By Winnwood Flooring · Updated July 27, 2026
A hardwood floor put in properly will outlast the kitchen, the roof, and probably the furnace. Put in badly, it gaps every winter, squeaks underfoot, and there is no finish coat that fixes any of it.
Here is what actually goes into hardwood floor installation in Missoula, and the questions worth asking before the first board goes down.
Solid or engineered
**Solid hardwood** is one piece of wood all the way through. Its great advantage is that it can be sanded and refinished many times across its life, which is why century-old floors in older Missoula homes are still in service. It also moves more with humidity, so it belongs over wood subfloors at or above grade.
**Engineered hardwood** is a real wood wear layer over a cross-laminated core. The cross-lamination resists the expansion and contraction that solid wood does across its width, which makes it more stable through Montana's humidity swings and the safer choice over concrete and in basements.
The catch with engineered is the wear layer thickness. A thick one can be refinished once or twice; a thin one cannot be refinished at all. If a supplier cannot tell you the wear layer thickness, treat that as information. Our engineered vs solid comparison covers the decision in more depth.
The subfloor is the whole job
Most installation problems that appear a year later were subfloor problems on day one. Before any wood goes down, three things get checked.
- Flat. Dips and humps telegraph straight through to the finished floor, causing hollow spots, movement and squeaks. High spots get ground down and low spots filled before installation, not after.
- Dry. Subfloor moisture content has to be within range of the wood going over it. Installing over a subfloor that is too wet is the leading cause of cupping months later, and it matters most over crawl spaces and slabs.
- Sound. Loose panels, damaged sections and inadequate fastening all get fixed first. A squeak in the subfloor becomes a permanent squeak in your new floor.
Acclimation is not optional in Montana
Wood takes on and gives off moisture with the air around it. Missoula runs from humid stretches to months of dry heated indoor air, and wood responds by expanding and contracting across its width.
Acclimation means letting the flooring sit inside the home, in the rooms where it will be installed, until its moisture content balances with the house. The house needs to be at normal living temperature and humidity while this happens - acclimating wood in an empty unheated house means acclimating it to conditions that will never exist again once someone moves in.
Skipping this is how you get gaps between every board the first winter. It is the step rushed crews cut because it costs days and no customer can see it, and it is the step that decides whether the floor still looks tight in five years.
How the floor gets fastened
Three common methods, and the subfloor usually picks it for you. **Nail or staple down** is standard for solid hardwood over a wood subfloor, with fasteners driven through the tongue at an angle so they stay hidden. **Glue down** is used for engineered wood over concrete and gives a very solid feel with no hollow sound. **Floating** means boards lock to each other over an underlayment rather than fastening to the subfloor, which is the most forgiving over uneven or moisture-prone slabs.
Layout decisions that are hard to undo
Direction matters more than people expect. Running boards perpendicular to the floor joists adds structural stability, and running them along the length of a room or toward the main light source makes a space feel longer.
Width changes the character of a room too. Wide planks read modern and show off grain, and they suit Montana homes with a bit of character. Narrow strips are the traditional look and are more forgiving of seasonal humidity movement, because a narrower board simply has less width across which to expand.
Prefinished or site-finished
**Prefinished** boards arrive stained and sealed from the factory. Installation is faster with no sanding dust or finish smell in the house. The trade-offs are micro-bevels between boards where dirt collects, and a color chosen from what exists.
**Site-finished** means raw wood goes down and is then sanded, stained and finished in place. It takes longer and creates dust, though our dust-free system captures the great majority of it. What you get is a perfectly flat surface with no bevels, and any color you want, tested on your actual floor in your actual light.
A realistic timeline
This is where expectations most often miss. A full installation is not a weekend. There is acclimation before anything gets installed, then tear-out and subfloor prep, then installation, and if the floor is site-finished, sanding, staining and multiple finish coats with drying time between each. Then the finish needs to cure before heavy furniture and rugs go back.
We give you the actual schedule up front rather than an optimistic one, because planning around a real timeline is easier than being surprised by one.
Related services
- Hardwood Floor Installation - Solid and engineered hardwood, installed by a Bona Certified Craftsman.
- Dust-Free Hardwood Refinishing - 99.8% less dust than traditional sanding. Live in your home while we work.
- Laminate Flooring & Luxury Vinyl Plank - Waterproof LVP and premium laminate, professionally installed.
