This is my first time with buying new solid hardwood flooring and having it installed. Have had laminated flooring installed before and the flooring boxes were brought in to acclimate in the room in which they were being installed. A week later the flooring went in. My husband and I met with a hardwood flooring guy locally a couple days ago and fell in love with their natural, character hickory flooring in 8" wide planks. The owner indicated the boxes would need to acclimate for approx. 10 days, but after discussing our timeline with having to wait until closing on our new house before we could get the flooring in to acclimate, he indicated he could install the flooring first, and then let it acclimate in place for several days before sanding and doing the final traffic coats. In the meantime, while the flooring was acclimating - after having been installed - we could have our painting contractor come in and do interior painting and possibly even the carpet installed for downstairs. He would then come back and do final sanding and sealing of the floor with the traffic coats.

I had never heard of acclimating wood flooring after installing it. He gets only rave reviews online and has been in the flooring business for over 20 yrs. You would think he'd know what he's talking about.

We may have to insist he lets the flooring acclimate in the house before he installs it. We are under no time crunch to get moved into the house by a specific date or timeframe. I think he may have misconstrued our wanting to have other contractors come in to do work before moving in as an indication of urgency.

Does the practice of first installing solid hardwood flooring and then letting it acclimate sound odd to anyone other than me?

Thanks for any input.

The new floor is engineered and unfinished if it comes in boxes, right. Engineered flooring needs minimal or no acclimation since it is engineered and has only a veneer covering a core of plywood that is very stable. Some sanding and smoothing after a little time being down can result in a smoother floor. Make sure the painter masks the floor off before he sprays any paint.
If you are buying solid hickory flooring in 8 inch widths this would be different.