Hardwood flooring in Wildwood, MO

Wildwood was practically built for hardwood. The custom houses off Wild Horse Creek Road and Ossenfort Road have the ceiling height, the window walls and the open great rooms that wide plank was made for. Grain and color carry a big room in a way that carpet simply cannot. Out here, where the nearest neighbor may be a few acres off, a solid floor underfoot reads as substantial rather than hollow, and it photographs beautifully when the house eventually goes on the market.

Older Wildwood is a different job entirely. Houses around Glencoe, Grover and Pond often hide narrow red oak strip under carpet that has been down since the seventies. That floor is usually worth saving. We sand it, test stains with you on the actual boards, and put it back into service for a fraction of what new material would cost. Two houses on the same road can need two completely different answers, which is exactly why we look before we quote.

Wood moves in this climate. St. Louis summers run muggy with dew points in the seventies, winters are dry and heated, and Wildwood houses with a lot of glass swing harder than most. That means acclimating material in the actual house, not the garage, leaving proper expansion gaps at every wall and vertical, and being honest with you about seasonal gapping. A floor that is tight in August and shows a hairline in February is behaving normally, and we would rather explain that up front.

Substrates vary across town. Newer builds around Town Center and Fox Creek usually have plywood or OSB over engineered joists, which we check for flatness and fastening before a single board goes down. Older Glencoe and Grover framing can need shimming, screwing off squeaks, or a plywood underlayment to get a flat surface. Walkout basement levels get moisture tested, and if the numbers are wrong for solid wood we will tell you so and steer you to engineered.

It starts with a free in-home measure. We look at the subfloor, check moisture, note the transitions and talk through plank direction, because in a long open Wildwood plan the direction you run the boards changes how the whole main level feels. You get a written quote with the material, the labor, the prep and the timeline broken out. Once you approve it, material is ordered and delivered to the house to acclimate before we cut anything.

Install day means furniture moved, old flooring pulled and hauled, the subfloor prepped and the new floor laid, racked so the seams and color variation look random rather than striped. Site-finished work adds sanding, staining and coats, with dry time between each. Prefinished floors go faster. We keep the house livable where we can, clean up daily, and walk the finished floor with you before we call it done.