In the summer if the relative humidity in your home is higher than the recommended maximum of 42 percent your floors and other woodwork will absorb moisture.
Hardwood floor wood humidity.
Depending on where you live winter may bring more than h olidays snowmen and ski days.
Therefore the wood weakens making your hardwood floor more brittle and increasing the likelihood of damage or splintering.
How this change affects wood flooring depends on several factors.
Hardwood floors are expensive to buy and install although susceptible to environmental factors such as and humidity and temperatures.
Splits checks when the wood is faced with extreme conditions it can be stressed beyond its limitations.
Set your vacuum on the hard floors setting so the wheels and beater bar don t touch the floor.
The humidity levels in your home are extremely important for maintaining your wood floors because moisture loss causes wood to shrink and moisture absorption.
When summer arrives temperatures tend to rise and so does the humidity levels.
Hardwood floors humidity.
You can practically set your clock to the changes your hardwood floors go through with the changing seasons.
Depending on how much moisture and how long the hardwood floor is exposed to.
Why is humidity bad for wood floors.
Ways to fix minor moisture related problems.
Because wood is a porous material it soaks up moisture which can damage it.
Once humidity levels rise again the hardwood floor will expand and most gaps will close up again.
Depending on how much moisture and how long the hardwood floor is exposed to it it can do irreparable damage.
How does relative humidity affect your hardwood floors.
If you have hardwood floors engineered or natural there are a few things you need to know about hardwood and humidity levels to keep your floor in great shape.
Hardwood floor cupping and crowning.
With winter usually comes low humidity levels.
With summer quickly approaching rising humidity levels can compromise your wood floor installations if not accounted for.
Wood floor buckling can sometimes be solved simply by adding weight to the floor until the extra moisture dries out and the planks level out.
Moisture levels can be read with a meter like the wagner mmc 220 this is a pinless meter and allows you to get an accurate reading without sticking pins into the floor and creating pinholes.
A wood floor that is exposed to a relative humidity change of just 30 percent moving from 30 percent rh to 60 percent rh can experience enough dimensional change to affect the appearance and performance of the floor.
The wood floor experts at svb wood floors have a few tips about how to control the humidity in your home in order to maintain your beautiful wood floors.
Vacuum and mop with a spray hardwood floor cleaner weekly.
Wood floor planks shrink in overly dry humidity causing gaps between floor planks to avoid the problem you ll need to install a humidifier.