And with summer there are a few things you might need to know about how humidity can affect hardwood and laminate flooring.
Do wood floors shrink in winter or summer.
For example in the northwest winters are humid and summers are dry so wood exposed to those conditions would swell in winter and shrink in summer.
The humidity level inside our homes plummets.
That said a hickory wood floor will expand and shrink more than a red oak floor with humidity swings.
Symptoms of wood floor winter humidity.
If the indoor relative humidity is above 60 you should use an air conditioner to dry out the air.
In the puget sound region where we live the average outside relative humidity ranges from 65 to 80 percent in the summer which is high compared to winter indoor air.
Hardwood floors will usually shrink in the winter months and expand in the summer months.
When you do this the humidity level in your home drops and the wood in your floor releases the moisture it s been holding and it begins to contract and shrink.
Glued floors come loose or the nails pull loose.
Excess humidity in the summer can cause the wood planks to.
During the winter even the most carefully installed wood floors tend to dry out and shrink.
Hardwood floors do not shrink consistently in all directions.
Here are some tips on how to keep your floors in tip top shape this summer.
Hardwood floors and humidity.
Scratches from snow melting materials and flooring gaps are some of the biggest problems that people with hardwood floors have to worry about.
But in most areas winter also means cold weather snow and damage to wood floors.
Customers begin to notice gaps between boards and the phone calls begin.
When humidity levels decrease the boards will shrink more from side to side than end to end.
The floor behaves that way because of wood s relationship with moisture in the air there s no accounting for how the customers behave although educating them about gaps.
Especially when we keep the windows open higher humidity can cause wood floors to swell up and close all the gaps between boards.
An un humidified house can easily reach a 25 level in the middle of winter.
Then the colder winter months rolls around you close your home up tight and crank up the heat.
That s when you start to see gaps forming.
This causes the wood to shrink.
The rule of swelling in summer and shrinking in winter might work where you live but it can be the opposite in other places.
If humidity hits above 55 you might be opening up a chance for moisture to seep into the wood.
These extremes on solid wood will cause the wood to reach an equilibrium moisture content of as high as 14 in the summer and as little as 5 in the dead of winter.
The winter months bring holiday cheer.
This expansion and contraction can result in the flooring coming loose from the subfloor.
