I am about to reveal to you some key facts that hardwood Stampede Coatings manufacturers do not tell you about and it could save you thousands of dollars on your next hardwood floor.
Being an owner of a third generation family flooring business, I have seen flooring stores come and go all the time. I have seen gimmicks and tricks from manufacturers, representing their flooring products with impressive statistics and new “technologies” to guide people into how “their” product is better than the next. Sometimes the changes in product are actually viable and do work, but others are just plain nonsense.
Let’s talk about some things you may not know when it comes to hardwood flooring, both engineered and solid hardwood.
Did you know that wood flooring has a comfort level too? Wood flooring will perform best when the indoor environment in which it is to be installed has a relative humidity range of 35 to 55 percent and a temperature range from 60 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit. This is about the same comfort range that we as humans enjoy.
Let’s talk about the first thing you must do as an installer and the home owner. Ready for this…READ THE INSTRUCTIONS FIRST! Before you go gung ho and rip open the boxes, as most men do, take 10 minutes and read the complete instructions for the material provided. There should be a copy that comes in every box of material. Sit back, have a beer, and READ!
Now that we have that clearly understood, you need to INSPECT to know what to EXPECT!
1. Acclimation: The moisture content of the wood and subfloor must be within 2-4 percentage points of each other and the subfloor must not exceed 12% moisture content. The farther the percentage points are away from the subfloor moisture percentage, the more problems you will have. For proper acclimation, material must achieve room temperature (65-80 degrees F) for 24 hours PRIOR to installation. This means that the heat has to be on and working way before you try to install the flooring. To get proper acclimation, store the material according to the manufacturer’s directions. The instructions will specify whether to store opened or unopened and whether to store in the center of the room or at the edges. This leads into the next big topic of moisture content.
2. Moisture Content: What is the ideal moisture content of the actual hardwood product? Every manufacturer will very slightly, but the average approved moisture content in the hard wood flooring itself should be between 6-9%. For example, if the moisture content of the subfloor is 12% and the hardwood flooring is 9% there is a 3% difference between the two wood products, which is in the allowable tolerance of installation. Although some movement can be expected even in this range, dramatic expansion and contraction can happen outside of these measurements. There are several electronic moisture meters available on the market to test the moisture content of the hardwood and subfloor. These are generally a pin probe type meter and they can give you an immediate reading of your wood’s moisture level. It is very important that it is set to the species of wood that you are installing and that you take moisture measurements from several boxes of material and from several areas of the subfloor throughout the area that is to be installed.
