Lakeville Wood Flooring has installed hardwood floors across Lakeville, MN for more than 20 years, serving surrounding cities including Farmington, Apple Valley, Burnsville, Savage and Elko New Market. Solid strip flooring, wide plank, engineered flooring, prefinished and site-finished, nailed down over plywood or set over a slab — the product changes, but what decides whether the floor is still flat and tight in five winters does not.
That is the measurement. Moisture content of the flooring and of the subfloor is taken against each other and both numbers are recorded before the first board goes down, and the relative humidity inside the house is written on the quote with the 30 to 50 percent band wood flooring is specified for printed beside it. An installation that skips those readings is a gamble that only reveals itself a season later.
The second thing decided before anything is ordered is width. Every species has its own dimensional change coefficient, and seasonal movement scales with board width, so we state in writing how much the floor you are choosing will move across a Minnesota year. Wide plank is a good choice made with that number in hand and a regret made without it.
Choosing the Floor: Species, Cut and Width
Red Oak, White Oak and the Harder Species
Red oak is the open-grained default that most of the housing stock here already wears, and white oak is tighter, slightly harder and considerably more forgiving under stain. Hard maple, hickory and beech climb the Janka rating from there, with maple in particular resisting penetrating stain in a way that surprises people who chose a color from a chip. We talk through wear, color behavior and cost together, because choosing on hardness alone routinely produces a floor somebody dislikes the look of.
Plainsawn, Rift Sawn and Quartersawn
How a board was cut from the log changes both its appearance and how it moves. Plainsawn gives the familiar cathedral grain and the most movement across its width; quartersawn shows a straight, tight figure and moves markedly less; rift sawn sits between them with the most uniform look of the three. On a wide plank floor in this climate the quartersawn and rift sawn options are worth the premium, and we explain why in movement terms rather than in taste terms.
Board Width and Seasonal Movement
A narrow strip floor hides seasonal gapping in many small joints; a wide plank floor concentrates the same total movement into far fewer, much more visible ones. We calculate the expected movement at your chosen width using the species’ published dimensional change coefficient and put it on the quote. That way the decision between a 3-inch and a 7-inch board is made against a number rather than against a showroom sample photographed in June.
Solid, Engineered and Where Each One Belongs
Solid Strip Flooring Above Grade
Solid flooring is one piece of wood through its whole thickness, which is what allows it to be sanded many times over a very long life. It also moves the most with humidity, and it belongs on or above grade over a wood subfloor. On a main level with a plywood subfloor and a humidifier on the furnace, it remains the floor with the longest future in it, and we specify it there without hesitation.
Engineered Flooring Below the Soil Line
Engineered flooring is a real wood wear layer over a cross-laid core, and that construction is why it holds dimension where solid cannot. Below grade — and grade is set by the soil outside, so a walkout with dirt against three of its walls qualifies — engineered is the correct product rather than a compromise. We name which construction is going in and why on the quote, and the lower level is priced from a slab reading taken on that slab.
Prefinished Against Site-Finished
Prefinished boards carry a factory coating and a microbevel at every edge, so the floor is usable almost at once and the seams are a visible design feature. Site-finished floors are sanded flat after installation and coated in place, giving an unbroken plane with no bevels and letting you approve color and sheen on your own wood. The trade is days in the house against edge detail and future refinishing flexibility, and we price it both ways.
Fastening, Substrate and What Goes Underneath
Nail-Down Over Plywood: Cleats, Staples and Spacing
Over a wood subfloor the floor is blind nailed through the tongue with flooring cleats or staples, using a pneumatic flooring nailer and a fastener spacing schedule matched to the board width. Fastener gauge and crown width are not interchangeable details; the wrong combination either splits tongues or lets boards work loose into ticking a year later. Face nailing is reserved for the first and last rows where a nailer cannot reach, and those fasteners are set and filled.
Glue-Down and Floating Over Concrete
Over a slab the options are a full-spread moisture-control adhesive or a floating floor over cork underlayment, and the measured slab relative humidity is what narrows them. A glue-down gives the most solid feel underfoot and demands the flattest substrate; a floating floor tolerates more and sounds different when you walk on it. In a condominium or townhome we also weigh impact insulation class and sound transmission class, because the association usually has something to say about both.
Rosin Paper, Felt and Vapor Retarders
What goes between the subfloor and the floor is chosen for a reason, not out of habit. Rosin paper reduces squeak between wood surfaces without stopping vapor; asphalt-saturated felt adds a measure of resistance; a true vapor retarder with a rated perm value is specified where a reading says moisture is coming from below. Putting a low-perm layer under a floor that needs to dry downward is a mistake that shows up as cupping, so the choice follows the meter.
Acclimation and the Numbers That Decide the Start Date
Moisture Content Differential
What matters is not the flooring’s moisture content on its own but the difference between it and the subfloor’s. Too large a moisture content differential at installation guarantees movement afterward, whichever direction it runs. We take readings across the room rather than at one spot, record both numbers, and hold the start date until the gap is inside what the manufacturer allows for that product and width.
Relative Humidity in the House
A house still under construction, running a fresh concrete pour or sitting unheated is not at the conditions the floor will live in, and installing into it is installing into a moving target. We read the interior relative humidity with a hygrometer and expect the house to be at its normal operating conditions first. Where the schedule will not allow that, we say so in writing rather than proceeding quietly.
Expansion Allowance at the Walls
Every installation leaves room for the floor to grow through its humid season, sized to the species, the board width and the run of the room, then covered by base and shoe. The allowance that gets forgotten is at fixed obstructions — islands, hearths, door jambs, tub decks — and that is where buckling starts in an otherwise sound floor. We mark those points before laying the first row.
Our Step-by-Step Hardwood Floor Installation Process
Measure the House, Not Just the Room
The first visit records interior relative humidity, subfloor moisture content, subfloor flatness, and grade as the installation guidelines define it rather than as the house is described. Those readings, with the specified band printed beside them, land on the quote. This is also where a lower level gets its own in-situ test rather than an assumption borrowed from upstairs.
Specify the Product Against Those Numbers
Species, cut, width, solid against engineered, and fastening method are selected from the readings and from how you actually live in the room. The expected seasonal movement at the chosen width is written down at this stage, before anything is ordered, so the choice is yours with the consequence attached to it.
Prepare the Substrate
The subfloor is flattened to tolerance, fasteners are set, squeaks are addressed from below where there is access, and the underlayment or vapor retarder is chosen from the moisture reading rather than by default. Skipping this stage is how telegraphing, hollow spots and overwood arrive in a brand new floor, and it is far cheaper to do now than to chase later.
Lay, Fasten and Hand Back in Writing
Boards are racked for grain and length so joints stagger properly, fastened to the spacing schedule, and expansion is held at every wall and obstruction. Where the floor is site-finished, the written grit sequence and finish schedule from the quote is what gets run, and the return-to-service times come back to you in writing. Dustless containment with a HEPA vacuum keeps the sanding contained in a house that cannot open a window for half the year.
- 20+ Years in the Trade
- Free Written Estimates
- Moisture Readings on Every Quote