Prepping For Hardwood Floor Installation in Kansas City
Hardwood floors can enhance your Kansas City home in many ways, from appearance to sophistication. You can even get top value if you’re thinking of selling your home in the near future. Or, if you’re just looking to make some much-needed upgrades in your home, you can’t go wrong with hardwood floors in KC.
First, let’s talk about the best time to book hardwood floor installation in Kansas City. Then, we’ll discuss how you can best prepare for your installers.
The Best Time in Kansas City For Hardwood Floor Installation
Timing is everything when installing hardwood floors in Kansas City, home to 509,000. In general, spring is a great time to tackle this type of project. In summer, by contrast, there are higher humidity levels that can pose a challenge to hardwood installation. That’s because hardwood naturally expands and shrinks throughout the year, which varies with the humidity levels at any given time.
As such, the weather plays a big role in when to install hardwood floors in KC. Here are some considerations to keep in mind.
Humidity Levels and Hardwood Floors
The optimal time for hardwood installation is when you have an average humidity level. This should be at 60 percent on the high side, or 35 percent on the low side. Placing a dehumidifier or air conditioner in your rooms can also help to control the environment. Once you have stabilized your humidity issues, installation can take place without worry.
No matter what time of year your project takes place, your hardwood planks will have to be brought into the home beforehand for several days so they can better acclimate to the internal conditions before installation. Seven to 14 days is a good rule of thumb. Don’t just stack the planks in a garage or entryway. They should be placed in the room in which they will be installed.
Gapping and Hardwood Floors
It’s important to minimize gapping – the tendency for the wood to expand and contract with seasonal changes. One instance of a seasonal gap is when a dime is able to be placed between the boards in low-humidity weather, but then that gap closes back up in higher-humidity weather.
The width of the floorboards will impact the gapping. Smaller floorboards are generally more forgiving. While they will contract and expand at the same rate as wider boards, five-inch boards can look like they’re expanding and contracting twice as much as the two-inch boards.
If you are looking to install hardwood flooring in the summer in Kansas City, keep in mind it will shrink the following winter. If your project takes place in winter, it will expand the following summer and become tighter. Know what the average humidity level is in your home year-round so you can better minimize contraction and gapping.
So, to conclude, while hardwood floor installation can occur any time of the year, your humidity levels should be even to ensure best results.
How to Prepare For Professional Wood Floor Installation
There are some things you can do to prepare for your installers before they arrive. These simple preparations will help prevent the accumulation of dust or even damage that could occur in your abode without the right protective measures.
Despite the fact that wood flooring companies such as Get It Installed take all necessary precautions to protect your surroundings, such as furniture and walls, it’s better if you as the homeowner took care of a few things before arrival. Here are a few things you can do to ease the hardwood flooring installation process.
1. Take Off the Doors
Sure, your floor installers will remove the doors from their hinges prior to starting work. However, it’s best to do this yourself beforehand if you are particular about how carefully you remove and store the doors.
The installers may not take the high level of care you would as the homeowner, plus they will not necessarily know where you want to store them in the meantime. Make their job easier and faster by:
· Removing the doors from their hinges.
· Placing them in another area or room.
· Placing a blanket in between doors so scratches do not occur.
· Placing all hinge pins in a baggie to keep them organized.
2. Take Off the Baseboards
You can either remove the whole baseboard or just the moldings along the bottom edge. By doing this beforehand, your technicians will have more space to fit the flooring planks closely to the walls. If your baseboards are looking worn and tired, take this opportunity to buy new ones. When the floors are complete, you can just install the new ones to complement the whole aesthetic.
3. Take Off the Door Trim
It’s a bit more challenging to take off the moldings on doorways. This is an optional task. Most installers do not remove them when installing floors, but will rather cut in the bottoms of the molding so they can slide the new flooring underneath. That said, the look will be much neater if you remove the moldings altogether. Your technicians will thank you, as it makes for a tighter and more precise fit around the door’s frame. You get a more uniform appearance in the end.
4. Control Dust Accumulation
Dust is the top by-product of hardwood floor installation. Controlling the dust can be a challenge, especially when you are planning to have your flooring stained and varnished once installed. Your flooring installers should automatically take the necessary steps to cut down on dust and debris. To help out, you could try:
· Sealing off rooms where the installers aren’t going to be working.
· Closing all doors, covering the entire doorway with plastic sheets.
· Sealing those sheets with masking tape.
· Taping plastic sheeting over any heating ducts, openings and vents to keep airborne dust from getting into the room and getting trapped in the fresh varnish.
Contact Get It Installed
To get your free quote on hardwood floor installation in Kansas City, contact us today.