I am about to install new pine flooring on the main and second floor of a new house currently under construction.The basement is a crawl space 5′ high with a concrete floor,the floor was poured in december and is dry,to the best of my knowledge.The pine flooring is coming in 6″ and 8″ widths and is 1 1/4″ thick.it has three relief cuts on the back and the supplier says it should have a moisture content of about 14% when it arrives on site.We plan to store it on site for about two weeks with stickers between before we install it and we hope the moisture level will be down to 6% before installation.We also plan to nail as usual and then screw and plug every 48″ on each board.We plan to use building felt paper as a moisture barrier.My questions are: should we put a vapour barrier down first then the felt paper or just the felt paper and will this apply to both the first floor and the second floor? Also, the house is built lakeside and the projected installation time will be at the end of May.The house is also built in southern Ontario.Any feed back would be appreciated
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Replies
felt only, both floors
i would be amazed if you can air dry 1 1/4" thick flooring from 14% to 6% in two weeks
carpenter in transition
Ditto Tim Kline....on everything he said.
Davo
or glue and nail and no paper
The secret of Zen in two words is, "Not always so"!
When we meet, we say, Namaste'..it means..
Just felt paper (15lb.) should be fine. Don't be stingy with the overlaps. Better leave at least half inch at the edges. I laid a whole house of pine floors and did the floors before the base boards, much less the quarter round -that way you can leave even more space for the inevitable movement. Good luck on the moisture content.
What kind of air are you using to dry 14% 5/4 pine to 6% in only two weeks? I'd like some of that, if possible.....
Seriously, you cannot get pine to be at 6% in Ontario through air drying. Might be possible in parts of Arizona and Nevada, but maybe. 14% MC pine will still move a lot - especially for flooring, it needs to be kiln dried.
Edit: Not in two weeks, either. You might get it to drop ONE percent in two weeks, if the weather is perfect and the material is indoors with air circulation.
Edited 4/19/2005 10:33 am ET by Jon
Gotta agree with the other comments regarding hitting 6% MC before laying this flooring. And the fact of the matter is that you don't really want to shoot for a specfic but arbitrary MC content. The goal is really to have the MC of the wood in sync with the environment where it's being laid. IOW, you want the wood at EMC (equilibrium moisture content).
Just what EMC will be in any instance depends upon the environment. If this house is sitting lakeside, you might not have to adjust the MC all that much from the delivered content of 14% to hit your target........and you may well hit that in two weeks if the wood is all stickered.
The shrinkulator will tell you how much expansion and contraction you might expect throughout the year per inch of width. IOW, how much crack is apt to develop between boards. Click on the moisture content calculator link and you should be able to figure out whether or not your wood has really reached EMC. Hopefully you have access to a pin type moisture meter.
http://www.woodbin.com/calcs/shrinkulator.htm
Tough call from here as to the best way to address the potential for excess humidity under the flooring that lays over that crawl........or how to best keep the absorption and dissipation of moisture even on both the top and bottom sides as that's really the goal. Keeping that exchange even on both sides is what will prevent cupping. A couple coats of dewaxed shellac applied to the bottom of the boards before laying the stuff may be the way to go. Hard to say. Kinda also depends upon what you intend to use as a top-side finish, too. Different finishes have different rates of resistance to moisture exchange.......and as you add multiple coats you alter that exchange rate.
Knowledge is power, but only if applied in a timely fashion.
Edited 4/19/2005 11:05 am ET by GOLDHILLER
Edited 4/19/2005 11:11 am ET by GOLDHILLER