Hear from Our Customers
Wedgefield is not a standard subdivision. The homes here sit on one to five-plus acres, they’re custom-built, and they’re worth protecting. When you’re looking at flooring a 3,000 or 4,000 square foot home with open great rooms, long hallways, and living areas that flow from one end of the house to the other the contractor you hire needs to be ready for that scale. A team that’s used to small suburban jobs will show it.
What most people don’t think about until after something goes wrong is the ground beneath their feet. Wedgefield borders the Hal Scott Regional Preserve and the Econlockhatchee River wetlands, which means the ambient ground moisture here runs consistently higher than it does in most of the Orlando metro. Combine that with the fact that virtually every home in this community is built on a concrete slab which is porous and continuously pushes vapor moisture upward and you have a flooring environment that demands real technical knowledge, not just a crew with a nail gun.
The right flooring installation in Wedgefield accounts for all of that. Moisture testing before anything goes down. Proper vapor barriers. Product selection that actually makes sense for your specific home and how you use it. When those steps are done correctly, your floors last. When they’re skipped, floors cup, buckle, and gap sometimes within a year. That’s a fixable problem only if you hire someone who knows what they’re doing from the start.
Harrington Hardwood Floors has been operating in Orange County continuously since 1990. That’s not a number we throw around to sound impressive it means we’ve been working in the same county as Wedgefield through every phase of this community’s growth, from the early Cape Orlando Estates builds through the current wave of custom luxury construction on the larger lots along Bancroft Boulevard and Dallas Boulevard.
Every member of our team is trained and certified. We’re fully licensed under the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation and carry full insurance which matters in Orange County, where hiring an unlicensed contractor can leave you personally liable if something goes wrong on your property. That’s not a risk worth taking on a large-scale flooring project in a Wedgefield home valued at half a million dollars or more.
We handle hardwood installation, refinishing, repair, cleaning, and luxury vinyl plank. Residential and commercial. Whatever the project looks like, we’ve seen it in this county and we know how to do it right.
It starts with a conversation. You reach out text works if that’s easier, we respond faster that way and we talk through what you’re working with. The size of the space, what’s there now, what you’re thinking about, and what your timeline looks like. From there, we come out and take a look in person. No obligation. We want to see the actual conditions before we tell you anything definitive.
Once we’re on-site, we assess the subfloor and test for moisture. This step is non-negotiable in Wedgefield. Because of the community’s proximity to the Econlockhatchee River wetlands and the wetland-adjacent conservation land surrounding the Hal Scott Preserve, ground moisture levels here are elevated compared to most of east Orange County. Concrete slabs in this environment need to be evaluated before any hardwood product goes down. We determine what vapor barrier approach is appropriate, which products are the right fit, and how long the materials need to acclimate in your home before installation begins typically one to two weeks for hardwood in Florida conditions.
Then we get to work. Most residential projects run one to three days depending on scope. We communicate throughout, we show up when we say we will, and we clean up completely when we’re done. The goal is that your home looks better when we leave than it did when we arrived and that the floors we put in are still performing years from now.
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Harrington Hardwood Floors offers the full range of flooring services for both residential and commercial properties in Wedgefield and throughout Orange County. That includes hardwood floor installation solid and engineered as well as refinishing, repair, cleaning, and luxury vinyl plank installation. If you’re in a newer custom build in Cape Orlando Estates and need first-time installation, we handle that. If you’re in one of the older ranch-style homes from the 1980s and your original hardwood floors are worn but structurally sound, refinishing is likely the smarter move and according to the National Association of Realtors, it delivers a 147% return on investment at resale, which is higher than new installation.
For Wedgefield homeowners specifically, engineered hardwood is often the most practical choice for slab-on-grade construction, because its multilayer core handles moisture variation better than solid hardwood in high-humidity environments. That said, solid hardwood is absolutely viable in air-conditioned Florida homes when installed correctly with proper moisture testing, vapor barriers, and adequate acclimation time. We’ll tell you honestly which product makes sense for your home, your lifestyle, and your budget.
One thing worth knowing: Orange County does not require a building permit for residential flooring installation or replacement. That means no delays waiting on permit approvals. However, the county does require that contractors be properly licensed and we are, under the Florida DBPR which protects you legally and gives you real recourse if anything ever doesn’t go as planned.
For most Wedgefield homes, engineered hardwood is the safer starting point when you’re working with a concrete slab foundation. Concrete is porous it continuously emits vapor moisture upward, and that moisture has to go somewhere. Engineered hardwood’s multilayer core is specifically designed to handle the kind of moisture variation that Florida’s subtropical climate creates, which makes it more dimensionally stable than solid hardwood in slab-on-grade applications.
That said, solid hardwood is not off the table. In a well air-conditioned Wedgefield home with proper moisture testing, a quality vapor barrier, and adequate acclimation time typically one to two weeks in Florida conditions solid hardwood can perform excellently. The key is that none of those steps get skipped. Wedgefield’s location adjacent to the Hal Scott Regional Preserve and the Econlockhatchee River wetlands means ground moisture levels here run higher than in many other parts of Orange County, so the moisture management side of the installation is especially important. We assess every home individually before making a recommendation.
The installation itself meaning the actual work happening in your home typically runs one to three days for most residential projects, depending on the square footage and the complexity of the layout. For a larger Wedgefield home with 3,000 or more square feet of open living space, that timeline may extend, but we’ll give you a clear estimate before we start so there are no surprises.
What adds time to the overall project is the acclimation period. Before hardwood goes down in a Florida home, the wood needs to sit in your home’s environment with your air conditioning running at normal levels for approximately one to two weeks. This allows the wood to adjust to your home’s specific temperature and humidity before it’s fastened in place. Skipping this step is one of the most common causes of flooring failures in Florida, where humidity swings between seasons can be significant. We factor acclimation into the project timeline upfront so you know exactly what to expect.
No. Orange County explicitly does not require a building permit for the installation or replacement of finished floor covering in residential properties. That’s a straightforward answer, and it means you can move forward without waiting on permit approvals or scheduling county inspections before work begins.
What Orange County does require is that any contractor working on your property be properly licensed. The county has been clear that homeowners who hire unlicensed contractors can be held personally liable if a worker is injured on their property, and they have no legal recourse for poor workmanship through the county’s contractor licensing board. Harrington Hardwood Floors is fully licensed under the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation and carries full insurance on every job. For a flooring project in a Wedgefield home valued at $456,000 or more, that protection matters. It’s the difference between a contractor who’s accountable to you and one who isn’t.
In most cases, refinishing is the better financial decision and the results can be dramatic. The National Association of Realtors reports that refinishing existing hardwood floors delivers a 147% return on investment at resale, which is actually higher than the ROI on new hardwood installation. If your floors are scratched, worn, or just look dated, but the wood itself is structurally sound, refinishing gives you a like-new result at a fraction of the replacement cost.
This is especially relevant in Wedgefield, where a significant portion of the housing stock includes original builds from the 1980s and 1990s the ranch-style homes and early Cape Orlando Estates properties that were built when the community was first developing. Many of those homes have original hardwood that’s been covered by rugs or worn down by decades of use, but is still perfectly refinishable underneath. We can assess the condition of your existing floors and tell you honestly whether refinishing makes sense or whether replacement is the right call. We won’t push you toward the more expensive option if it isn’t warranted.
Wedgefield is an equestrian and golf community, and the flooring in these homes takes real-world wear that most suburban floors don’t. High-traffic entry zones, debris tracked in from large outdoor properties, and the general demands of an active household all factor into what product and finish you should choose. Modern hardwood and luxury vinyl plank options are far more durable than what was available even ten years ago.
For the highest-traffic areas entryways, mudrooms, utility spaces near exterior doors luxury vinyl plank is worth serious consideration. It’s waterproof, extremely durable, and easy to clean after a day spent outdoors. For the main living areas, a hardwood species with a higher Janka hardness rating hickory and white oak are common choices paired with a durable finish will hold up well under daily use. We’ll walk you through the options based on how your household actually functions, not just what looks good in a showroom. The goal is floors that perform as hard as you live in this community.
Florida requires flooring contractors to hold a specialty license issued by the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation. You can verify any contractor’s license status directly through the DBPR’s online lookup tool it’s free and takes about thirty seconds. You enter the contractor’s name or license number and the database tells you whether they’re active, expired, or have any disciplinary history.
This matters more than people often realize. Because Wedgefield is an unincorporated community in Orange County, there’s no local municipal licensing layer it’s the county and the state that set the rules. Orange County has explicitly warned that homeowners who hire unlicensed contractors take on personal liability if a worker is injured on their property, and they lose the ability to file a complaint through the county’s contractor licensing board if the work is substandard. Harrington Hardwood Floors is fully licensed and insured. We can provide our license information before you sign anything, and we encourage you to verify it. Any contractor who hesitates when you ask for that information is telling you something important.
