The honest answer to “how long does it take?” depends on the product, the prep, and the size of the floor. Here are realistic timelines for the most common San Diego flooring jobs.
At-a-glance timeline
| Product | Single room (200 sq ft) | Whole house (1,200 sq ft) | Acclimation upstream |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hardwood (solid) | 2–3 days | 4–6 days | 5–10 days |
| Engineered hardwood | 1–2 days | 3–4 days | 2–4 days |
| Luxury vinyl plank | Same day | 2–3 days | None |
| Laminate | Same day | 1–2 days | 24 hours |
| Tile (porcelain) | 3–4 days | 5–7 days | None |
| Sheet vinyl | Same day | 1 day | None |
Acclimation upstream
For solid hardwood and engineered hardwood, acclimation isn’t optional. Boards arrive at your home 5 to 10 days before install (8–10 in coastal homes), get cross-stacked in the room they’ll be installed in, and equilibrate to the home’s humidity before nailing. Skipping this step is the most common cause of cupping and gapping post-install.
LVP and tile don’t need acclimation. They can be installed the day after delivery.
Single-room hardwood install — a real timeline
For a typical 250 sq ft master bedroom in solid white oak:
Days 1–7: Acclimation Boards delivered, opened, cross-stacked. HVAC running at normal conditions. Pin-meter readings on day 5 and day 7 to confirm equilibration.
Day 8 — Install day 1 Move furniture, demo existing flooring, prep subfloor (level pour or screw-down as needed), lay vapor barrier, start nailing boards. Aim to complete 60–70% of the room.
Day 9 — Install day 2 Finish remaining boards, hand-fit transitions, install thresholds, T-molding, and reducers.
Day 10 — Sand and finish (if site-finished) Three-grit sand, edge detail, vacuum, first stain coat, first poly coat.
Days 11–13 — Cure Second and third poly coats, 24-hour cure between each.
Day 14 — Walk-on Floor is walk-on dry but not full-cure. Move furniture back gently — no rugs or heavy items for a full week.
Total project arc: about two weeks from delivery to walk-on.
Single-room LVP install
Same 250 sq ft bedroom in rigid-core LVP:
Day 1 only
- 8 a.m. — Move furniture, demo existing flooring (carpet, old vinyl, etc.)
- 9 a.m. — Subfloor inspection and any flatness corrections (light grinding or filler)
- 10 a.m. — Underlayment + vapor barrier laid
- 11 a.m. — Click-lock LVP install begins
- 2 p.m. — Install complete
- 3 p.m. — Trim, transitions, threshold
- 4 p.m. — Furniture moved back
Total: one day, walk-on as soon as we leave.
Whole-house hardwood install
For a 1,200 sq ft single-story conversion to solid hardwood:
Days 1–7: Acclimation in rooms
Day 8: Demo and subfloor prep across all rooms
Days 9–11: Hardwood install (3 days for whole house)
Day 12: Sand and stain
Days 13–15: Three coats of poly, 24-hour cure each
Day 16: Walk-on dry
Total: about two and a half weeks. Plan for the home to be partially or fully unoccupied during the sand-and-finish portion.
Whole-house LVP install
For a 1,200 sq ft single-story conversion:
Day 1: Demo and subfloor prep
Day 2: Slab grinding or self-leveling (if needed)
Days 3–4: LVP install across all rooms
Day 5: Transitions, trim, walk-through
Total: about a week. Walk-on the day install ends.
What slows projects down
Five things that consistently extend timelines:
Subfloor problems we discover during demo. Loose plywood, water damage from a slow leak, asbestos vinyl tile under carpet. These require addressing before the new floor goes down.
Slab moisture out of spec. If the slab probe reads above the manufacturer’s threshold, a moisture-mitigation coating goes down first — adds a day for application and 24-hour cure.
Wide-plank or specialty patterns. Herringbone, chevron, and mixed-width installs take 30–50% longer than standard plank installs. Worth it for the result, but plan for the timeline.
Stairs. Stair conversions are slow and detail-intensive. A 14-step staircase is a 2–4 day project in addition to the main floor work.
Site-finished hardwood with dark stains. Espresso, ebony, and very dark walnut stains need additional sanding passes and an extra coat for even color. Adds a day to the finish process.
What speeds projects up
Pre-finished products. Pre-finished hardwood, engineered, and laminate skip the on-site sand-and-stain phase entirely. Cuts 2–3 days off the project.
Float installs. Click-lock float installs are faster than glue-down or nail-down. Trades some long-term performance for install speed.
Single-product whole-house jobs. One product, one crew, one quote, one schedule. Mixing products (hardwood here, tile there) extends timelines because of multiple trade scheduling.
Can I stay in the home?
For LVP and laminate: yes, easily. The crew works in one or two rooms at a time. You stay out of those rooms during install and walk on the rest of the house.
For hardwood with site-finishing: usually you move out for 2–3 nights during stain + first poly coat + 24-hour cure. Some homeowners stay and use other parts of the house carefully — depends on layout.
For tile: yes for most installs. Wet thinset and grout cure overnight; you stay off the room for 24 hours.
How to plan around the timeline
If you have a specific deadline (party, listing, tenant move-in), back-plan from that date:
- 2 weeks out: Schedule consult, sign quote
- 10 days out: Hardwood delivery for acclimation
- 5 days out: LVP arrives, demo begins
- Day of: Final cleanup, walk-through
For hardwood floors specifically, don’t try to start the project less than two weeks before a deadline. Acclimation isn’t compressible.
Want a project timeline for your home?
Free in-home consult across all 47 San Diego County cities. We measure, test the subfloor, and give you a real day-by-day schedule along with the quote.
Call (858) 808-6055 or request a quote.