PRE-INSTALLATION CHECKLIST

We have provided a list of necessary steps to follow before installing any solid wood floor.  Your solid wood floor will give you many years of service and can be restored many times, but only if properly installed.  Please follow these steps before installation.

1.       The exterior of the home should be protected against water damage and mold.  Be sure gutters and downspouts are properly installed to drain water away from building.  Also be sure that the property is properly graded to drain water away from the building.

2.      If this is a new construction, all the following must be completed before the flooring is installed:

a.      Drywall

b.      Tile

c.       Paint

d.      Plaster

e.      Heating, Air Conditioning and Ventilation

3.       Building should be enclosed and weather tight, all doors and windows should be in place.

4.      Temperature and humidity inside the building are set for living conditions.   Temperature should be set between 60 and 80 degrees farenheit.  Relative humidity should be between 30 and 50%.

5.  Inspect all flooring before installation.  Flooring is a natural product.  Industry standards allow for grading deficiencies up to 5%.  This may be composed of natural or manufacturers deficiencies.  DO NOT INSTALL IF THE PRODUCT IS NOT ACCEPTABLE.  Contact the dealer immediately.  Installation of flooring denotes acceptability.

6.      Cover the ground area in the crawl space with six-mill polyethylene.

7.      If installing flooring over a concrete slab:

a.      Install a vapor barrier under the slab

b.      Do not install flooring until concrete has been installed for at least 30 days

c.       Slab must be flat and to specification

8.       Moisture content of wood sub floor should not be more than 4% above or below the finish flooring moisture content and both should be within the regional moisture content guidelines.  The wood subfloor must not exceed 12% moisture content.

9.  Solid Wood products must be installed on grade or above grade.  FERMA does not recommend a solid product be installed below grade. 

9.      Flooring should be placed in area to be laid for a period of one week before installation in order to acclimatize.

Notes:  Installation may be done by  gluing or nailing depending on the conditions of the sub flooring.  Cupping is irregular and out  tolerances movement of the wood, usually because of a sudden change of moisture content of the lumber during or after installation. 

  In some cases, even though the product is perfectly dried, it can get wet during or after the installation (i.e. water, glue with excess of water, excess of lacquer, etc.) causing the floor to swell at first, and then to shrink after it dries.  This change of volume and form may result in cupping. 

Our products are technically designed in order to prevent the effects of cupping.  Our kiln drying process is highly quality controlled, following the appropriate drying schedules for our species, which we have developed through more than 20 years of experience. 

Our Mascarey flooring comes from our own logs which are quarter-sawn, so all our Mascarey flooring is straight line fiber pattern with quarter sawn cut.  Quarter sawing helps stabilize the finished product.  We cannot quarter saw the Chanul, but in order to prevent or minimize the cupping effect, we run a production process with at least two prior steps before molding the final profile of flooring.  This produces the most accurate and stable dimension on the final product.