Acclimating Hardwood flooring before installation

[jake18v]

I got 1000 sq ft of prefinished 5" x 3/4" hardwood flooring on Friday. I've got a pinless moisture meter (General MM8). I'm going to allow the flooring a few days to acclimate to within 2% of the subfloor's moisture level. This is according to the manufacturers directions. I'm not in a rush to get this done - doing it right is my only priority. Right now I have the boxes stacked criss cross. 7 going parallel to a given wall, and then 7 going perpendicular to that long wall.

I've got a few questions:

1. The manufacturer says to leave the cartons unopened. Wouldn't the flooring achieve the surroundings moisture level if i partially opened the boxes? Maybe they don't want me acclimating the flooring too fast.

2. Another option is to rack the floor. Lay the wood out in a desirable pattern and let it sit there a few days.

3. When using the pinless moisture meter, should I read the bottom of the hardwood flooring? OR the the pre-finished side?

4. Right now I see readings on the subfloor around 6-8. And the hardwood underside is in the 8-10 range. How many more days should I wait?


All advice is appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Mark Brown]

Excellent questions. Here are some excellent answers

Cartons are to remain unopened. This is so that the ends of the carton do not manage to acclimate at a different rate than the middle of the boxes. Seems to not make sense until you really think about it. Technically you are no longer supposed to cross stack wood when storing it, but I would not bother re stacking it at this point. As for what side you want to read, it really wont matter. Engineered wood is a crap chute when trying to measure moisture. Just measure both sides of a couple of pieces and go with an average number. As for your current readings Vs. your end point, that would be hard to say. Depending on the humidity level of your home, the species of wood and the temperature your wood might take days, weeks, months or.... moments to acclimate. There is no formula to determine the amount of time required. Seeing as that meter has no specific gravity setting and the accuracy is listed as +/- 4% it would be in your best interest to monitor the wood and the subfloor and be more concerned about when they stop moving as opposed to what their measurements are. All wood products will reach what is known as equilibrium moisture content which is the percentage of moisture content at a given ambient humidity and temperature. This number will be the same for all species of wood within that particular climate.

 

[jake18v]

As for your current readings Vs. your end point, that would be hard to say. Depending on the humidity level of your home, the species of wood and the temperature your wood might take days, weeks, months or.... moments to acclimate. There is no formula to determine the amount of time required. Seeing as that meter has no specific gravity setting and the accuracy is listed as +/- 4% it would be in your best interest to monitor the wood and the subfloor and be more concerned about when they stop moving as opposed to what their measurements are. All wood products will reach what is known as equilibrium moisture content which is the percentage of moisture content at a given ambient humidity and temperature. This number will be the same for all species of wood within that particular climate.

It has been a week now. The moisture reading on the hardwood have dropped 1-2%. I'll give it another week or so.

The wood species is white oak.

Is there a better meter I can buy that would give me more confidence?

Thanks Mark.

 

[Mark Brown]

You could go get another meter, but in all honesty, just wait until they stabilize then you know for sure. Right now given your first post, you are seeing wood readings that are completely acceptable and within range for wide board hardwood buuuuuut if you wait for those numbers to remain constant then you know without a doubt no matter what your meter reads that the wood has reached EMC and that life is beautiful.

 

[jake18v]

So I've waited 25 days now. I had other stuff to work on and I've been procrastinating the flooring installation. The planks are reading 8-9%.

I have a question about layout. The apartment is ~20'x58'. Open living room, dining room and kitchen. And 3 small bedrooms. Yep that's how they cut up bedrooms here in Brooklyn, NYC.

I'd like to use one continuous layout without transition strips between rooms (not sure if that's going to be possible). And I'd like to avoid skinny pieces on the perimeters. I started playing around with my measurements in Microsoft Excel, but it's a confusing calculation to say the least.

How do pro's go about this?

I've included a PDF layout of the apartment with laser measurements (hand written). I'm going to start in the front by the bay windows. Boards will be laid parallel to the long side of the building. And the starter wall will be the wall with the couch.

The directions say to measure off the starter wall by the plank width 5" + expansion gap 3/4" + 1/4 tongue. Then to strike a chalk line. I have a bosch floor layout laser. I could line up the laser and strike a chalk line. And then measure what my edge pieces will measure out to be. And then play around with my starter row width to make sure I don't end up with skinny strips.

Also is a 3/4" expansion gap really required? I've read 1/4" is the norm.

sorry for the rambling.....

I included both a pdf and picture of the floor in case the pdf isn't viewable to everyone.

Thanks.

 

[Mark Brown]

Pro tip....
We pick the thing that is most important and forget all about it. I might check a few critical areas but other than that it is what it is. If you don't want transitions and your house wasn't built to a width standard that your boards are magically at then it simply falls where it may

 

[highup]

Cut one plank or half of one plank into 3 in wide pieces. Let's say you have 12 pieces. slide the first piece against a wall, then stack together the other 11 pieces. Tap them together snugly. That should get you 69 in. If not then the boards are not exactly 5 and 3/4.... But that doesn't matter.
Now put a piece of tape along the length of those boards to hold them all together. Flip that row of boards over and put a tape on the back side for a little additional security.
You now have what is called a storyboard.
Push your row of boards against the outside wall and draw a line exactly where the last plank ends 69" inches out.
Now slide your row of boards 69 inches forward until the back side of your story board lines up with the mark you made on the floor. Put a very fine line on the floor exactly at the end of your storyboard. Keep doing this till you hit a wall for the far side of the room. This is a really quick and accurate way to know where your boards will start and where they will end.
Just keep doing this till you hit a wall or a doorway.
If you don't like the location where a plank ends up, then slide the board to where it would benefit you the most and use that as your starting point.
With a lot of staggered walls and doorways you're probably not going to hit everywhere exactly where you would like it, but you will know beforehand what to expect.
Use that storyboard instead of a tape measure and use it find the walls and doorways that are most important. It would be ideal to have at least half of a plank running along the walls, but you may end up with a skinny strip somewhere.
Anyway I use that storyboard on a majority of my jobs. I will know within an eighth of an inch where the board will end up on the far side of the room. Sometimes I can accurately figure the ending point on the opposite side of the house, 30 or 40 ft away.
A storyboard is your friend. Don't think of this as wasting material. Measuring with this storyboard will be more valuable than the three or four foot piece of wood that you sliced up into little pieces.

 

[Mark Brown]

Do people hate math that much??
Why would you do this?? Sure it would work well and all but it seems like the least accurate way to accomplish the task A measuring tape is much faster, more efficient and more accurate. Once again our friend the metric system is your friend.
I have never left a 3/4 gap on my hardwood installations. I like to pretend that someone writes that with the express intent of making sure no one will ever follow it ensuring that they can void a persons warranty because no one would ever do such a thing.

 

[highup]

I only hate math when it gets above 21 digits. 20 if the customer is home.

 

[highup]

Many many many years ago when pergo first came on the market, I had a kitchen to do upstairs and 1/3 of a room in the basement. The layout had a million ending points...... OK, 100,000. I had this idea of making up a storyboard and when I compared the stated size of the pergo, let's say 5 and 7/8 it was off nearly a 16th of an inch. That meant every 16 boards I was off 1 in if I would have used a measuring tape. That's why I use a storyboard.
I did an 18 foot by 28 ft room once. It became 20 ft wide where it notched into the hallway. The outside wall had a 7/16 inch bow midway down the length. I made up a storyboard and starting at the bow I ended up with a 5/8 inch gap on the opposite side of the room. This was a $16 a square foot rough-faced flooring. I wanted to start and end with nearly a full board on each side. I lined up my first row boards and scribe them parallel with the bowed wall. Where the wall was bowed, I cut nothing off of the board.
I use 3/8 in spacers and when I got to the opposite wall I had a 3/8 Gap, meaning I had to cut the tongue off. I was probably a 32nd of an inch away from where I expected to be.
I have discovered over the years that a storyboard is very quick to slide and back and forth. It's especially helpful when you have multiple doorways walls and ending points. The difficult ones are where every place you would want to start leaves you ending at a width that you do not want to have.
Also I am a visual person. The confirmation of a storyboard, when doing a difficult layout is priceless. Well okay, it takes me 2 minutes and 10 ft of duct tape.

 

[jake18v]

I have never left a 3/4 gap on my hardwood installations. I like to pretend that someone writes that with the express intent of making sure no one will ever follow it ensuring that they can void a persons warranty because no one would ever do such a thing.

What do you prefer as an expansion gap? Since my floors are dead level, I'd prefer to only use baseboard and NOT quarter round. Baseboard runs anywhere from 9/16" to 11/16". I was thinking of using a 3/8" or 7/16" expansion gap. This way the expansion gaps are all covered with baseboard.

 

[Mark Brown]

I would feel safe with the 3/8, ita what I go for.


And highup.... its because they are all machined in metric

 

[highup]

I don't have a metric tape. I once had a tape that was half metric and half real tape measure.

 

[highup]

When you said 5/8 in by 3/4 in..... Is this a solid or an engineered floor. Engineered flooring does not expand remotely the same as solid wood does. A clarification would help.

 

[jake18v]

When you said 5/8 in by 3/4 in..... Is this a solid or an engineered floor. Engineered flooring does not expand remotely the same as solid wood does. A clarification would help.

3/4" hardwood. 5" wide white oak prefinished .

 

[highup]

I use my microphone too much instead of typing. It tends to screw up half the words I use here.
My question was, is this material solid hardwood or is it engineered hardwood?

 

[jake18v]

I use my microphone too much instead of typing. It tends to screw up half the words I use here.
My question was, is this material solid hardwood or is it engineered hardwood?

Solid hardwood.

 

[Dan]

I would follow the manufacturer's instructions regarding expansion gaps. If you don't want to add base shoe, you can undercut your drywall.

 

[jake18v]

I think I've got this figured out...

1. I measured off my starting wall: 3/8" (expansion gap) + starter strip (2 1/2") + 4 additional columns (4 x 5" = 20"). Total = 22 7/8". I marked 22 7/8" in 3 spots off the starter wall. Then I shot a laser across the length of the apartment hitting those 3 spots.

2. I measured at each jog in the wall to the left and right off the laser line and calculated what my end row width would be in each case. I accounted for the expansion gap in each of these calculations.

3. I put all of this into an Excel spreadsheet. Then I created columns for starter strips of 3", 3 1/2", 4", 4 1/2" & 5". I just adjusted off the numbers I got using a 2 1/2" strip. I calculated what each edge board width would be.

It turns out the 2 1/2" strip would get me the fattest edge board pieces on average across the open area.

One thing I noticed is my starting wall seems a bit-off square. I marked 22 7/8" off that wall in 3 spots across the length of say 5'. I shot my laser onto those 3 spots. When I reach out to the end of that starter wall (14'), the measurement is 23 1/4". My plan is to cut a slightly angled board for areas where the wall bows out.

My chalk line will be off the starting wall: 3/8" expansion gap + 2 1/2" starter strip + 3/16" = 3 1/16".

Am I on the right track here?

Pics of the calculations, starting wall, and larger view of the space attached.

 

[highup]

Mark's going to have to answer this one, because I use a storyboard.