Floor Installation Process
Modern flooring installation process by Square Circle Interiors.
Flooring Installation Process
How We Install our Flooring Systems
Generally, when you schedule an installation, we determine whether the materials can be delivered the day of installation or if the material must be pre-delivered to allow the material to adjust to the temperatures of your home (also known as acclimation).
If carpet already exists in the area, then, the carpet as well as the underlayment needs to be removed. This is normally done by using a pair of pliers to pull on the nap of the carpet, starting from any inside corner. Once this is done, the rest of the room can be removed quite easily.
Cutting the rug into 2ft pieces makes the process much easier. Rolling them and tying them with twine, or wrapping them with duct tape, makes for easy transport. A floor scraper can make the removal of the padding, (underlayment) a breeze. Normally, padding is glued to the floor, so the floor scraper comes in quite handy. The tackless around the edges, or border of the room, can remain. This essential component generally lasts the life of the home and may be reused with each successive installation. If any section of the tackless is damaged, decayed, or missing, it can either be replaced, or reinforced by placing another strip behind it.
Once the floor is swept clean of debris, we can now begin installing our new carpeting. All our carpet is installed using the power stretch technique, to ensure that no premature buckling occurs, shortening the life of your new carpet.
Wood products differ in relation to other materials when it comes to delivery, in that the wood products must dwell in the area(s) to be installed for a time recommended by the manufacturer.
Recommended Material Acclimation Time:
• Laminate: As little as 3 days
• Engineered Wood: as little as 24 hours
• Solid ¾ Wood or Bamboo: As many as 10 days
You should clear the area of installation to allow storage of the materials for a time prior to the installation date to allow the natural properties of these materials to acclimate to the moisture and temperature conditions of the home. Wood will either expand or contract when exposed to different environments. Therefore, we want this acclimation to take place before we install, not afterwards. This will prevent bridging, or even worse, buckling of the planks later on.
Leaving a slight expansion gap around the border of the room between the wood flooring and the sheetrock or baseboard allows for additional expansion to take place. To cover this gap, we generally install a ¼ quarter round molding onto the baseboards. These are installed pre-painted. Once in place, they are caulked at the seams, and nail holes for that solid picture frame look.
Vinyl installation today is much different than in times past. Much of what we’re installing is what is referred to as a floating floor, meaning that the material is not glued or adhered to the floor in any way. Today’s vinyl products are largely sold in planks, like laminate, and use a similar click-lock system for installation.
Preparing the area(s) for installation is quite similar to any other material, in that, any existing carpet, underlayment, and tackless need to be removed. However, when we are installing in an area where there is existing glued down vinyl, there is no need to remove that material. Because vinyl plank floats atop any other hard surface, so there’s no need to disturb the existing substrate to prepare for new installation. Simply broom sweep, and we’re ready rock n’ roll.
For stone tile materials, it’s important to consider the nature of both the tile itself, and thinset mortar used in installation. Tile can only be properly installed atop a concrete slab floor, or cement board substrate. The thinset mortar will need to directly contact the porous surface of the cement to fully cure.
If there is existing vinyl on the floor and wood is your subflooring, then installing a cement board atop the vinyl is the way to go. However if the vinyl substrate is covering a cement slab underneath, this vinyl material will need to be removed by pulling it off the floor, and any remaining material scraped off with a bladed floor scraper. Thus the thinset, (adhesive), will make full contact with both the slab underneath and stone tile above. By setting tile directly atop a wood subfloor today, and cracking grout lines, and possible tiles as well, will most assuredly spoil your hard work later.
We’ll do it right the first time. Allowing us time to properly acclimate flooring products and install over the correct subflooring will allow us to do it right the first time. This will prevent damages, buckling, or bridging of your new flooring.
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