New homes have thousands of gallons of moisture trapped inside creating a very humid environment. If the wood flooring is in the home while it is being painted, or dry-walled, the cupping within the boxes can happen even faster. Drywall mudding and painting can account for over gallons of moisture in a new home.
Hardwood Flooring cannot sit on site while wet trades are working. Also, since wood flooring is a natural product and each piece is different, width variation can occur throughout boards.
Not all boards will shrink and expand the same way. Having a board wider on one end or having each board a different width will make for a difficult installation.
The same is true in the humid summer months. If the wood absorbs moisture on site before it is installed, it will shrink excessively when the home is dry or reaches normal living conditions. Every situation is unique, and may or may not require acclimation. If someone at a flooring store tells you how long you should acclimate your flooring for without knowing your situation, they have a lot to learn when it comes to the important relationship between wood flooring and moisture.
If you have a cottage that is not heated in the winter ,a crawl space , a structure on piers ; or any situation that may not be considered normal, please contact us at info gaylordhardwoodflooring.
In the Northeast, we have a very unique climate. It is hot and humid in the summer and cold and dry in the winter. Acclimating your flooring too much to either of these seasons can cause permanent damage to your hardwood flooring. If your wood flooring sits in your home too long in the winter and dries out, it will expand and permanently cup in the summer or when the home reaches normal living conditions. This is why it is typically best to install your hardwood flooring right away.
You do not want the relative humidity in your house to go outside this range, not only for the health of your flooring but for your own health. If flooring materials retain moisture at the time of installation, the flooring will shrink when equilibrium EMC has been reached, which will cause wide gaps and spaces in the flooring. These moisture content measurements are crucial if you have a problem with faulty flooring received from the manufacturer.
Wood floor acclimation can be achieved by cross-stacking and spacing wood floor materials to encourage air circulation around the boards. Most manufacturers recommend materials acclimate for a minimum of three days with no maximum suggested.
In order to make a proper judgment call on how much time is needed to acclimate your wood flooring, you need to have a baseline and know what the moisture content of wood flooring is when it is delivered. If there is a high content of moisture, it can still cause big problems. In order to accomplish this, it will take as long as it takes. Regular moisture readings will indicate when wood flooring has stabilized and it is in equilibrium EMC with its environment.
At that point, no further changes will occur. We always check the moisture of the wood panels and the concrete. We take moisture content and relative humidity very seriously because those are two areas that can cause flooring failure. Floors perform well when you invest time during the installation process to ensure moisture, temperature, and humidity are controlled and stabilized.
Failure to properly acclimate hardwood flooring before installation begins may compromise the integrity of your floor. Not acclimating hardwood floors can cause excessive gaps, warping, buckling or cupping after the installation is complete; the expansion joint may also be compromised, which will result in further damage. Your goal is to acclimate the wood to normal living conditions. Make sure to use the most accurate wood moisture meter for your hardwood flooring moisture testing. Shop Orion Meters.
Larry Loffer is a senior technician at Wagner Meters, where he has over 30 years of experience in wood moisture measurement.
With a degree in Computer Systems, Larry is involved in both hardware and software development of wood moisture measurement solutions. If hardwood planks are not allowed to acclimate to their environment before installation, issues like cupping, warping, and gapping can arise.
Once your hardwood has fully acclimated to its new environment, and with the proper installation and care over time, you can avoid issues like these. For proper acclimation, it is essential that the wood is stored in a climate-controlled environment very similar to the climate in your home where it will be installed. More than likely, your new hardwood flooring will arrive in boxes and might also be wrapped in plastic. Once you find a good location to store them, we recommend opening the boxes and cutting open the ends of the plastic wrapping to allow for as much airflow as possible.
Depending on where you live and your local conditions, the amount of time it will take for your floors to fully adjust to their new environment will vary. This can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks, but it really depends on your location for example, humidity levels are different in Florida than Nevada.
The goal is to get your flooring to reach its Equilibrium Moisture Content EMC , which is the point that it is no longer gaining or losing moisture. This is something that can easily be measured by your flooring installer or with a moisture meter available at your local hardware store. Once your flooring has reached an EMC between 6 and 9 percent it has finished acclimating and ready for installation.
The ideal EMC levels are in the shaded portion. Now you are ready to install your floors and enjoy them!
0コメント