I am about to purchase 650 sq. ft. of 1×6 T & G Pine for flooring for a client.
I would like to be able to measure the moisture content of the 1×6 flooring before I purchase it.
Any suggestions as to the type of meter or make that would be best and where it could be purchased. I am sitting in Toronto Canada.
At what level of moisture content should a pine floor be before installing.
George
Replies
Pine is awfully soft for a floor...I hope you impressed this on your customer.
Lee Valley.com has meters...they have a store in Toronto...90 day guarantee
I'm thinking under 6% moisture for the floor-plus acclimated on site for 1 to 3 weeks if at all possible...in the rooms where it is going...stickered so air can get around most of it and it can adjust to the humidity level of the house.
silver
Edited 5/4/2005 1:04 am ET by silver
I don't know for sure what type he is using, but yellow pine is verrrry hard! But getting down to 6% sounds pretty extreme. And it makes a nice looking floor.Have you checked at places that do salvage lumber, if you have any in Toronto? It might be more dry, or at least aged to where any twists have already appeared. Plus you can get tighter grain with old growth wood.
Never ran into yellow pine...hard eh??What kind of needles does the tree have??
I called my hardwood flooring supplier and was told hardwood is at 8%...still requires acclimation for a couple weeks...so 6% is a bit extreme but not much...it still will adjust to the ambient humidity levels in the house...
cheers,
silver
Yellow pine is not as hard as oak or maple but plenty hard enough for flooring. Heart pine which was used for flooring years ago is yellow pine, the growth rings in heart pine are close together.Yellow pine harvested today will probably have much larger rings. Slow growth yellow pine from the northern and middle atlantic states will produce better flooring than fast growth from the southern states.
mike
MIKEK4244 -
very interesting...how do you know this?
silver<!---->
I live in the southern part of N.J. where heart pine floors were prevelent years ago. Many old homes still have them and with some care are still in excellent shape.As far as the hardness of yellow pine goes, the old growth is harder and looks better than the newer wood. You could probably say that about most species.I do not proclaim to be an expert, but 44 years of expeirence helps some.
I hope I answered your question.
mike
Thanks for the info...
silver
I'm pretty sure yellow pine is what's called 'long leaf'. Stair treads, and much of the PT wood is yellow pine. Ditto what Mike said. Old growth makes excellent floors.Here are some in my attic. This would have been servants quarters when built (1901), so note the knots.
Cool space..the floor is beautiful...did knot know this about yellow pine...
Thanks,
silver