F&F Surface Group · Flooring Guide
How Hardwood Floors Are Installed: Nail-Down, Glue-Down and Floating, Day by Day
Updated September 6, 2026 · 9 min read
People plan for the disruption of a refinish, because everyone has heard about the dust. A new hardwood installation gets less planning, and it should get more: there is an old floor coming out, wood that has to sit in the house for days before anyone touches it, and in the DMV a subfloor conversation that decides how the whole job goes. This is the full sequence, from the estimate to the day the furniture goes back, with the timings we actually see in Arlington, Alexandria, Gaithersburg and Fairfax homes.
Before anything is ordered: the subfloor and the method
The first thing we do at the measure is find out what the floor will attach to. A wood subfloor, plywood or planks over joists, takes nail-down installation: each board is blind-nailed through the tongue with a flooring nailer, and this is the traditional, quiet, rock-solid method for solid hardwood. A concrete slab, which is the main level of most post-war ramblers and split-levels and every basement, takes glue-down engineered hardwood set into a troweled urethane adhesive. And some situations call for a floating floor, where engineered boards lock to each other over an underlayment without attaching to the subfloor at all: condos with sound-rating requirements, floors over radiant heat, or a slab that cannot be fully prepared.
The method is not a preference. It follows from the subfloor and the product, and our engineered versus solid guide explains why solid wood and concrete do not mix. What we also check at this stage is the subfloor's flatness, its moisture, and in an older house whether the joists deflect underfoot, because all three change the prep.
Step one: acclimation, three to seven days
The wood is delivered before the crew is, opened, and left in the rooms where it will be installed, with the house at the temperature and humidity you actually live at. Solid hardwood needs the longer end of this; engineered the shorter. We measure the moisture content of the boards and of the subfloor, and the install is scheduled when the two are within a few points of each other.
This is the step that gets skipped when an installer delivers and installs on the same day, and it is the reason floors gap in their first January or cup in their first August. In the DMV, where a heated house in winter can sit at 20 percent humidity and an August afternoon at 80, acclimation is not optional. Our gaps and cupping guide covers what happens when it is.
Step two: tear-out and subfloor preparation, half a day to two days
Furniture out, then the old floor. Carpet and pad come up quickly; old glued vinyl or tile takes longer and leaves adhesive or thinset that has to be scraped or ground. Then the subfloor is fixed. On wood, that means screwing down loose sheets to kill squeaks, replacing any soft or delaminated section, sanding high seams and shimming or leveling low ones, then laying a vapor retarder. On a slab, it means grinding high spots, filling low ones with a self-leveling compound, and, if the moisture test called for it, rolling on a moisture-mitigation coating.
This is the least visible day of the job and the one that decides whether the floor is flat, quiet and stable. Anything found here that was not on the quote is priced before work continues, and how to prepare the house covers your side of this day.
Step three: layout
Boards usually run parallel to the longest wall or the main light, and always perpendicular to the joists for a nail-down. The starting wall is chosen so the last row is not a sliver. In a house where the floor runs through several rooms, the layout is planned as one run so the boards align through doorways rather than breaking at each one. Boards are pulled from several boxes at once and racked out across the room before fastening, so color and grain variation is spread rather than clustered, and end joints are staggered by at least six inches with no repeating stair-step pattern.
Ten minutes of layout is the difference between a floor that reads as one surface and one that reads as a set of boards.
Step four: installation, one to three days
Nail-down: the first rows are face-nailed near the wall where the nailer cannot reach, then every subsequent board is blind-nailed through the tongue on a set spacing. Glue-down: adhesive is spread with the manufacturer's trowel in sections small enough to work before it skins, and boards are set into it and rolled. Floating: boards are clicked or glued at the tongue over a rolled-out underlayment, with a spacer gap at every wall.
Every method leaves an expansion gap around the perimeter, typically three-quarters of an inch for solid, and it is covered later by trim. Door jambs are undercut so boards slide beneath them rather than being scribed around. Transitions, reducers, thresholds and stair nosings are cut and fitted as the floor reaches them. A typical main level of 800 to 1,200 square feet takes a crew two to three days.
Step five, prefinished: trim and done
A prefinished floor is complete when the last board is down. Base shoe or quarter round goes on to cover the expansion gap, or the baseboards are reinstalled on top of the new floor, which is its own decision. The floor is walkable immediately and furniture goes back the same day. Prefinished boards have a small bevel at every edge and a factory finish harder than anything applied on site, and prefinished is the route most new installs in the DMV take.
Step five, site-finished: sanding and finishing, three to five more days
A site-finished floor is installed unfinished, then sanded flat as one surface with drum and edge sanders in a grit sequence, exactly as in a refinish. The sanding process has the detail. Then stain, if any, and two or three coats of finish, each with drying time between. Water-based finish can take two coats in a day; oil-based needs a day per coat and clears its fumes slowly. The finish and sheen guide explains how to choose.
The result is a seamless surface with no bevels, in any color, and it is the only way to match an existing floor exactly. The cost is time and disruption: the house is off-limits room by room during sanding and off-limits entirely while an oil finish cures. Light furniture returns after a few days, rugs after two to four weeks.
What you should see on the quote
Removal and disposal of the existing floor. Subfloor prep as its own line, and slab moisture testing where there is a slab. The product by species, grade, width and construction, and for engineered the wear layer in millimeters. The installation method. Acclimation time. Trim, transitions and stairs by the piece and linear foot. For site-finished, the sanding, stain and finish system named. Furniture moving, cleanup and a walkthrough. What drives hardwood installation cost goes through each of these, and a one-line quote is a quote to ask more questions about.
Frequently asked questions
How long does hardwood floor installation take?
For a typical main level of 800 to 1,200 square feet: three to seven days of acclimation before the crew arrives, then two to three days to install a prefinished floor, or four to seven days for a site-finished floor including sanding and finish coats. Stairs, removal of an old floor, and slab preparation each add time.
Can I stay in the house during installation?
For a prefinished install, yes, room by room, with dust and noise during the day. For a site-finished floor, plan to be out of the affected rooms from the first sanding pass until the final coat has cured, and out of the house entirely if the finish is oil-based, because of the fumes.
Do you install over a concrete slab?
Yes, with engineered hardwood glued down over a slab that has been moisture-tested and flattened. Solid hardwood cannot be installed over concrete.
Why does the wood have to sit in my house before installation?
Wood adjusts its moisture content to the air around it. Installed straight off the truck, it adjusts afterwards, by shrinking into gaps or swelling into cupping. Several days in the rooms where it will go, with the house at normal living conditions, lets it settle before it is fastened.
When can I put furniture back?
On a prefinished floor, the same day. On a site-finished floor, light furniture after the finish has cured for a few days, rugs and heavy pieces after two to four weeks, depending on the finish. Water-based finishes cure faster than oil-based.
Every one of these steps is in our quote where you can see it, and the subfloor conversation happens at the measure rather than mid-job. Request a free in-home estimate and we will check what your floor will sit on, bring samples, and give you a written schedule along with the price.