For Apartment Owners & Operators
Unit Turns & Make-Ready Flooring
We schedule and set make-ready flooring to hit your turn date instead of stretching it — engineered and resilient floors installed tight around paint, clean, and punch so the unit is rent-ready when leasing promised it.
On an occupied community the turn clock starts the moment keys hit the office and it does not stop until the floor is walked, punched, and photographed for the listing. Flooring is usually the single longest task inside that window, and it is the one trade you cannot compress by throwing bodies at it. Rush the prep and you get telegraphing over a bad subfloor, hollow spots underfoot, or gaps that open up two weeks after move-in when the forced-air heat pulls the humidity out of the unit.
The squeeze most operators feel is a scheduling one, not a quality one. Leasing wants the unit back on the market; maintenance is running three or four turns at once; and a flooring crew that shows up 'sometime this week' quietly becomes the reason the ready date slips. When the floor floats, every downstream step — final clean, blinds, walk-through — floats with it, and the vacancy days pile up at real rent.
Alderwood treats a make-ready as a booked slot, not a maybe. We measure at notice, hold a firm install date against your target ready date, and sequence our work so it lands after the wet trades and before final clean, not on top of them. The crew that scopes the unit is the crew that installs it, so nothing gets relearned at the threshold.
We are an Idaho Registered Contractor (Idaho RCE-6681702) and insured, and installed floors carry a workmanship warranty. On a turn that means the fast option and the warranted option are the same option — speed here comes from tight scheduling and clean prep, never from skipping the moisture check or the acclimation an assembly actually needs.
Where vacancy days actually hide
Most turn delays are not install time — a standard one- or two-bedroom floor is a day or two of hands-on work. The lost days sit in the gaps: waiting for a crew to get scheduled, waiting for someone to confirm the scope after move-out, waiting for a subfloor surprise to get a decision. Each of those handoffs is a place the ready date can quietly move.
The way to protect NOI on turns is to shrink those gaps, not to hurry the trowel. When the install date is locked at notice and the crew already knows the unit's substrate — slab-on-grade versus an older crawlspace-era subfloor — the day of work stays a day of work instead of becoming a week of coordination.
- scheduling lag between notice and crew
- unconfirmed scope after move-out
- subfloor surprises with no fast decision path
- flooring stacked on top of wet trades
- no firm ready date to sequence against
Sequencing flooring inside the turn
Flooring only goes fast when it lands in the right spot in the turn. We prefer to demo and prep once the unit is cleared and any drywall or plumbing work is done, then install after the ceilings and walls are painted so the new floor is not the surface everything else drips on. Final clean and blinds follow us, not the reverse.
That sequencing is a coordination job as much as an install job. We work off your make-ready checklist and to whatever notice your paint and cleaning vendors need, and we flag anything we find — a soft spot, a failed transition, moisture at a slab — the same day so maintenance can make a call before it costs a day.
- measure and scope at notice-to-vacate
- install after paint, before final clean
- coordinate around your existing vendors
- same-day flags on subfloor and moisture
- protect finished walls and trim during set
Speed without the callback
Fast on a turn does not mean cutting the steps that keep a floor down. In the Treasure Valley the two that matter most are moisture and movement. On slab-on-grade we test before we adhere so an adhesive is not curing against a wet slab; on assemblies that move, we give the material the short acclimation it actually needs rather than skipping it to save an afternoon.
The real time saver is choosing installs that are quick by design for the turn context — resilient and engineered floors that seat cleanly and do not need days of acclimation in a heated, dry unit. That keeps the fast date honest through the first winter, when forced-air heat drops indoor humidity and a rushed floor is the one that starts to gap and cup.
Every unit gets the same close-out: seams and transitions checked, thresholds solid for gravel-and-snow entry traffic, and the floor left walk-ready and clean for your punch and listing photos.
How It Works
A unit turn, floor-first
Measure at notice
As soon as a notice-to-vacate lands, we take field measurements and confirm the substrate and scope so nothing is unknown on move-out day. This is what lets us hold a firm install date instead of guessing.
Lock the install slot
We book a specific install date against your target ready date and sequence it to fall after the wet trades and paint. Leasing gets a date they can market to.
Move-out walk and confirm
Once the unit clears, we verify the scope against what we measured and check the subfloor and, on slabs, moisture. Anything unexpected gets flagged to maintenance the same day for a fast decision.
Prep and demo
We pull the old floor and prep the substrate flat and sound, correcting soft spots or failed transitions before they telegraph. Prep is where a fast floor is actually won or lost.
Install
The scoping crew installs, typically a day or two for a standard unit, with acclimation and adhesive cure respected where the assembly needs them. Walls and trim stay protected through the set.
Close out and hand off
We check seams, transitions, and entry thresholds, then leave the unit walk-ready and clean for final clean, punch, and listing photos. The floor is off your critical path.
For Apartment Owners & Operators
More of the Program
Portfolio Pricing & Volume Programs
Durable Rental Flooring
Corridor & Common-Area Refresh
Damage & Partial Replacement
Back to the apartment owners overview.
Good to Know
Frequently Asked Questions
How fast can you turn the flooring on a single unit?
For a standard one- or two-bedroom, the hands-on install is usually a day or two once the unit is prepped. The bigger lever is scheduling — because we measure at notice and hold a firm date, the floor is not what makes you wait. Resilient and engineered installs that do not need long acclimation keep that fast date realistic even in a heated winter unit.
What happens if you find subfloor or moisture problems at move-out?
We check the substrate and, on slab-on-grade units, test for moisture before we install, and we flag anything we find the same day. That gives maintenance a decision point before it turns into a lost turn day. We would rather correct a soft spot or a wet slab up front than warranty a floor that telegraphs or fails over it.
Can you work around our paint and cleaning vendors?
Yes — we sequence to your make-ready checklist and slot in after the wet trades and paint, with final clean and blinds following us. We work to whatever lead notice your vendors need and coordinate the handoff so nobody is stacked on top of anybody. The point is a clean baton pass, not a traffic jam at the door.
Why not just use the cheapest crew that can come tomorrow?
On a turn the expensive mistake is not the install price, it is the callback — a floor that gaps or cups after the first winter of dry forced-air heat means a second turn out of an occupied unit. We build the fast date on tight scheduling and honest prep, moisture testing, and short acclimation where an assembly needs it. Installed floors carry a workmanship warranty, so the quick option and the one that stays down are the same one.
Talk to Us About Unit Turns & Make-Ready Flooring
Send the details through the contact form — we'll give you a straight read on fit. Idaho Registered Contractor (Idaho RCE-6681702), serving The Treasure Valley & Boise Metro.