Hardwood Floors And The Importance Of Acclimation

A common mistake made by homeowners who choose to install their own hardwood floors is to not allow the boards to acclimatize to their environment. The results are rarely seen immediately following the installation. Months down the road, however, the floors can develop severe problems that ruin their appearance.

In this article, we'll explain the reasons acclimation is important for your hardwood floors. You'll learn about the issues that can occur with poorly-acclimatized boards, and a few tips for avoiding them. If you hire a professional installer to handle the installation, you're unlikely to observe problems. But if you intend to install your floors on your own, heed the following advice.

At its simplest, acclimation is the process of letting your floors adapt to the moisture level in the environment into which they are to be installed. From the moment you install your flooring until the day you replace it, the boards will absorb and dissipate moisture. This will happen continuously. If there is a greater volume of moisture in the air than in the boards, the wood will absorb it until equilibrium is achieved. If the air is dry, and contains less moisture than that which is held in the boards, the wood will release its moisture.

Acclimation should be completed prior to the floors' installation. Otherwise, the variance in moisture levels - even a small difference - can cause the boards to display major problems.

Suppose you install your hardwood flooring during the summer, and live in an area that receives a high level of humidity. There is substantial moisture in the air, which causes the boards to expand. Further suppose that rather than allowing them to acclimatize to the average level of moisture in the environment, you install them after they expand to their fullest. Your floors look fine following the installation.

Then, winter arrives. There is very little moisture in the air, and thus the boards allow the moisture they have absorbed to dissipate. The boards shrink, causing large gaps to appear between them. This is called "gapping," and is a common problem with DIY installations that are done without acclimation.

Now, suppose you install your wood flooring during the winter, when there is very little moisture in the air. Your boards have contracted to their smallest size. Again, they appear fine immediately following the installation.

Then, summer arrives with high humidity. The boards begin to swell. Instead of gapping, they buckle under the pressure of the boards that are adjacent to them. Buckling is another common issue, and will ruin the appearance of your hardwoods.

As a side note, these problems - gapping and buckling - are less common with engineered wood floors than they are with solid hardwoods. Engineered boards are designed with several intercrossed ply layers that limit their expansion and contraction. The boards will still expand and contract, but will do so less than solid wood floors.

Acclimation is simple. It merely requires giving your wood floors time to adjust. The problem is, a lot of do-it-yourself homeowners misunderstand how air circulates through them. If you leave the boards stacked on top of each other - or worse, stacked in their boxes - air will be unable to reach them. As a result, equilibrium between the boards and the environment may never be achieved.

Unpack the boards, and lay them individually on the ground. They'll slowly adjust to the moisture level in the room. This step may take a couple weeks. During this time, use a moisture meter to monitor the level of moisture in the room, subfloor, and boards. When they approach a balance, you can safely install the hardwoods.

It takes patience to wait while your wood floors acclimatize to the moisture level in the installation site. But it is critical to do so. Otherwise, your hardwood flooring may display unsightly gaps and buckling, regardless of the painstaking effort you invested while installing them.