FAQ

Q. What is the most important thing for me to know about solid wood flooring?
Wood is hygroscopic. It absorbs and loses moisture depending on subfloor moisture content and ambient air relative humidity. With these moisture changes, wood swells and shrinks. This fact is the basis of almost all problems that arise with wood flooring.

If, for instance, flooring is stored in a house without climate control, the ends of the bundles exposed to ambient air will swell 1/32” – 1/16”. The floor, when laid, will have slight cracks where those ends will not match the ends of unexposed flooring. Storage in the garage prior to installation exacerbates this problem. Or if flooring at 8% moisture content is nailed to a subfloor at 18% moisture content, due to moisture from a crawl space, that floor will inevitably "cup." The wider the floor, the more sensitive it is to such moisture absorption.

Even when properly stored and laid, flooring will continue to move and change dimension slightly through the seasons, shrinking in winter and swelling somewhat in spring and summer. Houses without humidification in winter are especially prone to these changes. Wide light-colored floors like Maple and Ash will show noticeable season cracks in winter as a result. One way around this issue is to use rift & quartered flooring, which is much more dimensionally stable. In any event, careful and ongoing attention to the home conditions throughout the life of the floor is fundamental to long-term satisfaction with a solid wood floor.

Q. How is wood flooring produced and packaged?
Standard flooring is kiln-dried, side-matched with the common industry profile, end matched, and packaged in nested 7’ bundles. Lengths are random 10” to 84”; standard widths are 1-1/2”, 2-1/4”, 3”, 3-1/4”, 4”, 5”, 6”, 7”and 8”. Every bundle will have a range of lengths for ease of installation. Longer lengths are available for an up-charge. We also supply herringbone and custom bevels.

Q. How do you grade your products?

With few exceptions, we rely on grading rules established by leading floor manufacturing associations.

Q. Do you have minimums?

We ship the exact number of bundles you need for your job. There is no minimum quantity of bundles.

Q. How do shipments get to me?
We ship common carrier all over the US and we will deliver to the greater Nashville area for $0.12 per square foot with a $75.00 minimum.

Q. What about samples?
Sample boards are available upon request.

Q. What about my stair parts?
We can supply you with all of your flooring accessory needs.

Q. What kind of warranty do you offer?
All unfinished wood is NOFMA certified. All wood is under warranty through the respective lumber mill/company from which it was purchased prior to arriving at Hardwoods of Nashville. Hardwoods of Nashville does not offer any additional warranties. All wood coming to Hardwoods of Nashville is checked for proper moisture content and is stored in a climate controlled warehouse.

Q. Why should I buy your flooring?

We regard your purchase of our flooring as a relationship, not just a transaction. We want you to be happy with our products and we want it to perform well for you. Hardwoods of Nashville strives to offer top notch customer service. And we are happy to discuss our products with you to match practical reality with your vision for your home. If we doubt that something will work, we will say so. We would much rather lose a sale than have an unhappy customer.

This has been our philosophy for thousands of custom floors. If it is one that appeals to you, we hope you and your flooring professional will contact us to discuss solid wood flooring for your home.

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