When you choose hardwood flooring for your home, you have chosen a floor that is a living thing. It is much different than tile flooring because it reacts the environment and humidity. This leaves many homeowners worried that they aren’t getting enough humidity or even getting too much for the floor to remain beautiful in their home. Mike’s Custom Flooring is here to talk about hardwood and humidity so that you can better understand what you need for the humidity levels in your home.
Does Hardwood Flooring Need to Acclimate
Before you have any hardwood flooring installed in your home, it is important that you have the hardwood acclimated to the environment in your home. This is important because hardwood flooring will absorb moisture and expand and contract. If the warehouse your hardwood is coming from had different humidity levels than your home did, the wood will need time to get used to the environment in your home before install. The moisture content of the flooring should ideally be between 6 and 6.3 percent to keep it from moving much after it is installed.
Hardwood Flooring & Winter Climates
It’s no secret that the winter months bring much drier air than the summer does. When the dry air hits, it can cause your hardwood flooring to really contract. This can leave your hardwood flooring with small gaps when you have the heat on constantly and are experiencing a particularly dry winter. There really isn’t much as far as a solution goes to this problem. This is why it’s so important that wood flooring is installed with room to move as the humidity rises and falls. Your hardwood flooring will constantly be moving as it expands and contracts.
Hardwood Floor Cupping Problems
Just like winter months take away humidity levels in your home, summer does the opposite. Usually, in the summer, humidity levels are much higher than winter. If the humidity in your home gets higher that 55%, it is more moisture than a solid hardwood flooring can handle. This can leave your hardwood cupping and warping. Cupping is when hardwood floor edges rise higher than the middle of the plank which makes a cupping shape. It can take a long time to get back to their normal shape when this happens. This is why it is important that you keep your indoor humidity levels under control during the summer months. If you have central air conditioning, it can help remove some of that moisture from your home.
Hardwood Floor Installation, Repair & More in Charles Town & Eastern Panhandle of Berkeley & Jefferson Counties in WV | Winchester & Frederick County | Round Hill & Loudoun County | Berryville & Clarke County | Herndon & Fairfax County VA
If you are interested in solid hardwood flooring in your home, you can call on the professionals at Mike’s Custom Flooring to deliver. We offer pre-finished hardwood flooring installs as well as unfinished flooring that is then finished on site to your specifications. When you choose us to handle your hardwood install, you know you that you are getting the best. Call us today!
