Flooring

Denver is one of the hardest places in the country to install a wood floor, and the reason is the air. Relative humidity here sits far below what flooring is manufactured for, and wood gives up moisture until it reaches equilibrium with the room. A floor laid straight off the truck will keep shrinking after it is installed, and the result is gaps between every board by the second winter.

The fix is unglamorous and it is the whole job: the material acclimates in the actual house, with the heat on, until its moisture content matches the space it is going into. That takes days, not hours, and it is the step that gets skipped when a crew is being paid by the square foot. It is also the single biggest difference between a floor that looks right in five years and one that does not.

The second Denver specific issue is ultraviolet. At altitude the sun is measurably harsher, and a south facing room will fade an unprotected floor unevenly around whatever furniture sits on it. That changes which finishes and which species are worth recommending, and it is worth deciding before the order rather than after.