Acclimation

is my thought for the day.  I will briefly discuss what this is.

 Before you have a new wood floor installed you need to have it acclimated to its environment.  Which means that it should be close to the same temperature and moisture content as the sub-floor.  This is checked by a device called a moisture meter which reads the moisture content of wood.

 There are moisture meters that also read the moisture content in drywall or concrete so make sure you have the correct meter for what you are trying to read.  They are pretty simple devices to read.  The most popular meters come from Wagner, Delmhorst or Lignomat.  I like the Delmorst Total Check myself, it is a nice all in one can do meter.

Hygrometer to measure Temperature and Humidity

Wood acclimating prior to installaion

You want to check the moisture content of the sub-floor and the wood floor.  It is recommended to have no more than 4% points difference between the two for 2-1/4" strip flooring and no more than 2% difference for plank flooring of 3-1/4" and wider.  If you are reading concrete than you want no more than 3lbs coming up.  Measuring moisture in concrete is different and since we don't do a lot of concrete sub-floors here in Western Washington I won't dive to deep today into that world.

A typical wood sub-floor around can range from 6%-12%, I have seen a few as high as 18% but with readings that high they have excessive crawlspace moisture.

Prior to installation of a new wood floor I highly recommend a trip into your crawlspace to see what the environment is like.  Because moisture travels up and you want to be aware of any moisture issues prior to installation or else your floor will react once that moisture enters into it.  You want to make sure that it is dry, you should have at minimum a 6 mil black plastic covering the ground.  This will slow the rate of moisture transfer.  It should be seam taped and ran up the foundation wall but I have yet to see that done.  So if you don't see any standing water anywhere pull back the plastic and see if there is any moisture underneath it.  Preferably the dirt will be dry and dusty, if this is not the case you may need to take some extra precautions to prevent the moisture from affecting your floor.

The wood should be delivered to your home and placed in the area where it will be installed.  It needs to just sit there and acclimate.  Never place the wood in the garage or in an unfinished, unheated room unless of course you plan to keep the room that way.  The flooring needs to be acclimated to its living environment so have the heat going if its winter time and the house enclosed if it's new construction.

Failure to properly acclimate your flooring could result in problems days or months down the road.  It could cup, buckle, crack, shrink, move and pull the nails loose from the sub-floor.

I seen a $20,000 floor cup from moisture because the homeowner refused to follow my advice after I inspected the crawlspace and found moisture under the black plastic.  They were in too much of a hurry and were trying to save a buck.

This is just a basic overview of what acclimation is for your flooring just to make you aware of it and its importance.  I could delve much deeper into this subject and I know guys who have a PhD in this stuff.