Most of the work of a flooring job is ours. We take the old floor out, move the furniture, prepare the subfloor, install the new floor and clean up. What is left for you is a short list, but it is the list that decides whether installation day runs smoothly or starts with forty minutes of emptying a bookcase while the crew waits.
Here is how to prepare for flooring installation, in the order it actually needs doing.
What we move, and what we ask you to move
Standard furniture moving is included on most of our projects. Sofas, beds, dressers, tables and chairs are our problem, not yours.
What we ask you to handle is everything small, fragile, valuable or personal:
- Lamps, ornaments, framed photos, plants and anything breakable
- Books, and whatever is on open shelves
- The contents of dressers, nightstands, cabinets and desks, because a full dresser cannot be moved safely and an empty one can
- Electronics: televisions, computers, game consoles and their cables, unplugged and set aside
- Jewelry, documents, medication and anything irreplaceable, put somewhere the work is not happening
- Bedding, stripped from the beds in rooms being done
Ten minutes per room covers it, and it removes the most common source of friction on a flooring job, which is not the floor at all.
The things to mention before the day
Some items are not standard furniture, and they are much easier to plan for than to meet on the morning:
- Appliances, especially a gas range, a refrigerator with a water line, or a washer and dryer
- Pianos, pool tables, gun safes and treadmills
- Aquariums, which have to be drained to move and cannot be rushed
- Built-in or wall-anchored units, and beds with complicated frames
- Anything that has to be disconnected, whether that is plumbing, gas or wiring
If any of those are sitting on the floor being replaced, raise them at the in-home appointment. Who disconnects what, and when, gets settled then and written into the plan. The installation timeline has more on how those items change the schedule.
Closets count as floor
Closets are the thing people forget. If the bedroom is getting new carpet, the closet is too, and the closet floor needs to be empty: shoes, boxes, the laundry basket, the vacuum.
Clothes on the rail can usually stay, but anything that hangs to within a foot or so of the floor should be lifted or moved. Long dresses and coats get in the way of the tools and collect dust they did not need to.
The week before
Decide where you will live during the work. If the bedrooms are being done, where does everyone sleep if the job runs to a second day? If it is the kitchen, plan for a day or two without the range and possibly the refrigerator. Nothing about the work requires you to move out, but knowing the plan beats improvising it.
Do any painting first, or wait until after. Opinions differ, and either order works. Painting before means a drip lands on a floor that is leaving anyway. Painting after means the baseboards and trim are in their final position. What does not work is wet paint on installation day.
Let wood arrive early. Hardwood needs to sit in the house and come to its temperature and humidity before it is installed, which is why it is delivered ahead of the install date. It needs a dry, indoor spot, not the garage, and the heating or cooling running the way you normally run it. Do not turn the thermostat down to save money that week. How we handle acclimation is part of what keeps a wood floor flat.
Tell us what we cannot see. A squeak you have been meaning to mention, a spot that feels soft, a leak that happened three years ago under the dishwasher. Signs of subfloor trouble are worth pointing out before the material is ordered rather than after the old floor is up.
The night before
- Clear the small items and empty the furniture, as above
- Take down pictures and mirrors on the walls of the rooms being done, and anything fragile on the other side of those walls. Tear-out involves hammering and prying, and vibration travels
- Clear a path from the entry door to the work area, including the hallway and the stairs
- Move cars so there is room near the door for the van and for material to be carried in
- If you have an alarm system, remember that exterior doors will be open for much of the day
The morning of
Pets somewhere else. Doors will be standing open, there will be tools and fasteners on the floor, and compressors and saws are loud. A closed room well away from the work is the minimum. A day with a friend or at daycare is better, particularly for a dog who takes a stranger in the house personally.
Children too, within reason. A room with the floor taken up has tack strip, staples and sharp edges in it. It is not a place to wander through in socks.
Be reachable. You do not need to stay home all day, but someone who can make a decision should be available by phone. If the old floor comes up and reveals something nobody expected, that is a conversation to have there and then, not at the end of the day.
Dust, and what to do about it
How dusty the day is depends almost entirely on what is coming out. Carpet removal is more dirty than dusty: the mess is mostly what has been living in the pad. Tile and glued-down vinyl are different. Removing tile is loud, slow and very dusty, and fine dust travels further through a house than anyone expects.
If tile or old adhesive is coming out:
- Close the doors to rooms that are not being worked on
- Cover open shelving and electronics in neighboring rooms with a sheet
- Empty the lower kitchen cabinets nearest the work, or at least expect to wipe them out
- Plan to replace the furnace filter a few days after the job is finished
We contain and clean up as part of the job. How we handle demolition is covered on its own page. But no containment is perfect against tile dust, and it is fairer to say so now than on the day.
Doors, trim and the finished height
A new floor is rarely exactly the same height as the old one. Going from thick carpet to vinyl plank lowers the floor. Going from thin sheet vinyl to hardwood raises it. That can leave a door dragging, or a gap under one that was not there before.
Transitions, door clearances and trim are looked at during the in-home appointment, so there should be no surprises. If you know of a door that already sticks or a threshold that already catches a toe, point it out.
After the crew leaves
Walk it with us. Every job ends with a walkthrough. That is the time to look at seams, transitions, stairs and trim in your own light and ask about anything that does not look right to you.
Furniture can mostly go straight back. Carpet and floating floors can take furniture the same day. Glue-down vinyl usually wants 24 hours. Prefinished hardwood is walkable immediately, and is better left a day before anything heavy is dragged across it.
Protect the new floor on the way in. Felt pads go on chair and table legs before the furniture goes back, not after the first scratch. Heavy pieces get lifted or rolled on a dolly over a sheet of plywood, not pushed.
Keep the leftovers. A partial box of plank or a remnant of carpet, stored flat somewhere dry, is what makes a repair possible years later. Flooring is made in batches, and a new box bought in five years will not match exactly.
New carpet sheds. Loose fibers working their way out of a new carpet for the first few weeks is normal. Regular vacuuming deals with it. For vinyl plank, the cleaning routine starts on day one.
The short version
Empty the furniture, clear the small stuff, flag anything that plugs into a wall or a pipe, and find the pets somewhere to be. Everything else is on us.
If you are still at the planning stage, book a free in-home estimate. We bring the samples, measure the rooms, look at what is under the existing floor, and go through exactly what the day will involve before you commit to anything.
