How To Acclimate Hardwood Flooring

Wood floor acclimation can be achieved by cross stacking and spacing wood floor materials to encourage air circulation around the boards.

How to acclimate hardwood flooring. Acclimation of wood flooring begins with proper storage at the job site. 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. Use a chart from.

Hardwoods should be acclimated in the same room level where they will be installed. The goal is to acclimate the wood to whatever the normal living conditions are and ensure the wood flooring moisture content is within 2 of the subfloor moisture content. Between 5 and 10 days ahead of time check to see if the temperature and humidity of the space is at normal living.

How to acclimate hardwood flooring acclimation location. Basements are moisture prone since higher humidity air is heavier and sinks. If the wood is installed too dry when it picks up moisture from the higher humidity environment it will expand and could cause permanent cupping.

Temperature and humidity should be monitored. Levon shared his on site storage methods with us. To accomplish this break the flooring units into small lots and or open the flooring packages.

Don t make the mistake of acclimating the hardwoods in a basement when they are to be installed on the first floor. Delivery should be after major projects have been completed and thoroughly dry such as dry wall and masonry work. Cross stack the material with spacers between each layer to allow air circulation on all sides of all boards.

If the flooring is an unfinished material we cross stack the wood. Know the type of wood flooring you re working with before it arrives and how long it takes to acclimate under normal. Start stacking elevated from the subfloor.