Floor Installation
Solid Hardwood Floor Installation in Newbold, Philadelphia
Solid wood, nailed down over a wood subfloor. The floor that outlives the house. In Newbold, Philadelphia the median home dates to 1931 and 63.4% of the housing predates 1940, which changes what Deco Hardwood Floor expects to find before the work starts.
Installing solid hardwood in an old house
In Newbold a new solid floor almost always has to meet an old one, so the job is as much about matching and leveling as it is about nailing boards.
Original floors here are narrow strip, often laid straight over the joists, and the house has moved for a century. New boards have to match the width and species of what is staying, and the framing has to be checked for level and for bounce before anything goes on top of it.
Where a new floor joins an old one, the boards are woven together across the joint instead of ending in a straight line at the doorway. Done that way, and finished together, the two floors read as one.
Before you get a quote
Old basements and crawlspaces under these houses can be damp. The subfloor and the new wood are both metered, and the boards wait in the house until the readings agree.
How the housing in Newbold compares
Of the 5,153 housing units in Newbold, roughly 3,300 were built before 1940 and approximately 4,600 before 1978.
That makes the housing here older than the 132 Philadelphia neighborhoods in our data taken together, where approximately 82.8% of 733,961 units predate 1978, and above the 60.5% figure for our whole service area. By the share built before 1940, Newbold ranks 23rd of those 132. The full table is published as open housing data.
Within Philadelphia, the oldest housing in our data is in Cedar Park, with a median year of 1925, and the newest is in Kensington, Old, at 1997.
| Place | Median year built | Built before 1940 |
|---|---|---|
| Newbold | 1931 | 63.4% |
| West Passyunk | 1930 | 65.2% |
| Point Breeze | 1935 | 55.7% |
| Passyunk Square | 1927 | 72.0% |
| Girard Estates | 1929 | 67.5% |
| East Passyunk | 1928 | 68.9% |
| Lower Moyamensing | 1932 | 61.3% |
For a new solid floor, the median year is the useful figure. It tells you whether the house is likely to have the wood subfloor that solid hardwood needs, or a slab where it does not belong.
What is usually under the floor here
Housing this old normally holds narrow strip oak laid straight over joists, and often it has only one sanding left.
In a place where a large share of the housing predates 1940, the floor under the carpet is usually the original one. That means narrow strip oak, sometimes heart pine on upper floors, nailed straight to the joists with no plywood in between. It also means the floor has probably been sanded before, possibly more than once.
Only the wood above the tongue can be sanded, roughly a quarter inch on a traditional floor. A floor that has already given up two of those sandings is a different job from one that has given up none, and the difference is not visible from standing height. We measure at the edge of a board before quoting.
Worth knowing here
Parquet and herringbone turn up under carpet in this stock more often than people expect, and they sand differently: the grain runs in two directions at once, so a drum sander used the normal way tears them.
The federal lead rule applies to most of the housing here
Approximately 89.6% of the homes here were built before 1978, which is the line the EPA rule draws.
Paid work that disturbs painted surfaces in pre-1978 housing falls under 40 CFR Part 745, and floor sanding reaches painted surfaces more often than people expect: the edger runs to the baseboard, the shoe molding and the door casing, and in older housing those carry many layers.
The part that matters for the equipment is 745.85(a)(3), which prohibits high speed machines that strip a coating on painted surfaces unless they carry containment and a HEPA vacuum collecting dust at the point of generation. That is a description of how the sander has to be assembled, not a suggestion about tidiness.
How solid hardwood floor installation runs
We measure the house
Moisture in the flooring and the subfloor, flatness, deflection, and what is there now.Material chosen at your kitchen table
Samples and larger offcuts brought to you, at distributor price, in one number with the labor.Acclimation to a number
The wood sits until the readings agree, in the conditions the room will actually live in.Layout and racking
Boards sorted and laid out dry, so pattern and color distribution are decided before anything is fastened.Nailed down
Fastened to schedule, with expansion left at every wall.Finish or trim out
Site finish if the floor is raw, or shoe and transitions if it came prefinished.
What is included in a solid hardwood installation
The quote covers the measuring, the material, the subfloor preparation, the installation and the trim. It is one number for wood and labor together, written after the owner has seen the floor in person.
Included
- A visit from the owner, with moisture, flatness and deflection checked before quoting
- Solid hardwood supplied by us at the distributor's store price, chosen from samples and offcuts at your house
- Removal of the existing floor when the job calls for it
- Acclimation on site until the moisture readings of the wood and the subfloor agree
- Racking and nail down installation, with expansion left at every wall
- Site finish for raw wood, or shoe molding and transitions for prefinished boards
Not included, or quoted separately
- Installation over concrete or below grade. Solid wood does not go there, engineered flooring does
- Humidity control for the house. We say what the floor needs, but the equipment is not flooring work
- Stair treads, risers and railings, which are a separate service with their own quote
- Repair of framing or joists found damaged under the old floor, quoted separately if it turns up
What changes the price of hardwood floor installation
We set the price after the owner has seen the floor, never before. Three things move it most: the area and layout of the rooms, the grade and width of the board you choose, and how much work the subfloor needs before wood can be nailed to it.
| What changes it | How it moves the price | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Area and layout | More square footage costs more in total. Small rooms, closets and angles cost more per foot than one open rectangle, because every wall means cuts. | One open living room goes faster than the same area split across three bedrooms, a hallway and four closets. |
| Species and grade | The wood is a large part of the number, and it varies with the species, the grade and how the board was sawn. | A clear, select grade costs more than a character grade of the same species and width, before any labor is counted. |
| Board width | Wide plank costs more as material and leaves less room for error, because the moisture tolerance is tighter. | A seven inch plank has to read within two points of the subfloor. A two and a quarter inch strip is allowed four. |
| Subfloor condition | Flattening, fastening down or replacing sections of subfloor adds labor and material before the first board goes in. | A subfloor that passes the straightedge needs nothing. One that sags between joists gets corrected first, and that is written into the quote. |
| Prefinished or site finished | Raw wood is sanded and finished in the house after it is nailed down. Prefinished boards skip that step and usually cost more as material. | Raw oak adds the sanding and the coats of finish. A prefinished floor is done once the trim and transitions are on. |
The full method, the equipment and what we will and will not promise are on the service page: Solid Hardwood Floor Installation.
Also in Newbold
Hardwood Floor Refinishing
Sand the old finish off, repair what needs repairing, and put a new finish down
Dustless Floor Sanding
Vacuum-extraction sanding
Engineered Hardwood Installation
Real wood over a stable core
Luxury Vinyl Plank (LVP) Installation
Waterproof, quiet, and it does not care about a wet basement
Custom Stair Installation
Treads, risers, stringers and skirt board, built to a drawing instead of a catalog page
Stair Refinishing
Stairs take more wear per square foot than any floor in the house, and they are sanded almost entirely by hand
Hardwood Floor Repair
Board replacement, weaving in new wood, squeaks, gaps and cupping
Why homeowners hire Deco Hardwood Floor
Deco Hardwood Floor is owner operated: the person who quotes solid hardwood floor installation in Newbold is the person responsible for it, and the material comes with the labor in one number.
Material and labor in one number
We buy the flooring direct from the distributor and pass the store price through, so you are not sourcing wood on your own between quotes.
Samples come to your house
Samples and larger offcuts come to you, so the color gets chosen in your own light instead of under a showroom lamp.
Stairs and railings built in house
Treads, risers, handrails and newel posts are drawn and built by our own crew. Most flooring crews subcontract stair work or decline it.
The owner quotes the job
The person who measures your floor is the person responsible for the work. There is no salesperson in between.
Measured before it is promised
Remaining thickness is measured at the edge of a board before we say a floor can be sanded, and no price is firm before we have seen the room.
Told straight, including the limits
Vacuum extraction catches most of the sanding dust and not all of it. We tell you that before the job instead of after.
More about who we are and what we will not claim on the About Deco Hardwood Floor page.
Questions about hardwood installation in Newbold
What should I do before the crew arrives?
Before a hardwood floor installation, have the heating or cooling running at the settings you live with, because the wood is measured against that house. Clear small and fragile things from the rooms and their closets, and agree beforehand on who moves the furniture. Deco Hardwood Floor says at the quote what the subfloor needs, so the first day should hold no surprises.
How long does hardwood need to acclimate?
There is no correct number of days. It is ready when the moisture content of the wood and the subfloor are within tolerance for that board width, measured with a meter, in a house at the conditions it will be lived in.
Can I put solid hardwood in my basement?
No. Below grade and over concrete, solid wood does not have a stable enough environment. That is what engineered flooring exists for, and it is the honest answer even though it is the cheaper one for you.
Will there be gaps in winter?
Some seasonal gapping in a solid wood floor is normal movement, and it closes again when humidity comes back up. Gaps that never close point at a moisture mismatch at installation, which is a different problem.
Can you tell me what my floor needs over the phone?
We can tell you what is likely, and this page is most of that answer. What we cannot do is quote a floor we have not seen, because remaining thickness and what is under the covering both decide the job and neither is visible in a description.
Do you bring the material?
Yes. We buy direct from the distributor and the material lands in the same number as the labor. Samples and larger offcuts come to the house so you choose in your own light.
My house is from the 1920s. Can the floor still be sanded?
Often, but it is a measurement rather than an assumption. Only the wood above the tongue can be sanded, and a floor that has been refinished twice already may have one pass left. We check at the edge of a board before quoting.
Hardwood Installation near Newbold
Send a photo and we will tell you what you are looking at
Solid Hardwood Floor Installation in Newbold starts with someone reading the house. We quote every job ourselves, with no salesperson in between, and a photo of the floor gets you a straight answer faster than a form does.
