Twin Cities Flooring Installation
Raven is a Twin Cities-based hardwood floor installation company. As experienced installers, we install all types of wood floors and flooring patterns.
Hardwood Flooring Installation
Installation is the foundation of wood flooring. A careful installation ensures that following processes (sanding, staining, and finishing) can be completed correctly and without mishap.
The final appearance of a hardwood floor will often reveal why you need an experienced professional in your home: the difference between a careful and a careless installation is the difference between loving your floors and being annoyed every time you walk over that one board you hate.
Types of flooring we install:
3/4" flooring, unfinished and prefinished wood flooring
1/2" flooring, unfinished and prefinished wood flooring
Engineered flooring
Click-together laminate or floating floors
The importance of acclimation
Wood expands and contracts as ambient moisture changes. If we install your wood prior to it reaching a moisture equilibrium to your home, it can ruin your floors. Don't let anyone tell you acclimation isn't necessary.
At Raven, we ALWAYS allow wood to acclimate to your home. Acclimation time ranges between five and seven days, sometimes longer on exotic woods. To ensure proper acclimation, we'll take a moisture reading of your wood when it arrives and just before we get ready to install.
We will never compromise on this step.
Why have Raven Hardwood Flooring install your wood?
Each time we install a floor, the process will vary depending on your project, pattern, layout, and the type of flooring we're using. However, we always follow manufacturer's specifications and our own high standards, including:
Being type-A about layout
Layout is the under-appreciated and often over-looked step of planning an installation before actually doing the installation. I take the time to measure your home, collaborate with you on your aesthetic preferences, and map the layout before installing your boards. Many contractors don't take enough time in this area, resulting in amateur mistakes like placing a bunch of short (or long) boards in one area, poor transitions, or the installation of ugly boards in focal areas.
Stated simply: we install floors, but you're the one who has to live with them. A careful layout discussion and careful planning process before and throughout installation makes certain you'll enjoy your floor after the last board is nailed down.
Using cleats instead of staples
All hardwood flooring is tongue and groove (which allows your flooring to lock together). Staples have a bad habit of breaking tongues, especially on exotic wood varieties. Because squeaks are annoying for my homeowners and we're just nit-picky about this sort of thing we use cleats. Also, cleats last longer. Because cleats have a serrated edge that grips to the wood, they hold better over time.
Choosing the best flooring adhesives
In Phoenix (where I spent a large portion of my career), almost every home is slab-on-grade. In order to install a hardwood floor in these homes, you either have to build a sub-floor or use an adhesive to glue the wood to the slab. Through my experience in Phoenix, I had the opportunity to personally use a variety of flooring glues, which led me to the conclusion that Bostik outperforms the other adhesives.
In addition to their adhesive properties, Bostik glues double as moisture barriers. When used on a slab, they prevent moisture seeping up through the glue and damaging your floor.
Never installing seam-glued or 3/8" flooring
In my opinion, seam-glued and 3/8" flooring exemplify the adage "you get what you pay for." I can't install these in my clients' homes with a clear conscience because I've seen too many problems with these products. They simply do not last.
Get Started
Have questions about hardwood flooring installation or interested in getting an estimate? Give us a call.