It's about the relative humidity, not temperature. A few days won't affect anything, but I have been witness to a failure with damp sea breezes that lasted the duration of a job. High dew point affected the glue bond with windows and doors open.

Your most important tool will be your moisture meters. If you have a wooden substrate (plywood) then you need a wood moisture meter with the setting appropriate to both your wood species and the subfloor.

If you have concrete slab, you will need two moisture meters: 1 for the wood (with species specific readings) and 1 for the concrete. You must know how to use them as well. And you will need to know the appropriate range in which BOTH materials (wood and subfloor) must fall before going forward with the install. And the 7" planks are going to need a bit more love before getting them into place.

What are you installing over top of? Concrete or plywood?

we are installing on concrete. The wood was delivered from local warehouse in southern california almost a week ago.

OK...what's the moisture content in the slab? What's the content in the wood? How old is the slab? What adhesive are you going to use?

They didnt measure any of that. Post the demolition the slab didnt show any signs of moisture. And according to them the wood will be fine as its in the house for a week now and prior to them in a warehouse in the same geographical location.

They are going to use bostic vapor lock.

Um...OK. Please get that in writing...and a caveat that says if ANYTHING goes wrong they will drop EVERYTHING to fix it AT THEIR EXPENSIVE....over the next 25 years. And I am NOT kidding about that!!!!!

Again, how old is the slab??? What prep are they doing??? Why will they NOT check the moisture in the wood??? Many warehouses are NOT acclimated. And the moisture readings BELONG to the wood/homeowner. You should be getting a full page document for the day it arrived. For readings taken a week later and then readings done on the day they began laying the floor.

https://www.bostik.com/globalassets/tdsdocuments/vapor---lock_united_states_en/technical-data-sheet/vapor-lock_tds_082417.pdf

Please follow the link and print off the document. It is the END ALL to BE ALL for the adhesive!

What's fascinating about this adhesive is it is considered "limitless" for moisture UNLESS YOU ARE GLUING BAMBOO!!! Whaaaaaaat??? Interesting. Wary Wary interesting. That tells me plenty.

The spread rate is 20sf (for thicker than 5/8" engineered) or 30-35sf per gallon for a thinner floor. At $130/gallon you are looking at product that is $3.70 - $6.50/sf for adhesive.

And the glue is temperature sensitive....quite sensitive actually (50F - 100F). It gets wonky outside those temps. Just a little FYI.

I would ask for the moisture readings for the hardwood. Again, how old is the slab? How old is the house?

SJ McCarthy thanks for all this information. The house and slab are both from 1999.

I didnt follow your comment about "limitless". Also is $2.70-$6.50 / sf good or bad? Our floors are 1/2" thick.

The floors were delivered directly from SLCC which is a fairly popular brand however there was no document with moisture readings.

"Also is $2.70-$6.50 / sf good or bad"

SJ calculated incorrectly as the Vapor Lock comes in 4 gallon containers. It would be more like .67 to 1.63 based on her numbers shown. Looks like 50 S/F per gallon on 1/2 inch engineered.

I checked the price for a 4 gallon pail...but forgot to convert it to "per gallon". My mistake. Uptown has converted it properly. At those numbers, that is a LOW price for a high-end vapour barrier adhesive. Normally they sit above $2/sf for the REALLY good one's.

"Limitless" refers to "limitless moisture barrier"...in other words the slab could be SOAKING WET and the glue will grab without an issue. Glues that REALLY have an EXCELLENT profile for "limitless moisture" are much more expensive than the Bostik.

To use Bostik for the MOISTURE BARRIER (not just adhesive) it will allow 30-35 sf per gallon. The 50sf/gallon coverage is for adhesive ONLY (no vapour barrier = no protection from moisture in the slab = floor failure if the slab gets even a little damp).

The EXCELLENT moisture barriers are $65/gallon or more. The Bostik is only $32.50 per gallon. Unless the company can PROVE you have ZERO moisture (that means testing) they MUST work with the idea that they have to use the adhesive as a vapour barrier. They MUST do it.

The documents for moisture readings will come from the INSTALLER - not the retailer. An excellent installer with an excellent reputation for excellent results will ALWAYS do tests. And then they will test. And test. And before they install, they test. And after they install they photocopy and give you the original for all the tests they've done.

The "average" installer may or may not do this. The "guys with hammers" don't even know what to test let alone how and why.

After reading all of this, what's your gut reaction? What's their labour warranty? How long do you have to complain if it is an installation issue (which is 95% - 99% of all flooring problems)?

That is lot of technical information but very useful that now totally makes sense. The guys on job knew about the moisture tests but not about the wood moisture content. They insisted that we don't need to run those tests for measuring slab moisture content. These guys seem to be your "average" installer. I had good faith in them as they come from a fairly big and renowned installer in a suburb of LA. They sell their own line of wood as well. The guy who is actually installing my floor has done fairly complicated woodwork jobs both in commercial and residential projects. We are also getting a good price (i think) with a <2 / sq ft demo and about $8 / sq ft for install with a decent mid range wood floor. When asked about the labor warranty the contractor (not the installer) promised to take care of problems for at least a year as long as they are directly a result of install. He is new to the installing business (not new to selling material) and so far has had exceptional reviews. His reference checks were also exceptional.

My gut reaction? Definitely not a very comfortable one after reading all this information. However at this point we have about half the floor installed. They were very quick post the demo and I was at work that day.

I thought Bostik is a good brand with quality products. Our other quote from 2 other vendors (including Lumber Liquidators) all used Bostic products.

All this information is valuable though. We have a larger area to cover on our second level and i will be approaching it more prepared when we get to it based on all of your inputs.

Now for the *fun part: What is your interior "living conditions"? What is the humidity inside the home RIGHT NOW? What tools do you have to CONTINUOUSLY monitor and correct for indoor humidity changes?

At this point they are "half way through". You can't stop them. But I would take PHOTOS of the gallons of glue. I would COUNT how many buckets were DELIVERED to your site and how many you were CHARGED FOR. That will tell us the SPREAD RATE. The TROWEL SIZE is also part of the glue down process. And then the final part = glue spread on the BOTTOM of the planks. They need to see more than 90% coverage....which means the installers should be pulling up the 'odd' plank to check their coverage. If you are around, you can ask then to pull a recently laid plank (as in JUST laid that second) to check the coverage...and take a photo of what you've just seen.

That's the ONLY defense you have right now...because they are half away to finished.

The biggest issue with wood is humidity. This is why you drop off the wood in the room you're working in for a few days before starting.

The biggest temperature issue is some of the adhesives if you're gluing down, don't work too well in the cold.

Thanks Ron. Love your answers SJ McCarthy. So detailed and technical :)

They used a quarter inch trowel. I was able to see a few planks being laid down and at least under them I can say the coverage was definitely > 90%.Not sure about all of approx. 1100 sq ft though.

Re. the buckets of glue I'll need to check.