Most of the stress around a flooring install comes from not knowing what the day looks like. Here is the honest version, stage by stage, so you can plan around it.
Before we arrive, clear what you can. Take everything off the floor in the work area: small furniture, lamps, rugs, closet contents, anything on shelves that could get knocked. We handle the heavy pieces — beds, dressers, couches, appliances — but the more small items are out of the way, the faster the job goes and the less risk to your belongings. If you have pets, plan somewhere for them to be. There are open doors, power tools, and loose material all day.
First comes demolition and haul-away. Old carpet, pad, tack strip, vinyl, or laminate comes out. This is the dustiest, loudest part of the whole project and it is usually the first few hours. If we are pulling up old sheet vinyl or tile there may be adhesive underneath that has to be scraped or ground off, which adds time.
Next is subfloor prep, and this is the stage that decides whether your floor is still flat in five years. We check the subfloor with a straightedge, grind down high spots, fill low spots with patching compound, and fasten down anything that squeaks or moves. On concrete we moisture-test before proceeding. Patch needs time to dry, so on some jobs prep ends the day and installation starts the next morning. When a bid comes in unusually low, this is almost always the stage that got left out of it.
Then the floor goes in. Material is racked out first so colors and grain distribute naturally instead of clustering, and end joints get staggered so the floor does not show a repeating pattern. We leave expansion gaps at every wall and every fixed object — that gap is not sloppiness, it is what lets the floor move with temperature instead of buckling. Cuts get made outside where possible to keep the dust down.
Finish work comes last: baseboard or shoe molding, transition strips at doorways, stair nosing, floor vents. If you bought your flooring and your baseboards through us, this is where the free baseboard installation happens — mitered corners, coped inside joints, nail holes filled, seams caulked and ready for paint.
When can you walk on it? Vinyl plank, laminate, and floating floors are ready immediately, though we ask you to wait a day before dragging heavy furniture across them. Glue-down installs need to sit for the adhesive's cure window, typically 24 to 72 hours depending on product. Hardwood sanded and finished on site is the long one: light foot traffic in socks after about a day, rugs and furniture back after several days to two weeks depending on the finish. We will give you the exact number for your product before we leave.
We finish every job with a walk-through. We want you looking at the seams, the transitions, and the trim while we are still on site and able to fix anything. Questions about a specific job? Call (559) 723-2649.