Strip hardwood installed during a full renovation in Harbourfront, with the walls still open to the studs. The crew racked the boards out across the room and fastened them row by row.
Wood flooring is specified for 30 to 50 percent indoor relative humidity. A waterfront unit swings harder than an inland one – humid lake air through the summer and then heating season dryness that is no gentler here than anywhere else. Solid wood in that cycle moves noticeably. Engineered hardwood, with its cross-laminated core, moves far less across the board width and is the sensible wood choice in this part of the city. The second consideration is what your slab sits over. A podium level or a floor above parking has different thermal and moisture behaviour to a slab twenty storeys up, and that shows in the reading.
Engineered and plank specified for a wider seasonal humidity range.
Slabs with unheated space below, tested before anything is bonded down.
Bathrooms and entries decoupled and waterproofed where the layout requires it.
Wider here than inland. Engineered hardwood handles it. Solid hardwood gaps more visibly.
A unit above parking or a podium behaves differently to one mid-tower. The moisture reading tells us which.
Lake-effect weather and winter salt come in on shoes. Porcelain at the entrance outlasts a softer finish.
Standard here as anywhere downtown, and older waterfront buildings often ask for more than 55.
A waterfront building funnels weather at its doors, and whatever survives the lobby comes into your unit on boots. Winter here means salt and grit, and grit is abrasive enough to dull a soft finish in one season along the path everyone walks. Porcelain at the entry outlasts almost anything else, and where the look has to stay continuous we specify a harder finish for that zone and a good long mat rather than pretending the problem is not there.
Reviews collected directly from clients.
Ontario Flooring installed new hardwood flooring throughout our home, and the results look beautiful. The crew was careful, professional, and kept the work area clean from start to finish.
We chose Ontario Flooring for luxury vinyl plank installation in our basement. They prepared the subfloor properly, explained the process clearly, and delivered an even, durable finish.
Not if the right wood is specified. Engineered hardwood is built for exactly this, because the layered core stops the board moving much across its width. Solid hardwood is not ruled out, but you will see more seasonal movement than a friend inland with the same floor.
It helps any wood floor in Toronto, waterfront or not. Holding indoor humidity in the 30 to 50 percent band through the heating season is the single most effective thing you can do to stop winter gapping.
It can. A slab with unheated space beneath it runs colder and can behave differently on a moisture test. It is one of the situations where the reading genuinely changes the recommendation, so we take it rather than assume.