A hired flooring contractor would do the job when the GC brought them in to do it. As long as the house is weathertight and humidity isn't 5% or 95%, then wood flooring can begin.

But, if you're using a prefinished wood or carpet, I'd wait till the gutter is addressed, humidity will really make hardwoods come out poorly. Having the well on isn't absolutely necessary for the flooring job.

But if you're tiling, then I think the well becomes a must.

And I'd wait till drywall was done before installing any flooring, I'd wait for paint if the flooring is pre-finished wood, and carpet is installed a the very end of construction.

We plan on installing our flooring as one of the last projects right before interior doors/casings, baseboards, stair riser/treads and an island cabinet.

cork

I am assuming you are talking about wood floors - or tile and wood?

The tile floors can go in now and you might want to do that before the wood goes in - it's a mess. They can bring in water if you don't have water yet, but it is best to have water on site.

For the wood flooring, that should go in when the house humidity can be controlled. Where do you live? In my area - we had to have our HVAC on to get everything just right since the the wood was going down in August - and it is hot and himid where we live. Humidity control is an absolute must - go checking out the flooring forum and look for posts by Floorguy - he is an expert - and has a lot of posts on that subject. The wood sat in our climate controlled house for a week before it was installed. The wood has to be acclimated to your house and the subfloor and wood flooring humidity must be close enough or your floors can buckle - but a lot depends on the type of flooring you are putting in.

By the way - if you are doing pre-finished wood floors that should be the very last thing that goes in because all your other subs are going to scratch it and fixes generally mean taking boards out and replacing. What I am talking about is finish in place wood flooring.

I think you are going to need power to not only install the floors but also to finish them while maintaining climate control in the house.

On our project, after drywall was completed and pointed up we had the trim installed (they set the baseboard molding up high enough for whatever flooring your are getting). The walls and ceilings were sprayed with primer paint and a product called wall prep. I think the ceilings were also painted with the final 2 coats sprayed and back rolled. Then came tile, and then the wood floors went in.

AFter the wood was in, the painters came back and did 1 finish coat on the walls and 1 coat on the trim. The we stopped and the light fixtures went in so that we could see. After we could see - then back came the drywallers to point up again once we could really see all the blemishes.

Then the final coats of wall and trim paint went on and then the floors were finished. In the end (due to some muffs on the part a number of people) the floor sub and paint sub were ping ponging to get their final work done. It was supposed to be 1) complete final paint - then 2) finish wood floors - then 3) move in but it did not work out exaclty as planned but we made it work.

You had better work things out with your builder. If he is asking you about the flooring project then there is probably a good reason - perhaps he cannot get his draw until all the floors are in (that was required in our build).

I applaud you taking on the flooring project - that is a lot of work. Best of luck.

We're talking about pre-finished wood flooring, cork flooring that needs to be site finished and tile in various areas of the house.

There's no way that we want the cork flooring in place while the masons are tracking back and forth, spilling mortar all over the place. Not to mention the fact that they may be ripping out and replacing walls with new drywall. I suppose we could get started in some of the small rooms or closets. It's just very frustrating.

Is there any reason that we can't have them completely finish the house and install the flooring last, after everyone is gone? Does anyone see any pros/cons to this idea?

Many years ago we did just that, the builder's decorator charged considerably more for upgrading the tile, wood and carpet purchases/installation than the local vendors. We closed the sale of the house with none of the floors finished, just bare slab downstairs, plywood subfloor upstairs. So unless your lender requires a finished floor (VA Loan)there shouldn't be a problem.
We did have to adjust the base molding in some rooms.

I think the floors need to be installed before the doors and base boards are installed to ensure proper fit. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

As for the kitchen, it's your preference if you want the flooring under the cabinets or just up to them.

What about the baths, are they finished with all the plumbing fittings and installation? You could start there while the messy guys are still in the house.

cork

you can put the floors in last and with what you described - that is exactly what I would do. The trim carpenters must know the heights of the various flooring material and they must set the baseboard and door frames up so that the flooring material can be installed underneath.

The only disadvantage of doing the wood floors last is that in areas like the kitchen the cabinets must go in ahead of the floors. When they install the flooring, the nail guns cannot get close enough to the last few courses of material because the cabinets are in the way - so they have to nail those from the top. With finish in place floors - they put flooring all the way to the walls and then the cabinets go on top - so you never see those nails.

In your case you have pre-finished material and you don't want the subs messing that up (and they will). You have plumbers, electricians, painters about to descend of your house and they are coming with their ladders, tool bags, and other heavy items that they will drop and dent the floors. If they damage a finish in place floor, you can repair it on site easily. With pre-finish, they have to take boards out. You also have cork flooring which is very soft - the ladders will make large indentations unless they put down some masonite or luan under the ladder legs. You could insist that they do it - but someone is bound to forget.

I suggest installing the wood floors at the very end. The tile can go in now. Check the flooring forum - this has been discussed at length over there.