Equilibrating Oak Flooring

[BOB OLINGER]

Last week I brought home about 12 boxes of solid oak flooring (3/4" x 3 1/4") which will be installed in our home. How long do I need to let this equilibrate in our home prior to installation?

[Cameron Wood]

In my area, flooring contractors let the material sit in bundles for a week. Longer is better, particularly as your flooring is wider than the traditional 2 1/4", and weather has been extreme.

[Mel Fulks]

I have wondered if the contractors just make that a standard statement to keep the “when are you gonna do MY floor” calls down. It’s the
kiln drying that makes flooring a ‘space age product’ .

[Robert London]

A week should be plenty. Some will put in down in 48-72 hours if it's standard 3 1/4" width.

Wood being properly kiln dry at the mill is the most important. I put down ~850 SF of 6 inch rift and quarter cut red oak in my entire downstairs.

It was unfinished and think I waited a week or so before I stapled it down. I had long 6-12 foot lengths and being 6 inches wide, I wanted to wait a little longer.

[Cameron Wood]

I have wondered if the contractors just make that a standard statement to keep the “when are you gonna do MY floor” calls down. It’s the
kiln drying that makes flooring a ‘space age product’ .

Wood flooring is not a space age product- where did you get that idea?

Hardwood floor contractors are regularly squeezed, falling late in the construction schedule while sheetrock, plaster, and painters are still adding a bunch of moisture to the site
and the GC is trying to make up time.
Guess who is left holding the bag when thousands of SF of flooring cups and the homeowner is irate?

[Maurice Mcmurry]

Acclamation guidelines should be in the labeling and / or instructions provided with the product.

[Mel Fulks]

Got the facts by over 40 years of using wood and cutting off ends of different woods ,soaking them in water and comparing how they
moved. Of course the manufacturers want to scare you. Otherwise the stuff would be daily seen on rainy days tied down tarpless getting soaked with rain. “Don’t worry ,Joe it’s garanteed!” It is now mainly sold in narrow widths , it’s air dried then kiln dried. All it takes to make sure it’s gonna work is to scare guys
into buying a tarp and using it , and not putting down the flooring until the roof is on. Much of flooring in old houses was over time
shrunken by getting wet , with mops ! ,as well as muddy shoes. The wood expanded while wet , then like a stuck elevator ,full of fat
people all eating at once ….they got mashed together. Unlike the FEP…the wood shrinks as it can not “decompress”. That is called
“compression ring set”.

[Kris Cook]

I can tell you from my experience, I have installed Oak flooring in two different homes. The first one was 3-1/4" Red Oak and I let the wood sit in the house for about a week and there were no issues. I live in Montana and the flooring on that install was done in the spring.

Last winter I installed a White Oak floor in our living room. I believe the widths were 4",5",6" and 7". I let the wood sit in our heated front porch for a week to ten days and verified the MC at 6%. We have a free standing propane stove in the living room that is rated to be installed on wood floors. I see some gaps in the planks that are in front of the stove this winter, not bad but hoping they will disappear come spring. We need to be running a humidifier in the living room which would help.

I don't know what the humidity swings are in your area. Might be good to know how long the material sat in your locale before you purchased it.

Bottom line is - you should be good with a week of acclimation. I think installing wood flooring in the winter is generally better (assuming you live in an area with lower humidity in the winter).

[Kevin Jenness]

Acclimation without regard to conditions is poor practice. Really what you want to know is the flooring's moisture content at installation relative to its expected equilibrium moisture content range in service. If you let your kiln dried 6" flatsawn oak flooring acclimate at 60% relative humidity in a Vermont summer you will have gaps big enough to throw a cat through when the woodstove is cranking in February. Any flooring installer who doesn't have and use a hygrometer and a moisture meter is flying blind.

[Richard Coers]

Depends where the wood flooring was when you bought it. If it just came off the truck or out of a cold warehouse, I'd open the boxes and let it sit 2 weeks. Especially this time of year. With furnaces running full time around Christmas, most homes are bone dry right now.

Mel, you know the space age only started in 1957 when Sputnik was launched, right? That makes kiln dried floors a predecessor of the space age.

[Ron Citerone]

I wonder how long they acclimate the hardwood flooring on the space shuttle? Houston, we got a problem, gaps in the floor boards!

Depends where the wood flooring was when you bought it. If it just came off the truck or out of a cold warehouse, I'd open the boxes and let it sit 2 weeks. Especially this time of year. With furnaces running full time around Christmas, most homes are bone dry right now.

Mel, you know the space age only started in 1957 when Sputnik was launched, right? That makes kiln dried floors a predecessor of the space age.

[Joe Calhoon]

Acclimation without regard to conditions is poor practice. Really what you want to know is the flooring's moisture content at installation relative to its expected equilibrium moisture content range in service. If you let your kiln dried 6" flatsawn oak flooring acclimate at 60% relative humidity in a Vermont summer you will have gaps big enough to throw a cat through when the woodstove is cranking in February. Any flooring installer who doesn't have and use a hygrometer and a moisture meter is flying blind.

Well said Kevin,
A lot depends on your location. Here in the Colorado mountains it is very dry. Kiln dried wood stored in unheated warehouses arriving by truck in winter can pick up moisture. The good floor guys here are very particular about letting the wood acclimatize before installing. Keeping the heat up and fans to move the air. There have been lawsuits about flooring shrinking.

Contractors call the flooring moisture meters “schedule meters”

[Maurice Mcmurry]

Anybody had to follow up after bed bug remediation? Talk about a flooring destroyer. Be careful who you let come over for a spend the night, (not a personal experience but helping with the aftermath now). The only thing worse than 48 hours at 140 degrees for floors is a leak or flood.

[Mel Fulks]

When I was a kid there was always something about bed bugs in every magazine and most news papers. There were lots of kill methods ,
but home electric washing machines with hot water and bleach is what really cut ‘em down. So much better than brushing your clothes
off ! My Grandmother had rental properties, and renters back then always asked about bed bugs and what property owners would do to
fight them.

[John TenEyck]

So what combinations of RH and % MC are correct for installation? Your input points out the problem but doesn't provide an answer. And doesn't the substate you're putting the flooring down over effect the decision? Curious minds want to know. Thanks.

John