High levels of humidity can cause hardwood flooring to.
Floor separation softwood humidity.
Those are the reasons why engineered wood flooring is a safe bet for any high humidity areas such as bathrooms or kitchens.
Often it s a floor owner concerned with new hardwood floors separating or gapping.
With a wagner meters wood moisture meter your softwood floors may be just as long lasting as any hardwood floor might boast to be.
A photo catalog of types of damage to different wood floor materials description of repair approaches for damaged wood floors buckled wood flooring due to leaks or high moisture cupped wood floorboards convex concave floor cupping gaps between floor boards or parquet flooring cause cure rotted wood flooring.
To avoid cupping keep your indoor humidity levels between 40 60.
Relative humidity can be measured with a humidity gauge which can be bought at hardware stores and ideally should fall between 30 and 50.
Crawl space moisture and hardwood flooring crawl space moisture and hardwood flooringto understand the cause of wood floors cupping or buckling when you re sure there is no water damage due to a flood or leak you must understand the relationship between relative humidity your wood floor and your crawl space during the summer months in the northeast region wood subfloors and floor joists.
When wood loses moisture it shrinks.
The floor behaves that way because of wood s relationship with moisture in the air there s no accounting for how the customers behave although educating them about gaps beforehand can help more on that later.
Almost every wood floor will show some separation between boards particularly in the winter months when homes are heated and the air is dry.
The interior temperature and relative humidity of a house determine the correct moisture content for a wood floor.
Air with a low moisture content or low relative humidity rh causes wood to lose moisture.
This is especially noticeable with site finished floors whose final appearance after the work has been done is near flawless.
However if humidity really is an issue at your home pay attention and take the time to check it carefully and get professional advice.
Install flooring when it has the right moisture content.
The national wood floor association nwfa states that normal relative humidity levels should range between 30 50 to ensure successful long term performance of your wood flooring.
Wood floor types damage diagnosis repair damaged wood floors.
As sales manager for wagner meters ron has more than 35 years of experience with instrumentation and measurement systems in different industries.
They weren t there in the summer solid 3 4 hardwoods will expand and contract with seasonal changes in moisture.
High moisture level should not be a problem in this case.
As we just saw however this range can often be difficult to achieve in certain areas of the country during certain seasons.
