The EcoWoods Well-Installed Framework

How to use it

Three ways this is meant to be used

Pillar 1

Moisture and acclimation

Wood exchanges moisture with the air continuously and moves as it does. This pillar establishes that the movement was measured and planned for before anything was fastened down.

1. 1.1Critical

   Was the subfloor moisture content measured, and were the readings written down?

   If not: A floor installed over a wet subfloor will cup, crown, gap or buckle. No warranty language overrides physics.

   Source: moisture testing

2. 1.2Critical

   Was the flooring material itself moisture-tested, separately from the subfloor?

   If not: Every board arrives with its own moisture history. Testing only the subfloor measures half the system.

   Source: moisture testing

3. 1.3Critical

   Do both readings sit inside the manufacturer's stated acceptable difference between material and subfloor?

   If not: A large moisture differential guarantees dimensional change after installation, regardless of how well the floor was laid.

   Source: moisture testing

4. 1.4Major

   Was testing performed twice — at the estimate, and again immediately before installation begins?

   If not: Conditions change between quoting and installation. A single reading months earlier describes a building that no longer exists.

   Source: moisture testing

5. 1.5Critical

   Will the material acclimate for a minimum of 72 hours in the actual conditioned space where it will be installed?

   If not: Acclimating in a garage, a hallway or an unheated room conditions the wood to the wrong environment.

   Source: protocol

Pillar 2

Substrate and method

Installation method is determined by what the floor is going onto, not by preference, habit or price. This pillar establishes that the substrate decided the method.

1. 2.1Critical

   Was the substrate identified explicitly — plywood over joists, concrete slab, or radiant?

   If not: Every downstream decision depends on this answer. A method chosen before the substrate is known is a guess.

   Source: method and substrate

2. 2.2Critical

   Does the proposed method match the substrate — nail-down on plywood, glue-down on concrete, floating over radiant or where acoustic separation is required?

   If not: Method mismatched to substrate is the failure that cannot be corrected later without lifting the floor.

   Source: method and substrate

3. 2.3Major

   Was the substrate assessed for flatness and condition before the price was fixed?

   If not: Substrate correction discovered mid-job is the single most common source of change orders on a hardwood project.

   Source: fixed price

4. 2.4Critical

   If the substrate is concrete, a condominium slab, or radiant heat, was engineered construction specified rather than solid?

   If not: Solid hardwood over concrete or radiant has no cross-ply core to resist seasonal movement. The construction is what provides the stability.

   Source: decision tree

Pillar 3

Product specification

The correct product is the one that will still look and perform correctly in twenty years. This pillar establishes that the house specified the floor, not the budget.

1. 3.1Critical

   Was the solid-versus-engineered decision explained in terms of the substrate and the climate load, rather than price or preference?

   If not: A product sold on margin instead of specified on physics is a failure with a delay built in.

   Source: decision tree

2. 3.2Major

   Was species hardness discussed against the actual traffic and household this floor will carry?

   If not: Species selection made on appearance alone produces a floor that looks correct on handover and wears wrong within a few years.

   Source: species

3. 3.3Major

   If the home sees large seasonal humidity swings, was that raised as a reason to prefer engineered construction?

   If not: Toronto indoor RH runs from below 25% in winter to above 60% in summer. A product specified without reference to that range was specified for a different city.

   Source: climate reality

4. 3.4Advisory

   Was the finish system named specifically, rather than described only as "polyurethane"?

   If not: Finish system determines cure time, recoat interval and how the floor is maintained for its whole life. An unnamed system cannot be maintained correctly.

   Source: sequence

Pillar 4

Expansion and movement

The question is never whether a floor will move. This pillar establishes that room for the movement was designed in rather than discovered later.

1. 4.1Critical

   Are expansion gaps specified at every wall and every fixed object — not only at the perimeter?

   If not: A floor with nowhere to expand will buckle or tent. Fixed objects mid-field are where this is most often missed.

   Source: protocol

2. 4.2Major

   Was the safe indoor humidity band the floor needs to live in — and who is responsible for maintaining it — stated in writing?

   If not: A floor handed over without a stated operating range has no defensible warranty boundary, in either direction.

   Source: climate reality

3. 4.3Advisory

   Were the specific failure modes — cupping, crowning, seasonal gapping, buckling, edge peaking — named and explained rather than dismissed?

   If not: A contractor who will not name the failure modes either does not know them or does not intend to be accountable for them.

   Source: failure modes

Pillar 5

Dust containment and sequence

Sanding and finishing is a sequence of machines, each of which does something the others cannot. This pillar establishes that the sequence was complete and the dust was contained.

1. 5.1Critical

   Is HEPA dust containment used throughout the process, not only at final cleanup?

   If not: Dust generated during sanding is respirable and travels through the whole building. Cleanup afterwards addresses what settled, not what was breathed.

   Source: protocol

2. 5.2Major

   Does the plan include an edger on every perimeter and detail, with grits matching the field?

   If not: A big machine cannot reach a perimeter. Skipping or under-gritting the edger leaves a visible halo around every room that only shows once the finish goes on.

   Source: edger

3. 5.3Major

   Is a planetary or multi-disc pass included to blend the field into the edges?

   If not: Without a blending pass, the boundary between what the belt sander reached and what the edger reached stays visible for the life of the floor.

   Source: planetary

4. 5.4Major

   Is intercoat screening between finish coats part of the quoted scope?

   If not: Skipping intercoat screening is invisible on handover day and produces an uneven surface and weaker coat adhesion.

   Source: sequence

5. 5.5Major

   Was a cure period stated — distinct from "dry to walk on" — with what may and may not go back on the floor during it?

   If not: Furniture and rugs returned to an uncured finish mark it permanently. Dry and cured are different dates.

   Source: sequence

Pillar 6

Commercial accountability

Every pillar above is only as good as the contract behind it. This pillar establishes that someone is accountable in writing when the floor is five years old.

1. 6.1Critical

   Is the price fixed in writing, with no open-ended "unforeseen conditions" change-order language?

   If not: An open-ended price transfers the cost of the contractor's missing due diligence onto the homeowner, after the deposit.

   Source: fixed price

2. 6.2Major

   Will the work be performed by salaried employees rather than day-labour subcontractors?

   If not: A crew that will not be there next season has no stake in how the floor performs next season.

   Source: installer checklist

3. 6.3Critical

   Is there true lifetime workmanship warranty language in the contract itself?

   If not: A warranty described in conversation and absent from the contract is not a warranty.

   Source: installer checklist

4. 6.4Critical

   Would they refuse the job if the substrate or the conditions were wrong — and have they said so plainly?

   If not: A contractor who will install over any condition is quoting on volume. The willingness to walk away is the only real evidence of a standard.

   Source: what to demand

5. 6.5Major

   Were the written moisture readings provided before any deposit was requested?

   If not: Testing after the deposit inverts the incentive: the finding can no longer change the decision.

   Source: what to demand

6. 6.6Advisory

   Are manufacturer warranties passed through in writing, naming the manufacturer and the product?

   If not: A manufacturer warranty that is never registered or documented cannot be claimed against years later.

   Source: installer checklist

Applied

Guides that apply the framework

The framework says what to check. These say what to do about the answer.

Contract

What the version number promises

Criterion ids are permanent. Adding, removing or rewording a criterion is a minor version bump. Changing what a pillar means is a major one. A criterion is never edited in place without the version moving, so a citation to v1.0 will always resolve to the text that was published on 2026-08-19.

No criterion in this framework asserts anything that is not already published in a paper on this site. That constraint is enforced by a build guard, not by editorial intent — scripts/verify-framework.mjs resolves every citation and fails the build on any that does not exist.