Hardwood Flooring & Installation in Minneapolis

Hardwood flooring installation is the removal of your old floor and the layout, fastening and finishing of new wood plank, and Top Notch Floors has done that work in Minneapolis homes since 1990. We install solid and engineered wood. We sand, stain and finish on site when the job calls for it.

Solid hardwood is one piece of wood all the way through. It sands and refinishes many times, so it lasts decades. It does not belong on a concrete slab or below grade. Engineered hardwood is real wood over a plywood core. It moves less. That makes it the right pick for basements, slabs and floors over radiant heat.

Species and plank width change the look and the price. Red oak is the Minneapolis standard and takes stain evenly. White oak runs cooler in color and hides wear. Maple is hard and light. Hickory has heavy grain variation. Wide planks look great and show seasonal gaps more than narrow ones do.

Prefinished planks come sealed from the factory. They install fast and you walk on them the same day. Site-finished floors get sanded flat after they are down, then stained and coated, so the seams disappear and the color is exactly what you picked. Site work takes longer and needs the house empty of foot traffic while coats dry.

Wood has to acclimate before it goes down. We deliver the material and leave it in the room for several days so it settles to your house, not the warehouse. Then we check the subfloor. Flat matters more than anything. High spots get sanded, low spots get filled, loose sheathing gets screwed down. Skip that and you get hollow spots and squeaks later.

Minnesota humidity swings are hard on wood. Summer air swells the boards tight. Winter furnace heat dries them and thin gaps open at the seams. That is normal and it closes back up. Keep the house between 35 and 50 percent relative humidity through the winter and your floor stays quiet.