The Importance Of Humidity Control.
A tailored wood floor is an investment and with that you want to ensure you protect and keep your floor well maintained. A wood floor when looked after and well maintained will last a lifetime but its important to understand some other factors that may affect your floor. Humidity being one of them, read our guide below to understand its effect on your floor and how to monitor it and how you can control it.
Wood is a natural material that reacts to changes in its environment - It will expand and contract, it can develop splits and cracks and will change colour over time, all this is perfectly normal and is all part of the charm of having a real wood floor.
Engineered flooring construction has been designed and developed to not only be more environmentally economical but to also improve and control its natural movement creating a much more stable product. This being said keeping humidity at the recommended levels is still essential for keeping your hardwood floor looking great and performing properly over time, it’s also important for keeping a healthy home environment too.
We recommend that levels are maintained between 45% & 65% Relative Humidity (RH). If the humidity is too low this can cause the planks to shrink, develop excessive gaps, large splits and cracks, ultimately harming the planks surface. If the humidity is too high it can cause Cupping; this is where the boards edges become higher than its centre or Crowning; where the middle of the board is higher than the board's edges and eventually Buckling, where the flooring actually starts to lift off the sub floor.
The good news is that Humidity levels are very easy to monitor and control. You can monitor the humidity in your space with the use of a Hygrometer. Hygrometers are widely available, very affordable and very simple to use. For controlling humidity the use of simple humidifiers or dehumidifiers can be used, adding house plants to your space is a fantastic idea for both you and your floor or even just a simple bowl of water placed in the room with better ventilation and temperature control will do the trick.
It is really important to be aware that any damage caused by humidity variations is not covered by any hardwood floor warranty. It is your responsibility to make sure you have a stable environment in your space, even when it’s unoccupied.
That is why we always recommend that you should own a hygrometer to measure the relative humidity (RH), and ensure you follow the guidelines above. Its not just your floor that will thank you, your health and wellbeing will too.
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