Installation & Maintenance
INSTALLATION
Wide Plank Floor Supply Hardwood Flooring should be installed and cared for according to NWFA guidelines that can be found here.
We recommend using a NWFA Certified Professional for the best installation results. Find a contractor.
PREVENTING YOUR HARDWOOD FLOORING FROM CUPPING OR CROWNING
Professional installation using NWFA standards, maintaining a humidity level between 35%-55% at all times, and caring for your floor according to our standards will reduce the possibility of cupping or crowning. Wood is still a living thing that absorbs and desorbs water as it is exposed to humidity. Wood will shrink and swell with these humidity changes, however following the guidelines should minimize these changes within acceptable levels.
High humidity can be controlled through air conditioning to some degree and if that isn’t sufficient, a dehumidifier may need to be installed.
Low humidity can be controlled with a humidifier, typically mounted to a furnace in modern forced air homes. In larger homes, a steam humidification system may be required, which adds steam humidity to the house regardless of whether the furnace is running or not.
For further information on installation and humidity, please consult our website. In addition, we have archived a detailed NWFA technical article on Wood and Moisture that can be viewed here.
CLEANING YOUR HARDWOOD FLOOR
Wide Plank Floor Supply Prefinished Hardwood Flooring is best cleaned with a clean, slightly damp cloth or mop. Harsh chemicals, oil soap, vinegars or other cleansers should never be used on oil or varnish prefinished floors. If your floor becomes soiled, Basic Coatings Squeaky Floor Cleaner or Bona Hardwood Floor Cleaner will help to gently remove the stain. Rubio Monocoat, Bona Craft Oil, and WOCA European Oil require special cleaning and maintenance. Contact us to obtain these cleaning and maintenance products.
PROTECTING YOUR HARDWOOD FLOOR
We recommend putting felt pads at the bottom of all pieces of furniture that are placed on your custom hardwood floor to help prevent marks or scratches from furniture.
Basics of Humidity & Your New Floor
HUMIDITY CONTROL IS THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT FACTOR TO ENSURING LONG-TERM SATISFACTION WITH YOUR FLOOR
You’ve looked around for that perfect floor: species, grain, color, width, distressing, quality, and price. All are important factors when choosing a floor. There are a few very important questions to discuss with your installer and a few words of advice from your manufacturer that will ensure your lifelong satisfaction with the performance of your floor.
HARDWOOD FLOORING IS STILL A LIVING THING
Hardwood flooring captures all of the beauty of nature from when it was part of a living hardwood tree. After the tree is harvested and turned into flooring, it’s still “living” each and every day. The vessels and fibers in a living tree carry nutrients to the tree to help it grow, but they also absorb and desorb moisture within your home after the lumber is turned into flooring. Hardwood flooring is unique in its beauty but also unique in how it is affected by moisture. Without adequate humidity control, hardwood flooring will likely grow and shrink in ways that could adversely affect the long-term beauty of your flooring.
CHECKING TEMPERATURE AND HUMIDITY LEVELS BEFORE INSTALLATION IS CRITICAL
Most flooring will move along the width of the board with typically little expansion or contraction lengthwise or along the thickness of the board. Wide Plank Floor Supply Hardwood Flooring is manufactured to strict NWFA (National Wood Flooring Association) standards. These standards prescribe milling tolerances for widths of +-.005” for flooring up to 3 1⁄4” and +-.008” for flooring over 3 1⁄4”. The moisture content standard is between 6% and 10% with a 5% allowance for pieces outside of that standard to a maximum of 12%.
The moisture content of Wide Plank Floor Supply Hardwood Flooring is carefully controlled throughout the process and it leaves our factory within NWFA tolerances. However, once the flooring is put on the truck for deliver, it is subjected to a host of various conditions that can adversely affect the moisture content. Hardwood flooring needs to be properly acclimated to the environment in which it is installed. The subfloor should be moisture checked by a professional and the level recorded. The moisture content of plank hardwood flooring and the subfloor should be no more than 2 percentage points different. If the subfloor moisture content is 10%, the flooring should be between 8 – 12%. If the moisture content is greater or less, the installer must resolve the difference prior to installation, typically through proper acclimation of the floor or by installing moisture barriers. Acclimation is not a matter of time but is a factor of matching the humidity levels between the subfloor and flooring using a properly calibrated moisture meter. Plank flooring also requires Aquabar B moisture vapor barrier to be installed between the flooring and the subfloor. For flooring 5” and wider a glue assist method of install is recommended. In cases where the flooring is specified for installed below grade or directly on concrete, engineered flooring is required and installed with an adhesive such as Bona’s 850 or Bostik’s GreenForce adhesive with an appropriate trowel notch for a moisture vapor barrier.
PROPER HUMIDITY CONTROL THROUGHOUT THE SEASONS
The living environment in your home affects the performance of your floor. Hardwood tends to expand during periods of high humidity and shrink during periods of low humidity. In the warm, humid summer months, humidity levels are high and can be partially controlled with air conditioning. During the cold winter months, the heating in our homes and the dry outside air tend to reduce humidity and cause wood to shrink. Humidity levels must be maintained between 35 – 55% and temperature between 60-80 degrees year round.
WHAT HAPPENS TO HARDWOOD FLOORING WHEN HUMIDITY LEVELS CHANGE
Let’s take a typical example of 5” Red Oak plank floor that was installed at 8” average moisture content, 70 degree temperature and 50% relative humidity level in the home.
The “change coefficient” or degree of movement of Red Oak is .00369” per inch, per point of moisture content. If the temperature stays at 70 degrees but the relative humidity level in the home drops from 50% to 20%, the moisture content in the flooring drops from 9.2% to 4.5%…a 4.7 percentage point drop. The result?
4.7 percentage points X .00369 change coefficient = .017343
Multiply that by the width of the board = .017343 X 5 inches = .0867” or about 3/32” per board. Across a 16’ wide room, that’s a total of nearly 1 3⁄8” of potential movement.
Humidity control becomes even more critical with wider flooring. In our extreme example above, 8” plank flooring would move almost 1⁄2” per board and a total of 8” or one entire board width in the 16’ room.
Wood species, HVAC systems, subfloor material and flooring width can all affect dimensional changes.
HOW TO CONTROL HUMIDITY
High humidity can be controlled through air conditioning to some degree and if that isn’t sufficient, a dehumidifier may need to be installed.
Low humidity can be controlled with a humidifier, typically mounted to a furnace in modern forced air homes. In larger homes, a steam humidification system may be required which adds steam humidity to the house regardless of whether the furnace is running or not.
For further information on installation and humidity, please consult our website. In addition, we have archived a more detailed NWFA technical article on Wood and Moisture that can be found under our FAQ section.
You can also contact one of our flooring experts in person or by phone.