Red Oak Flooring...

[Greg Cuetara]

I am almost at the end of a floor / paint job on the second floor of my house. I scraped all of the popcorn ceiling off and painted the ceiling, painted the walls and put down new bamboo flooring through the hallways and one bedroom. The second bedroom is for my son and we left carpet in that bedroom for him right now. There is a closet in that room which is on an exterior wall and there was some problems with the wall board so I pulled that out and replaced it along with the carpet on the floor. I was looking for some flooing to put down in the closet. Originally I was trying to find some remnants because I only needed 20 ft2. A friend had some leftover red oak flooring which he gave me. It was stored in his attic which was very hot and humid.

I assume that the wood has swelled quite a bit due to the heat and humidity in the attic. I have put the wood in my house, in the closet where I am going to nail it down for a few weeks now.

How long should I wait until I can put the floor down? Should I put the flooring in my basement where it is cool and dry for a few weeks?

I am not in a huge rush right now to get the floor down but if I need to get the flooring in a certain atmostphere then i want to get it there to get it to acclimate. My biggest concern is that I will put the floor down and then it will shrink and leave big gaps between the boards.

Greg

[Rich Engelhardt]

I sort of doubt the attic it was stored in is much worse than the warehouses in places like LL.
Personally, unless it was obviously cupped, I'd just go ahead and use it after letting it acclimate in the room where it's going to be installed for 72 hours.

[Brian Elfert]

I had some water issues on the red oak floor in my kitchen and the floor cupped upward. I waited a year to have the floor sanded and refinished. It turns out after a year the boards were still not dry and now the boards are cupped downward.

[Kevin Bourque]

The most important thing is storing the wood in the room where it will be used. A few weeks of acclimation is more than enough for kiln dried wood.

[Greg Cuetara]

thanks for the thoughts. I will leave it for a few weeks and then put it down. I know I can't even get to it for another 3 weeks anyways so that should work.
Greg

[Scott T Smith]

The most important thing is storing the wood in the room where it will be used. A few weeks of acclimation is more than enough for kiln dried wood.

coupled with getting the wood out of the box and stacking/stickering it in the room where air can flow around all of the boards. Placing a small box fan on low blowing through the stacks will accelerate the acclimization process.

[Rich Engelhardt]

Oh my...what was I thinking!
I don't know where that 72 hours came from...

it should be three weeks, not three days.

[Steve Meliza]

Use a moisture meter to measure the moisture content of the new wood and sub-floor, you want them to be within 4% MC of each other. Maine has a humidity swing that corresponds to a MC range of 6-12% so ideally you'd want to install the wood at about 9-10%MC, even if that means adjusting the humidity of the room the wood is being stored in. Installing wood floors without a moisture meter is a gamble that may or may not work out in your favor.

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