Acclimation and installation checklist

Before material arrives

The building must be closed in, with HVAC running and holding normal living conditions. Wet trades — concrete, drywall, paint, tile — should be complete and dry.

• Interior temperature between 18°C and 24°C
• Relative humidity between 35% and 55%
• Wood subfloor moisture content at or below 12%
• No more than 3 percentage points difference between subfloor and flooring moisture content
• Subfloor flat to within 3/16" over 10 feet

Acclimation

Deliver material into the space it will be installed in, not a garage or basement staging area. Cross-stack or open boxes so air circulates around the boards.

Allow a minimum of 72 hours for engineered products and 5 to 7 days for solid exotic species. Exotic hardwoods are dense and move slowly; rushing this step is the single most common cause of a callback.

Take moisture readings at the start and end of acclimation and record them. That record protects the dealer if a claim is filed later.

Layout and racking

Pull boards from a minimum of four boxes at a time so colour and figure distribute across the floor. This matters most with Tigerwood and Sucupira, where board-to-board variation is part of the product.

Leave an expansion gap of 3/4" at all walls and vertical obstructions, and respect the manufacturer break requirements at doorways and long runs.

Fastening

Nail down: fasteners every 6 to 8 inches, and within 2 to 3 inches of each board end. Set nailer pressure on scrap first — over-driving crushes the tongue on dense exotic species.

Glue down: use a moisture-control urethane adhesive at the trowel notch the adhesive manufacturer specifies, and roll the floor if the adhesive datasheet calls for it.

Floating (white oak engineered and rigid core vinyl): install over the specified underlayment, stagger end joints by at least 8 inches, and keep the perimeter gap continuous.