. It will create a lot of dust in your home. In an attempt to minimize the dust to other areas of your home, plastic is hung in doorways to all adjoining rooms. To help further reduce the amount of dust left in your home, we also have available at an additional cost, our Dust Containment System, which collects the sanding dust in an exterior vacuum outside your home.

Read what customers are saying about our
Dustless Containment System here!

Recoat

As your floor begins to show wear or does not clean easily, a recoat is recommended.

Depending on the traffic on the floor, you should recoat your floor at least once every eighteen months to five years. Recoating will add valuable protection in high traffic areas that wear out before the rest of the floor. If you maintain your floor by recoating when necessary, you can avoid refinishing your floor which will prolong the life of your floor.

The recoating process begins, by lightly buffing the floor with an abrasive pad or screen, which may cause minimal dust. The floor is then cleaned thoroughly to remove dust and any contaminants and sealed with a coat of finish.

Depending on the size of the floor, it can take between 2-4 hours to buff and recoat your floor. The flooring then must be allowed the proper drying time of 8-10 hours before you can access your floor.

Three days after the recoat has been applied, you can return your furniture back into the recoated areas. Felt protectors will need to be placed on all chairs and furniture prior to placing them on the wood floors.

The finish is still curing for thirty days after the recoat, so no area rugs can be placed yet on the finished floors. Any rug, cloth, runner, etc. left lying on the floor for several days during this period will leave an imperfection in the finish.

Cleaning

If your floor does not clean easily or may have residue that prevents the floor from being recoated, a deep cleaning with the dirt dragon is recommended.

The dirt dragon is also recommended for regularly cleaning on commercial floors. The dirt dragon removes the toughest dirt and surface contaminants from all types of floors.

The deep cleaning process begins, by exerting a vigorous mechanical brushing action on the floor to remove the dirt. Then the machine evenly spreads the wood floor cleaning solution on the floor. The squeegees suck up the washing water and enable the damp floor to dry.