Hardwood floor installation

Most floor failures on this peninsula are moisture failures, and almost all of them were decided before anyone picked up a nailer. A house in Port Angeles running 60% relative humidity over a vented crawlspace will cup a 7″ plainsawn board no matter how well it was laid. So we start with the house.

Species and cut

Rift and quartered white oak is our default for wide plank. The growth rings stand nearly vertical to the face, so the board moves about half as much across its width as a plainsawn board of the same species. It costs more per square foot and it is worth it on anything over 5″.

Where a house is already fir — which, in the historic districts of Port Townsend and the bluff neighbourhoods of Port Angeles, it usually is — we would rather match it than mix it. Vertical-grain Douglas fir and reclaimed old-growth stock both work. New-growth fir is soft enough that we will talk you out of it in a kitchen.

• White oak, rift & quartered — the stable choice for 6–10″ plank, and the one that takes a reactive or hardwax finish most predictably.
• White oak, plainsawn — cathedral figure, more seasonal movement, best at 3¼–5″.
• Hard maple — pale, closed-grain, unforgiving of stain, beautiful clear-coated.
• Vertical-grain and reclaimed fir — the right answer in a pre-1940 house, and the only way to make a repair disappear.
• American walnut — soft for its density, dark, and worth the care it asks for.

Solid, engineered, or neither

Solid ¾″ stock over a wood subfloor is the long game: six to ten sandings, a century of service, repairable one board at a time. Engineered is not a downgrade — over a radiant slab, or on a waterfront main floor sitting close to grade, a good engineered board with a 4mm sawn wear layer is the more durable decision. We will say which applies. Floating floors we install only when there is no alternative; they never sound like wood.

Radiant heat

Radiant changes the whole calculation: narrower boards, quartered stock, a lower target moisture content, and a slow ramp on the system before and after installation. We ask for the manufacturer’s surface temperature limit in writing and design to 5°F below it.

Layout, and the parts people notice

Boards are racked before they are fastened — end joints staggered, no lightning bolts, figure distributed rather than clustered. Direction follows the longest sightline unless the joists say otherwise. Stairs, thresholds and transitions are milled on site to match, because a stock nosing in a house with 1½″ treads announces itself from the doorway.

What it costs

Installation is quoted per square foot with materials separate, in a written scope that names the species, the cut, the fastening method and the finish system. Small floors carry a minimum; stairs are priced per tread. We do not quote over the phone without seeing the subfloor, and we do not discount for signing today.