Why you should let your flooring acclimatise

[RogerS]

Just taken delivery of some rather nice oak flooring destined for my study.

It came bundled in plastic sheeting and straight out of the plastic, the moisture content (using my Wagner meter) was around 5%. That was two days ago. It is now up to 7%. If I ever doubted waiting for wood to acclimatise.....

 

[MickCheese]

I can vouch for this. I laid a real oak floor having just slit the plastic and left the packs for a week or so. Then went to the Alps for a motorbike trip. Half way through the week wife phoned to tell my the floor was about 3" high in the centre. By the time I got back home it was about 6" high. I had to cut about an inch off the edges to settle it down.

And before you ask I had left a good expansion gap.

Will never do that again. The Fein was a godsend. Cannot think of another tool that would have sorted it.

Mick

 

[markblue777]

I had to cut an expansion gap round our floor a while ago, it started to buckle in the middle as the person who put it in did not leave an expansion gap. Had to do it with a dremel and a chisel as it is all i had. Took a while but it sorted it out

 

[Waka]

I've now completed 4 rooms downstairs with solid oak flooring, I leave mine to acclimatise for about 6 weeks before I start to lay. Luckily I've not had any lifting, so it does pay to wait awhile before laying.