Flooring for Home Builders

At minimum: the attachment method, the flatness tolerance that goes with it, the moisture-test method appropriate to the substrate, and the acclimation conditions. Naming the attachment method matters because the tolerance changes with it — 3/16 inch in 6 feet for fasteners 1½ inches and longer, 1/8 inch in 6 feet for glue-down, floating and shorter fasteners. Naming the test method matters because ASTM has disallowed the calcium-chloride test (F1869) for lightweight concrete, so a scope that relies on it alone may not apply to your slab.

Fix the variables that drift: one attachment method per deck type with its matching tolerance written down, one acclimation protocol, and the same racking and layout convention on every lot. Most quality drift between early and late lots comes from the substrate rather than the flooring — a slab lot and a framed-deck lot need different preparation and different tolerances, and treating them as one line item is what produces two different floors.

Engineered, in most inland Northern California and foothill work, and the reason is dimensional rather than economic. A cross-laminated core restrains the wear layer from shrinking across its width, which is the direction that fails when a house is heated hard through a dry winter. Solid is entirely viable in a tightly conditioned house with narrower boards; the risk rises with plank width, with plainsawn material, and with houses that sit empty or unconditioned between completion and sale.

Yes — we order to match the SKUs on your schedule and install to the drawings rather than substituting for convenience. Where a selected product conflicts with the substrate or the climate the house will actually live in, we raise it before material is ordered rather than after it is on site, because that is the point at which changing it is still cheap.