Flooring questions
The questions people ask us, answered properly.
Most flooring advice online is somebody guessing. The trade has actual published guidelines, so where a question has a documented answer, the answer is quoted from the guidelines and the source is linked beside it. Where it does not, we say so rather than making something up. The answers are grouped into six guides, one per topic, listed below.
Read this bit first, because it decides how much to trust the rest. The technical answers are the national installation guidelines, not our opinion. Anything that is a judgement call from twenty years of Burlington and Hamilton houses is marked as Max's, and anything about what a job costs is not on these pages at all: that is a number he gives you at the house, after he has seen your subfloor.
How these pages work
Three rules, so you can check us.
- 01
Standards get their source
Every figure in a box like this is quoted from a published standard, with a numbered link to the document.[1] You can go and read it yourself. If we cannot source a number, we do not print one.
- 02
Max's judgement is labelled as his
Where the answer is experience rather than a document, it says so. He is not going to pretend a preference is a rule, and we are not going to dress his opinion up as an industry requirement.
- 03
Your product's instructions win
The guidelines say it themselves: the flooring manufacturer's own directions override the general rule. Anything on these pages is the default, not permission to ignore the box your floor came in.
The standard behind the figures
- National Wood Flooring Association, Wood Flooring Installation Guidelines, revised 2025. Subfloor flatness tolerances, interior temperature and humidity, manufactured and subfloor moisture content, concrete moisture test methods, grade-level suitability, radiant heat, stairs, and maintenance. The carpet page uses the Carpet and Rug Institute's CRI 105 residential standard instead.
Standards last read
Something is wrong with my floor
Why a new floor squeaks, cups or gaps.
Almost all of it comes back to two things: moisture, and what is underneath. Neither is the wood's fault. Seven questions, answered with the figures.
- Why is my new floor creaking or squeaking, and is that normal?
- Why is my hardwood floor cupping?
- Are gaps in hardwood floors normal, and can they be fixed?
- Do new hardwood floors need time to settle?
- Why is my vinyl plank or laminate lifting, bouncy or separating?
- What happens if vinyl plank gets wet underneath?
- How do you fix squeaky floors under carpet first?
Can it go over what is already there
What can be laid over your existing floor.
Usually yes for floating floors and no for anything fastened or glued, and in every case the deciding factor is whether the surface underneath is sound, dry and flat enough.
Which floor
Choosing between them, on the facts.
Two of these questions have documented answers and the rest are trade-offs. The tables are there so you can compare without reading a brochure.
- What is the best flooring for a basement over concrete in Canada?
- Engineered vs solid hardwood: which lasts in a Southern Ontario winter?
- Vinyl plank vs laminate: which one, and which for a basement?
- What is the best flooring for radiant heat?
- What is the best flooring for dogs?
- Best flooring for a kitchen, and can it run into the living room?
- What is the best flooring for a bathroom that is not tile?
- Wide plank vs narrow plank: is wide plank better?
- Do dark floors make a room look smaller, and show more dirt?
- Matte vs satin floor finish: which hides more?
- Luxury vinyl plank vs ordinary vinyl: what is the difference?
Doing the job
The order things happen in.
Sequencing questions cost people more money than material choices do, because getting them wrong means doing something twice.
- Flooring before or after kitchen cabinets?
- Do you paint before or after flooring?
- Do you install baseboards before or after flooring?
- What do you do if the subfloor is not level under vinyl plank?
- What is under the carpet in an older house?
- Flush mount floor vents: worth it, and do they work with vinyl plank?
- How long does a hardwood installation take?
Stairs and railings
Stairs, treads and spindles.
Stairs are the one part of a floor with a safety dimension, and the one part done entirely in house here rather than subcontracted out.
Looking after it
What to clean it with, and what will wreck it.
The guide worth reading before your new floor arrives, because most finish damage is done with a mop in good faith.
- How do you clean hardwood floors, and what should you never use?
- How do you clean vinyl plank floors, and is vinegar all right?
- How do you protect hardwood from dog nails, furniture and rolling chairs?
- How often should hardwood be refinished, and can you skip the sanding?
- Do you need a humidifier for hardwood floors, and can one damage them?
- Can you replace one plank of vinyl, laminate or engineered hardwood?
What it costs
Why there are no prices on this page.
Every cost question people ask is a real question and we are not dodging it. It is that a per-square-foot figure printed on a website is either so wide it is useless or so specific it is wrong, and the difference between the two is almost always your subfloor, which nobody has looked at yet.
-
What actually moves the number on a flooring quote?
Four things, in roughly this order: what the subfloor needs before anything can go down, whether the old floor and the baseboard have to come out and go away, stairs, and the material you choose. Two identical-looking rooms can be a long way apart on price purely because of the first one.
This is not a sales line, it is the same point the flatness tolerances make. A subfloor that meets 1/8" in 6' needs nothing.[1] One that does not needs planing, screwing, levelling compound or replacement, and the guidelines are clear that where it cannot be brought to tolerance, replacement or a second layer is what is required.[1] That is a real cost that no website can guess. The subfloor page has the six ways it gets fixed, and the removal page has what is included rather than charged.
So here is the policy, plainly: the number is given at the house, by Max, before he leaves. Not a range that firms up later, and not a figure over the phone that gets revised once somebody actually looks. He comes, he sees which of those four things apply to your rooms, and you get a firm number while he is standing in them. Nothing is owed either way, and there is nothing to haggle about afterwards, because nothing was guessed.
That is also why there is no price list on this site. A per-square-foot figure published for a whole city is either so wide it tells you nothing or so specific it is wrong for your house, and the difference between the two is your subfloor, which no website has seen. What you can do before he arrives is read what subfloor prep involves and what decides how long a job takes, so you can tell a thorough quote from a cheap one, whoever you end up hiring.
Elsewhere on the site
The rest of it.
The home page carries the questions people ask before they call and the five subfloor and humidity standards with their sources. The services pages are every material and method, and what is included rather than charged extra. The service area pages have what each municipality says about permits.
- The questions people ask before they call: On the home page, next to the booking form.
- The published standards: Flatness, humidity, moisture content and slab testing, with sources.
- Every service, and what is included: Nine service pages, one per material and job.
- Where we work: Burlington, Hamilton, Oakville, Grimsby, and what each says about permits.
Your question
Not on the list? Send it over.
Text or email it and Max will answer it directly. If enough people ask the same thing, it goes on the right guide with the rest, with its source.
- Phone
- 289-689-4242
- referralflooring@gmail.com
- Estimate
- Free, at your house, with the samples. Book one.
- Area
- Burlington, Hamilton, Waterdown, Dundas and the wider Golden Horseshoe