Greetings Flooring experts. I have a couple questions. we want to install 3/4" solid prefinished maple in our colorado home. Can someone give me some pointers on A. My species choice for Colorado foothills B. Acclimation time C. Good quality underlayment type (s) D. Good place to buy the wood? Right now we are thinking about buying Mullican from Lowe's Thanks for any Help

If you do this yourselves then you will have to buy a moisture meter to make sure everything is where it needs to be. Colorado has a pretty diverse climate depending on your local so your better off talking to people in the area whoknow what to expect as far as acclimation goes. If you hire an outfit to install the floor make sure they check the subfloor and the wood with a meter and note the readings. If he tells you "ive been doing this for x number of years and never have used a meter" then call some one else. If he just does a visual inspection and says "everything looks good" then hire some one else. NO METER READINGS NO INSTALL!

Kevin:

Yup, those guys are ones to avoid...

http://www.hardwoodinstaller.com/hardwo ... it-all.htm

Thanks for the reply. Is maple more prone to shrinking problems then say red oak?

All wood will expand and contract but there shouldn't be much difference in shrinkage. If the wood is dry and climatized you should be good to go.

I always consider maple to be among the most diabolical woods. IT tends to move more than oak . But with pre finished, if you acclimate the wood properly and use a good moisture meter to check both the flooring and subfloor, you should do well.

As for mullican, the last time I saw it , there were nothing but 4 foot and under lengths. Please check the boxes or with lowes to find out if you are getting a decent variety of lengths.

Thanks for the feedback