Quote:
Originally Posted by Sylvanfan
I am in the process of doing some home renovations and part of that renovation involves adding some hardwood flooring to my house to replace some carpet. I live in a two story house and have about 300 square feet on the lower floor of new hardwood and will be about 180 upstairs. I will have to add a humidifier onto my heating system to maintain a consistant humidity in the house to mimimize my expansion and contraction for the floor. Anyone have any experience doing this before and where the best places to go are? Should I go to a specialty heating ventilating contractor, or can you get a better price at the box stores. I think even calling someone like Direct Energy is also an option as they have services for this type of thing as well. Any advice would be appreciated, and thanks in advance.
|
I sell/distribute/specify hardwood floors for a living.
Beyond a good installation there is no factor more important than proper humidity in a home if you have hardwood. When you say "lower floor" I assume you are referring to the main floor (solid hardwood can't typically be installed below grade). Make sure you acclimate the wood beforehand by stacking the boxes inside your home for a minimum of 48 hours (the more time the better. Also have the humidifier on and running by this time or there is no point in acclimating the wood.) What kind of wood is it? Most domestic species(maple, oak, birch etc) are less stable than an exotic like brazillian cherry for example.
If you are handy then just go to a box store. Get a "flow through" humidifier as the old "drum" types are not nearly efficient enough for Calgary's dry winters. You should be able to install it yourself with a very basic set of tools. Remember, the key is not how high you have your humidistat on the wall set at. The key is to maintain, as well as you can, a constant level of humidity in the home. It is the drastic changes from 35% RH(relative humidity) to 15% and back up again that really hurts the floor. Find a percentage you can live with (if you see ice build up or heavy condensation on your windows in the winter you are probably to high on the humidistat) and keep it there.
This is a site I use often:
http://www.woodfloorsonline.com/tech...oodwater6.html