RTTPYO #8: The Loooong Floor Install, Part 2
- nvilu7
- Jun 18
- 5 min read
Updated: 13 hours ago
How to Survive a Hardwood Floor Installation Without Breaking Everything You Own
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About the RTTPYO Series
RTTPYO stands for Removing Things That Piss You Off — the small home problems we tolerate for years before finally fixing them.
In this series, I tackle one everyday annoyance and show how a simple design change can make a space work better.
In The Loooong Floor Install, Part 1, I covered how I chose my hardwood flooring and the unexpectedly complicated process of picking the “right” wood.
Now it was time for the actual install.
Which meant:
moving furniture,
protecting breakables,
finding temporary housing for me and my cat,
living out of a hotel room,
and figuring out how to keep a crew of flooring installers from accidentally destroying everything I owned.
Good times.
If you’re planning a hardwood floor installation in an occupied home, this post will help you prepare for the chaos before it arrives at your front door carrying nail guns and underlayment rolls.
How Hardwood Floors Are Installed
Before the installation started, my flooring salesperson Debi walked me through the process.
At a high level, hardwood floor installation is pretty straightforward:
Typical Hardwood Floor Installation Process
Hardwood boards are delivered and allowed to acclimate to the home’s temperature and humidity.
Furniture and decor are removed.
Baseboards are removed.
Existing flooring is torn out.
The subfloor is inspected and repaired if needed.
Underlayment is installed.
Hardwood flooring is installed.
Baseboards and transition strips are installed.
Simple on paper.
Slightly less simple when all your earthly possessions are still inside your condo.
The Reality of Flooring Installation in an Occupied Home
Here’s the complication nobody really thinks about beforehand:
If you’re installing hardwood throughout most of your home, the installation crew will move your stuff from room to room as they work.
Quickly.
Very quickly.
Debi’s instructions were blunt:
“Move everything breakable out of your home unless it’s attached to the floor.”
I got the feeling she had made that speech hundreds of times.
But honestly? Fair.
Installers are there to install floors, not carefully curate your ceramic collection while tiptoeing around your sentimental lamps.
So I needed a protection plan.
My Hardwood Floor Installation Protection Plan
The install was scheduled for early December, and I started planning weeks ahead because I knew this had “last-minute disaster potential” written all over it.
Step 1: Find Temporary Housing
The hotel was easy.
I used points to book a pet-friendly junior suite so I could bring Zoey, my extremely dramatic scaredy-cat of a feline who considered all strangers to be active threats against civilization (i.e., anyone but me).
I also needed enough room to set up my work-from-home setup and microwave emotionally supportive meals.
Step 2: Protect the Breakables
Debi strongly suggested removing:
artwork,
lamps,
mirrors,
ceramics,
electronics,
rugs,
antiques,
and basically anything capable of shattering.
Which was…a lot.
After taking inventory, I estimated I needed about a 5x5 storage space if I packed everything efficiently.
Then I had a better idea.
The U-Haul Hack That Saved Me Money and Time
I originally looked into self-storage and even PODS®, but neither option made much sense for a three-day installation.
Then it hit me:
Why not use the U-Haul truck itself as temporary storage?
The daily truck rental was cheap. Most of the cost was mileage-based, and the U-Haul facility was only about a mile from my condo.
So I:
rented a truck,
parked it in my condo parking space,
loaded it with breakables,
locked it,
and unloaded everything after the install was finished.
Honestly? One of the smarter things I’ve ever done.
If you don’t have a garage, this is a surprisingly effective temporary storage solution.
RTTPYO Tip: If you’re installing flooring throughout an occupied home, assume everything left inside will get dusty. Anything fragile may also get bumped, dropped, or crushed under pressure from installers trying to stay on schedule.
Why Hardwood Flooring Needs to Acclimate
One thing I did not understand before this project:
Hardwood flooring has to acclimate inside your home before installation.
Why?
Because wood absorbs and releases moisture from the air.
That means hardwood flooring expands and contracts based on humidity levels.
Too much moisture = buckling.
Too little moisture = gaps between boards.
Both are expensive and deeply annoying.
My flooring manufacturer required the wood to sit inside the condo for seven days before installation.
The pile of flooring that arrived was enormous.
Even though my condo was under 1,000 square feet, the stack of flooring boxes was nearly:
5 feet tall,
5 feet long,
and topped with underlayment rolls that repeatedly rolled themselves onto the floor for dramatic effect.
(Zoey was absolutely involved in the falling rolls, although she vehemently denied it.)
Hardwood Floors and Humidity: Why Climate Matters
Once I learned how much humidity affects hardwood flooring, I finally understood why hardwood floors are less common in tropical climates like Florida.
Even with air conditioning and dehumidifiers, humidity swings can wreak havoc on wood flooring over time.
If you live in a high-humidity climate and love the look of hardwood, wood-look porcelain tile is worth considering.
You get the look without the seasonal emotional rollercoaster.
Preparing Closets for Flooring Installation
One of Debi’s smartest warnings was about dust.
Specifically:
Closets.
Because even if installers never touch your hanging clothes, demolition dust travels everywhere.
So I:
boxed up everything on closet floors,
bagged hanging clothes in oversized clear leaf bags,
and taped plastic sheeting to closet ceilings and shelves using painter’s tape.
It took hours.
But it worked.
I also bought a replacement filter set for my mighty Coway Airmega so I wouldn’t spend the next two weeks inhaling floor-installation dust.
Moving Day: The Great Lamp Migration
Saturday morning arrived.
I picked up the U-Haul truck, bought moving blankets, large moving boxes, and a comically heavy-duty padlock, then spent the entire day loading breakables into the truck.
Every lamp went into storage except for one ultra-bright sewing lamp that I dragged from room to room for the rest of the weekend like a Victorian lighthouse keeper.
By Sunday evening:
the TV and large artwork was relocated to the bathtub,
furniture was sheet-covered,
and my condo looked like a housing unit awaiting fumigation.
Perfect.
Things You Should Remove Before Flooring Installation
Lamps
Artwork
Mirrors
Electronics
Area rugs
Ceramics and glassware
Anything sentimental
Anything fragile
Anything you would cry over if destroyed
Flooring Installation Prep Essentials
These items protected my breakables, kept the possessions inhabiting my closets dust-free during installation, and made it easy to care for my fab new floors:
Packing
Packing Paper / Newsprint — wrapped lamps, lampshades, and every fragile thing I owned
Large Moving Boxes — accommodates even the biggest table lamp
Moving Blankets — wrap around artwork
Dust Protection
Lawn and Leaf Bags — protected my clothing from floor-installation chaos
Plastic Sheeting Rolls — turned my closets into temporary clean rooms
Coway Airmega Air Purifier — ran continually post-installation to clear the air
Flooring Care & Maintenance
Bona Hardwood Floor Cleaner — recommended by hardwood flooring manufacturers because it actually works
Bona Mop — pleasant to use (really)
Bona Mop Cleaning Pads — surprisingly impressive scrubbing ability and machine washable
Final Thoughts
By Sunday night, the condo looked stripped bare and vaguely post-apocalyptic.
But I was ready.
The flooring was acclimated.
The breakables were protected.
The truck was loaded.
The hotel was booked.
The cat was offended.
All that remained was surviving the actual install.
And that’s where things got interesting.
Next Up
My flooring installation goes South.
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