How Long Does a Wood Floor Need to Cure?
It shrinks, it swells and perhaps may even go pop in the night. No, it's not your spouse that ate that extra piece of pizza before going to bed. It's the new wood floor that was not allowed to properly acclimate or cure to its new environment. Even though the wood floor material was properly manufactured, it needs a period of adjustment before being nailed in place. Does this Spark an idea?
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History
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Unless that wood floor is a processed manufactured piece that has a stabilizer in it, generally a plastic ingredient, wood needs time to regain its composure from the elements. That wood flooring was once standing in the forest as a tree, a renewable resource. The tree was harvested, taken to the mill, cut into boards and placed in a kiln to remove moisture and kill any bugs that may have been living in the wood. From the kiln, it was then taken to be sized into a proper width, planed to the proper thickness and routed for the tongue and groove for proper fitting on a floor. Now it sits, wrapped in plastic to hold out the moisture, in a warehouse waiting to be purchased.
Function
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The wood floor planks are machined in such a way, that as it is laid on the floor, it can be nailed through the tongue side of the board. This allows the nails to remain hidden. The tongue and groove also allows the boards to swell slightly from its new environment. Wood will swell and shrink in all directions, width, thickness and even length.
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Features
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When the boards were kilned dried, the moisture content was brought down to approximately 7% moisture. Most parts of the country during the spring and summer months can exceed a humidity level of 60% or greater. Even with proper air conditioning our homes remain in the general vicinity of 30% humidity for our comfort. If the floorboards were taken down to 7% moisture content and our homes sit at 30% humidity year round, the excess must go somewhere. It does, into the wood flooring which causes the boards to swell.
Considerations
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When you first bring that stack of new wood flooring into the room, it should be spread out. Allow the flooring to breathe freely from the other boards. According to the U.S. Department of Agricultures Storage of Lumber Handbook No. 531, the wood floorboards should be rick stacked in one corner of the room. Rick stacking is the process of running a one-inch by one-inch square stick about 3 feet long between each layer of boards. This allows the air to flow through the stack. These sticks are laid every 12 to 16 inches across the boards and down the entire length. The new wood flooring should be allowed to sit and climate for up to one month or when the stack has stabilized to its new environment. If you are in a hurry, you can position a window box fan so it blows into the open stack for about two weeks. There is no real hurry up on this process. If you rush the moisture reclamation, you may end up with a buckled floor.
Prevention/Solution
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A buckled floor can be a nightmare to repair. The wood has swelled and pulled from the framing below. This pulls the nails from the tongue and groove nailing pattern. The buckled boards can be placed under so much pressure that they can be permanently warped into that shape. The only remedy is to cut out the damaged board and replace it with a new one. Of course, if the new replacement board is not cured to the room, you may have to do it all over again.
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