My house, being an old house, has enough insulation to keep it warm but not enough to prevent it from going thru noticeable humidity swings throughout the year. Any wood trim with an unglued joint will show a gap in the winter as the air dries out.
With that said, I’ve decided to go with an engineered wood floor (Thomasville 3/8″ plywood with a mahoganey veneer layer). I know with solid hardwood, you need to open the boxes and let the wood acclimate to the house. I’ve heard anywhere from 2 days to 2 weeks.
How long does engineered flooring, being a more stable product, need to properly acclimate to the house humidity levels?
To provide some perspective, I have some thicker, quality finger jointed pine trim that shows no shrinkage (trim came from a lumberyard) and I have some 5 1/2″ high Home Depot paint grade baseboard trim that shows gaps in the winter.
Replies
You should research the answer to your question on the manufacturer's website (or simply GASP! lose 5 points on your mancard and read the installers' instructions that came with your product).
Some engineered HW flooring is factory sealed at a set moisture content (e.g. Kahrs) and they'll tell you to NOT open the cartons in advance but only on day that you are actually going to start installation - then open each carton as you need to.
Other flooring manufacturers say get the unopened cartons into rooms where they'll be installed, at least 2-3 days in advance of installation. (But don't open them until you're going to install - but we all do open a carton at least y'know cuz we want to "check it out"!!!) <g>
"I'm a work in progress; still learning every day!"
C'mon Miz...instructions are for wusses...HA HA. I'll see what the website has...although, I'm nervous about the Thomasville. In the end, it's not much more expensive than carpet and the room is small so it's not a huge cost if we decide to change it down the road.Part of me is thinking, open a day or so before, and then install it. Whatever humidity levels have in the house at this time of year will certainly increase in the summer (we don't run the air to a freezing level)...but I will check the instructions and the manu's website.
I think it depends on whether it is permanently fastened down or not.
If it is the quick lock, don't worry, go to town, you have to leave a space around the room anyways. If it is glue down or stapled, that could be a different story.
It's a nail down. Manufacturer states to let it sit in the room for 4 days. That's very doable for me. I can tear up and level the floor one weekend and then nail down the next.Now, does nailing sound right? It's 3/8" thick. Seems to me that a staple would be less likely to split the wood...then again, I've never done this so I really have no clue.
I would use the exact fastener that the manufacturer specifies.
I like to staple if it has to be done.
Last one that I did (Kahrs) used 1/4" staples, 1 1/2" long. No pull-through possibilities.View Image
The Bostitch stapler that is designed as a dedicated engineered floor stapler, is the best solution.
They used to show up used on ebay fairly often. But, I haven't looked for one in about 7 years. If you look on ebay use "bostitch (lhf, bhf) stapler" as the search string.
"C'mon Miz...instructions are for wusses...HA HA"
Yeah - I know that mantra...it was one my XDH used to spout and part of how he ended up an "X".
Anyway -
I shake my head when go to a friends' house here in AR where they hired a "handyman" friend of theirs to install engineered HW flooring in their 8x10 dining room. He'd never done glue down of such flooring before but sold them on concept he could "do anything".
They were so pleased with how it looked (please realize the orig flooring was hideous) but when I first saw the completed job I was horrified.
I quickly saw his "DIY-type" mistake number 1 and couldn't hardly get past the impulse to comment on it. Installer failed to READ THE INSTRUCTIONS and clearly had no idea what he was doing to begin with. How was this evident? Simple. He laid the flooring strips side by side in rows that broke to next piece in alignment and had adjoining strips with butt joints within an inch of adjoining strip - repeatedly! - for over 8 strip rows! and of course that horrific pattern just repeated down the strips over an over until one reached terminus of the strip at the wall. I basically "gacked" when I saw it. But swallowed hard and said nothing since the HOs were evidently pleased with the new flooring (and I think: flooring is ok, installation of it is pathetic!).
But again - even a "never done it, know nothing" would benefit from a once thru of READ THE FRIGGIN INSTRUCTIONS - the basis of the acronym: "RTFI" because they provide info on more than just acclimating, but funnily enough, "installation instructions" cover just that! DOH
I now look at that floor anytime I see it and think: what a perfect example of ego over competence...and a WASTE of the cost of the entire job. (BTW - I can get you a picture of this horror if you'd like to see what I mean.)
But I'm sure you're much smarter than to replicate this tale on your project!
"I'm a work in progress; still learning every day!"
Shred-Yes, please post a pic of how NOT to lay strip floor butt joints!View Image
Will do. Gotta head over to that house later today so will charge camera battery and get on it.
"I'm a work in progress; still learning every day!"
You asked for pictures of a lousy floor job (in MY opinion) and here's photographs showing my candidate for the "Hall of Shame" folder of poorly done work. (what - that folder doesn't exist in the Photo Gallery? hmmm, maybe it should)
Look at the butt joints of the strips. Look at the "clumps" of coloration. And what the photos don't capture is there's also a glue-down failure JUST inside the threshold from kitchen to the dining room floor that this is. Gee, you don't think that'll get noticed much in that location...?
"I'm a work in progress; still learning every day!"
And the other "real shame of it all" is that in the same house, over in original portion with original parquet herringbone flooring, you see original installation - workmanship that's holding up to this day. OK, so maybe this type of flooring is not "in vogue" as much as it once was but my focus is on the workmanship of the installation.
So for comparison -
"I'm a work in progress; still learning every day!"
Yikes! I kept saying owwwwwwwwww-ouch!!! to myself seeing those pics! I was gacking for sure.Shred, are those, what, prefinished 2 1/4" T&G strip flooring?Potential saving grace if it ends up with the furnishings covering most of it.Add:I'm guessing that the install sheet had a word or two about staggering. Ya think?
Edited 11/12/2009 3:23 pm by kenhill3
2 1/2 to 3" prefinished strip flooring - yea I'd say so
t&g? I'd assume so
Unfortunately all the rooms in that house are now empty and it is sitting in a depressed economic market and going to take who knows long to sell (owners are DEAR friends of mine who've departed for western state due to great job opportunity out there).
Bottom line: I've been helping them out by doing some de facto "property management" although it just kinda fell into that but was never planned nor intended. Kills me they got a RE agent who's dummer than a bag of rocks (my opinion). How dare I say that? well, she takes pictures of "sun room" with the shades 70% down, and then puts that on the cut sheet & website...
"I'm a work in progress; still learning every day!"
i would gasp at that also,what a botched job.
do you think the installer ever said "hmmm" but it was to late to stagger the joints and make the first few rows look off.
if the customers happy,everyones happy.the older i get ,
the more people tick me off
I'd crossed paths years ago with that "installer/handyman" and didn't hire him to do anything at my place because his ego was bigger than any room he stood in...
"I'm a work in progress; still learning every day!"
WOW!
Just another reason why I believe: "a good job is a good job no matter WHO did it; and a bad job is a bad job no matter WHO did it"
"I'm a work in progress; still learning every day!"
The stairstepping doesn't look that bad, maybe because the individual pieces are so short. However, he should haved culled out a lot of the off color pieces and the flat sawn pieces.
How many diners can you fit in an 8' x 10' room?
I missed putting the approx before the room dimensions but it gave y'all the proper idea and that was my point in citing those numbers. If you really need specifics, I can take a tape measure to it next time I'm over there...
I absolutely disagree with you that the stair stepping was ok. But hey, we're all allowed our own opinions!
"I'm a work in progress; still learning every day!"
I said "the stairstepping is not that bad" - that does not mean it is good. I certainly would not do it that way. Attached is a photo of a floor I did in August; this is how it should be done.
The installation instructions in the flooring boxes should tell you how long the flooring needs to acclimate.
FWIW, I just did some kitchen work in a house getting prefinished maple engineered flooring. I don't know the brand, but the flooring installer was lwtting it acclimate for 10 days.
Acclimatizing should be done to reach a specific moisture content in the wood. You can find charts for your area that show what that content should be (roughly around 6%). The amount of time you need to acclimatize your wood will depend on the difference between the humidity level in your house and that of the flooring. In some circumstances long acclimatization can do more harm than good.