Hardwood Flooring and Dry Climates
Wood is a hygroscopic substance. It absorbs and discharges moisture according to the immediate environmental conditions. Therefore, an exceptionally dry atmosphere can trigger the splitting of wooden floors. However, this doesn’t happen if you install the wood flooring correctly.
Professional wood flooring specialists recommend the following measures to deal with the installation challenges in excessively dry climates.
1. Moisture level measurement
For all times, moisture measurement and acclimation are vital to effectively installing hardwood flooring in an arid climate. Experienced wood flooring suppliers always assess the RH and temperature conditions iteratively when they visit the client’s place for the first time, then at the time of material delivery and again prior to installation. This gives them clarity about your home’s environment. The same process is exactly followed for both Genuine Solid Oak Flooring and Designer Engineered Oak Flooring.
2. Put in writing the odds-on risks
If your client asks for installing an extraordinarily long and wobbly species of wood, you should express yourself by not recommending it and support your advice with justifications. Try not to be hesitant to say no to a venture that puts you in an awkward situation, especially if you can anticipate problems happening down the line.
If the client still chooses to push ahead with the project paying little heed to the foreseeable risks, ensure to safeguard yourself from nagging subsequent callbacks, by carefully writing the risks down and having them signed-off from the client.
Instruct clients about aftercare and expectations.
Maintenance of wood flooring is crucial. This includes recording periodic moisture measurements if you’re living in an area that’s prone to changes in humidity or having astoundingly long or wide floors installed.
Shutting off the air-conditioning meant for a cooler interior in the hot and dry summer isn’t what proper maintenance is all about.
Solid hardwood flooring manufacturers find that solutions to many problems lie inappropriate settling on customer expectations. If you’re upfront and honest with your clients to voice your opinions about what to expect from their floors, being installed in an abnormally dry weather, you shouldn’t come across problems.
You should likewise offer your clients a floor care guide that informs about what to look for, with respect to variances in humidity, what’s typical and so forth, and how to make sure that you properly regulate the humidity inside the household. You should also hand them over a copy of the risks proclamation statement which they signed.
3. Engage in smart thinking about wood or moisture
In case you're living in a very dry place, yet the wood you're installing comes from an area having tropical climatic conditions, you can expect the wood to have its moisture content much more than necessary. Chalk out to handle this in a practical manner by sparing the wood sufficient time to acclimate. Don’t deviate and add this time into your project plan.
On the off chance, you find that the wood’s moisture content still hasn’t arrived at the level you want it to be, after one week of acclimation, allow it to ease up for another week. The cue is to provide the wood with a greater part of the time it needs to let go the excess moisture.
