SCS Hardwood Floors Offers Tips for Winterizing Your Floors and Narrowing the Gap
During the winter, even the most carefully installed wood floors tend to dry out and shrink. The floor behaves that way because of wood's relationship with moisture in the air. Air with a low moisture content, or low relative humidity (RH), causes wood to lose moisture. When wood loses moisture, it shrinks. What can you do about it?
Orlando, FL, December 15, 2010 --(PR.com)-- According to the installation experts at SCS Hardwood Floors to control winter-related shrinkage of flooring and the consequent gaps or cracks, there are several options.
Four deal with the wood itself, and two deal with moisture.
Wood Options: Use the Right Flooring
Engineered flooring is supposed to be more stable than solid wood. So using engineered flooring may be an option for reducing winter-time floor issues; however, SCS Hardwood Floors recommends checking the manufacturer's recommendations and warranty in regards to the RH value of your floor.
Narrow boards will shrink less than wide boards for a given change in moisture content (MC). A 5-inch-wide plank will shrink twice as much as a 2¼-inch-strip. So the size of the gap between 5-inch boards will be twice as big as the gap between 2¼-inch boards. More joints means more places to distribute gapping.
Some species are more dimensionally stable than other species. For a given change in MC, a 5-inch-wide hickory plank will shrink more than a 5-inch-wide red oak plank. The U.S. Forest Service, and others, publishes dimensional change coefficients for different species. A second solution to excessive winter gapping is to use a species of wood that is more stable (one with a smaller dimensional change coefficient).
Along the same line of varying dimensional stability, quartersawn flooring shrinks about half as much as flatsawn flooring for the same amount of moisture change, so quartersawn flooring will have smaller gaps than flatsawn flooring under the same circumstances.
Moisture Issues
The other approach to winter gapping is to address the moisture issues. Gapping and associated noises usually occur when the flooring dries significantly from its summertime high moisture levels. So, to reduce winter gapping, reduce the annual range of moisture levels. Or, more specifically, to reduce winter gapping, don't let the indoor RH drop too much. A good annual range for the best flooring performance is a swing of 20 percent RH from wettest to driest. This means that in the Southeast, we may work in a range of 40 to 60 percent RH, while up north they may use 30 to 50 percent, and out west they may use 20 to 40 percent. All will work, as long as the RH range isn't too wide. But sometimes in the winter, the RH tends to dip too low.
There are two approaches to keeping winter indoor RH elevated.
Moisture Option 1: Reduce Ventilation
Because of the relationship between temperature, moisture and RH, ventilation of a house in the winter tends to dry it out. When you bring cold outside winter air into a house and warm it up, the RH of that air drops significantly. For example, air at 30 degrees Fahrenheit and 50 percent RH when warmed to 70 degrees will be at 10 percent RH. To get the RH of this air back up to something respectable, we would need to add moisture. The more ventilation that is occurring, the more this dry air is drying out your house, and the more moisture that is needed. The solution to this part of winter drying is to reduce ventilation.
Weatherization and home energy audits typically measure ventilation rates. These programs can also pinpoint leakage sites and direct sealing efforts to reduce excessive ventilation rates. Old windows are often major leakage sites, as are recessed lights and other holes in ceilings and floors.
Moisture Option 2: Add Moisture
Colder outside air requires more moisture. Higher ventilation rates require more moisture, and higher target indoor RH levels require more moisture. Since the ventilation rate and moisture needed are related, an economical approach is to reduce ventilation rates, then add moisture.
Moisture is added to indoor environments from normal household activities and use. When this moisture is not sufficient to meet the needs, a humidifier can be added.
For more than 35 years, SCS Hardwood Floors has built a reputation for quality and service with Orlando builders and homeowners. Located on John Young Parkway just north of Silver Star Road, SCS Hardwood Floors provides gorgeous hardwood floors for home owners and builders alike in Orlando, Winter Park, College Park, Baldwin Park, Maitland, and across Central Florida.
For more information about the care and maintance of your hardwood floors please visit www.scshardwoodfloors.net or call 407-297-1884 for assistance.
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Four deal with the wood itself, and two deal with moisture.
Wood Options: Use the Right Flooring
Engineered flooring is supposed to be more stable than solid wood. So using engineered flooring may be an option for reducing winter-time floor issues; however, SCS Hardwood Floors recommends checking the manufacturer's recommendations and warranty in regards to the RH value of your floor.
Narrow boards will shrink less than wide boards for a given change in moisture content (MC). A 5-inch-wide plank will shrink twice as much as a 2¼-inch-strip. So the size of the gap between 5-inch boards will be twice as big as the gap between 2¼-inch boards. More joints means more places to distribute gapping.
Some species are more dimensionally stable than other species. For a given change in MC, a 5-inch-wide hickory plank will shrink more than a 5-inch-wide red oak plank. The U.S. Forest Service, and others, publishes dimensional change coefficients for different species. A second solution to excessive winter gapping is to use a species of wood that is more stable (one with a smaller dimensional change coefficient).
Along the same line of varying dimensional stability, quartersawn flooring shrinks about half as much as flatsawn flooring for the same amount of moisture change, so quartersawn flooring will have smaller gaps than flatsawn flooring under the same circumstances.
Moisture Issues
The other approach to winter gapping is to address the moisture issues. Gapping and associated noises usually occur when the flooring dries significantly from its summertime high moisture levels. So, to reduce winter gapping, reduce the annual range of moisture levels. Or, more specifically, to reduce winter gapping, don't let the indoor RH drop too much. A good annual range for the best flooring performance is a swing of 20 percent RH from wettest to driest. This means that in the Southeast, we may work in a range of 40 to 60 percent RH, while up north they may use 30 to 50 percent, and out west they may use 20 to 40 percent. All will work, as long as the RH range isn't too wide. But sometimes in the winter, the RH tends to dip too low.
There are two approaches to keeping winter indoor RH elevated.
Moisture Option 1: Reduce Ventilation
Because of the relationship between temperature, moisture and RH, ventilation of a house in the winter tends to dry it out. When you bring cold outside winter air into a house and warm it up, the RH of that air drops significantly. For example, air at 30 degrees Fahrenheit and 50 percent RH when warmed to 70 degrees will be at 10 percent RH. To get the RH of this air back up to something respectable, we would need to add moisture. The more ventilation that is occurring, the more this dry air is drying out your house, and the more moisture that is needed. The solution to this part of winter drying is to reduce ventilation.
Weatherization and home energy audits typically measure ventilation rates. These programs can also pinpoint leakage sites and direct sealing efforts to reduce excessive ventilation rates. Old windows are often major leakage sites, as are recessed lights and other holes in ceilings and floors.
Moisture Option 2: Add Moisture
Colder outside air requires more moisture. Higher ventilation rates require more moisture, and higher target indoor RH levels require more moisture. Since the ventilation rate and moisture needed are related, an economical approach is to reduce ventilation rates, then add moisture.
Moisture is added to indoor environments from normal household activities and use. When this moisture is not sufficient to meet the needs, a humidifier can be added.
For more than 35 years, SCS Hardwood Floors has built a reputation for quality and service with Orlando builders and homeowners. Located on John Young Parkway just north of Silver Star Road, SCS Hardwood Floors provides gorgeous hardwood floors for home owners and builders alike in Orlando, Winter Park, College Park, Baldwin Park, Maitland, and across Central Florida.
For more information about the care and maintance of your hardwood floors please visit www.scshardwoodfloors.net or call 407-297-1884 for assistance.
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Contact
SCS Hardwood Floors Inc.
Janet Bayes
407-297-1884
www.scshardwoodfloors.net
Janet Bayes
407-297-1884
www.scshardwoodfloors.net
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