Wood Floor Buyer’s Checklist

Before you buy wood flooring, you’ll want to check out a few things, such as:

1. Is Your House Ready for Wood Flooring?

• Complete other home renovation projects, such as drywalling and painting, that could damage a finished floor. However, for aesthetic reasons, you may choose to lay wood floor before painting the room. It’s your call.
• Consider installing wood floor on top of existing floor rather than removing it.
• Is there a sub-floor under the existing floor that will allow for the nailing of new wood floor and its additional weight?
• Is the sub-floor level? If not, leveling compound or patching may be required.
• If you will not be replacing all floors, consider height differences between new floor and old floor. New wood flooring may add as much as 1 1/2 inches to the height of the floor.
• The bottoms of doors may scrape or become unopenable because the floor is higher. You may need to cut the doors or rehang.
• Measure the areas of your house that will be floored. Add 10% wastage allowance.

2.  Shopping for Wood Flooring

• Find a local dealer who can give you samples to take home and test in your house. Some internet dealers will also send samples.
• If it’s not possible to take home samples, bring fabric swatches and paint chips to the flooring dealer to test against samples.
• Confirm whether the wood flooring is pre-finished or unfinished. If unfinished, what are your finishing plans?
• Ensure that the dealer can supply you the entire amount in one shipment, instead of in multiple shipments.
• Kids and pets in the house mean you want harder wood flooring.
• You can install solid wood flooring only at or above ground-level due to moisture problems below ground-level. But you can install engineered wood flooring at any level of the house.

3.  Planning the Wood Flooring Installation

• If existing flooring is being removed, who will dispose of it?
• New wood will raise floor level and may cause problems with baseboard, moldings, toe kicks. Will installers do this?
• Whose responsibility is it to move furniture and rugs before installers work on a room?
• How long will installation take to complete?
• Will there be a charge for the estimator coming to your house? If so, will this charge be deducted from the price of the job?
• Due to the 10% wastage allowance, some wood flooring should remain. If not, consider buying 100 square feet for future repairs. Wood flooring may go out of stock or may change in color, grain, and finish over the years.