Hardwood Floors June/July 2026

TECH TALK with

Al Carvalho Max Hardwood Floors Corp. Coral Springs, FL

Avi Hadad Avi’s Hardwood Floors San Pablo, CA

Matt Garcia Craftsman Hardwood Flooring San Angelo, TX

“When seasonal summer temperatures near their highs for the year, what are some of your strategies to ensure your finishes are not affected by the heat in your region?”

AL CARVALHO

MATT GARCIA

One of the most pivotal things we do is establish that we need full control of the thermostat. Before applying finish, we’ll bring the temperature of the home down cooler than normal. Once we start coating, we may raise the thermostat slightly, but we never shut it off completely. In this kind of heat, a house can spike in temperature very quickly, and that’s when finishes can flash dry or fail. I’d much rather manage airflow than fight excessive heat during application. Timing also matters. We try to coat early in the morning before the day heats up, and we take steps like shading windows to reduce direct sunlight hitting the floor. Keeping the surface temperature of the floor down is critical – if it gets too hot, the finish can start drying on contact, which creates application and leveling issues. We also have learned to respect the limitations of certain products. For example, some finishes (especially white pigmented systems) just aren’t practical to apply in peak summer conditions. In those cases, we look for alternative ways to achieve the desired color without compromising the final result. At the end of the day, it’s about controlling what you can, communicating clearly, and adjusting your approach to the environment you’re working in.

In Florida, we have summer all year long. The distributors that I use maintain the finish inside air-conditioned stores, not a hot warehouse. We’ll bring the finish directly to the client’s house or if we are storing it, we keep it in the AC. We watch the dates on the finish closely because if a product’s shelf life is 12 months, I consider it 10 months due to the heat. Once we get to the jobsite, the house needs to have the AC running just as it would in their normal living conditions so that everything acclimates. That goes from the wood all the way up to the finish application and drying process.

AVI HADAD

If I am refinishing a floor, there shouldn’t be any issues at all when summer comes. If I am installing a new floor, then I acclimate the floor in place after installation until it is averaging the proper moisture content for my location (the San Francisco Bay Area in California). Finish issues because of humidity or temperature changes always will be a direct result of the wood itself changing its form. If the wood is stable, and you’ve done your sanding and finishing the right way, you will not have any call backs.

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