Wood floor installation
We are working on a house in Houston where the wood flooring installer is requiring the wood flooring to acclimatize in the house for 4-5 weeks with the permanent HVAC system installed and running in order to provide his warranty. The contractor usually installs temporary AC during construction so as not to clog the permanent system filters from the sanding, dust, etc and so when the owner moves in, the system is brand new as should be expected with a new house. The flooring sub is not accepting that. Has anyone come across scenario before? Perhaps its not a big deal and you just have to change the filters before they move in? Please advise.
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Replies
Heather,
The flooring contractor is justified in insisting that the wood flooring acclimate to typical air-conditioned conditions before the flooring is installed.
But it doesn't matter what type of equipment is used to provide the necessary air conditioning. The equipment can be temporary or it can be permanent. What matters is that the equipment has to be able to keep the house at 76 degrees, with an interior RH of 60% or less, for four to five weeks.
If the temporary equipment can't do it, then the temporary equipment isn't good enough.
Thanks!
Gayle,
The flooring contractor should be more interested in getting the flooring and subfloor to the moisture levels they want than how long it acclimatizes in your house. Given an average temperature and humidity level that you will maintain, they can calculate what moisture level is necessary. There are plenty of online charts for this. The one I use is from Fine Homebuilding Magazine. Once the wood and substrate reaches this level, then it is good to install - whether it has sat for two days or a year.