Natural, person, flexible, strong, and wear-lifestyles are words often used to explain hardwood floors. Add hygroscopic to that list. Hygroscopic describes materials that clearly soak up and release moisture when it comes to their surrounding environmental situations.
As a hygroscopic fabric, hardwood flooring releases moisture in the wintry weather months whilst humidity is low. The contrary is actually at some stage in the recent summertime months – hardwood floors absorb moisture when humidity is excessive. The content material of moisture in timber whilst absorbing or freeing it when it comes to surrounding air-borne humidity is referred to as, you guessed it, “wooden moisture content material.” As the timber moisture content material stage decreases or will increase, it can bring about the shrinkage or growth of the hardwood flooring.
This is a great time to add some other word, “equilibrium,” to the mix. Equilibrium is the point whilst wooden moisture balances surrounding temperature and relative humidity (RH). For instance, hardwood flooring fully acclimated to 70°F and 35 percentage RH equalizes to 6. Nine percentage timber moisture content material. The hardwood equalizes to nine when it’s fully acclimated to 70°F and a better humidity degree of 50 percent RH.2 percent timber moisture content material. Charts are available displaying wood moisture content primarily based on temperature and RH.
The best, or most relaxed, variety for indoor environments is 35 to 50 percentage RH. The Maple Flooring Manufacturers Association (MFMA), the authoritative source of tough maple flooring, requires its member manufacturers to use kiln-dried lumber with a 6 to nine percentage wood moisture content material to fabricate their timber flooring. Therefore, the timber moisture content material of MFMA wood flooring while milled is within spec, 6 to 9 percentage, and suits within the equalized price for the optimum variety of relative humidity, 35 to 50 percentage.
Facilities in a massive part of u. S. Can preserve the advocated variety of 35 to 50 percent average RH. If you live within the dry southwest or in a moist southern coast area, this will be greater of an undertaking. If you live some of the cacti, your facility may also have a range closer to 20 to 35 percent average RH with timber moisture content averaging 5 to 7 percentage. If you have alligators for your neighborhood, your facility may additionally have a selection closer to 50 to sixty-five percent average RH with wooden moisture content material averaging 10 to twelve percent. Different, but the same.
Here’s the unique element:
A contractor in North Judson, Indiana, probably puts in maple floors at 7 to nine percent wood moisture content material. In Elko, Nevada, wherein floors are likely, a contractor installed a less than or equal to 7 percentage wood moisture content material. Compare this to Gainesville, Florida, in which flooring is possibly established at wooden moisture content material of extra than 9 percentage.
Here’s the equal element:
Experienced athletic flooring contractors deploy flooring regarding predicted top wood moisture content whilst in equilibrium with anticipated common peak humidity. The facility’s area had a mechanical component in figuring out peak humidity and associated timber moisture content. The floors contractor has no manage over the eventual range among the common top and common low humidity conditions and associated dimensional exchange. A 15 percentage variety of average humidity is usually recommended for restricted seasonal shrinkage and growth for all packages. Remember hardwood flooring carries out first-rate whilst exposed to a strong surrounding, irrespective of where you live, paintings, and play.
