Now that we’re in the hottest part of the year, we’ll start to see and experience dimensional changes in all of our wood products, both in shrinkage and expansion. The best way of stabilizing your flooring from noticeable changes, is to maintain a constant (temperature and humidity) in the atmospheric conditions of your home. The desired target is to have your interior’s temperature stay between 65-75 degrees and your humidity between 35-55%. Most modern air conditioning systems can provide both. You just have to set your thermostat or hygrostat gauges in the middle of the target zone and you’re done with worrying about our floors moving because of the atmospheric impact. But, we have found that our clients are for the most part, diversified in atmospheric control. For example, just in heating we have: gas, propane, wood stoves, pellet stoves, electric coils, solar and hydro radiant floors. Open the window and put on a sweater, or open the curtain, let the sun shine in and let nature do its job. Believe it or not, some of these heating methods can add moisture (humidity) to your home and floor, while others can dry your furniture and floor to the bone, causing damage to all of the above.
It’s been said that if you’re comfortable, your floor will be comfortable. Keep in mind that throughout the nation, we experience a wide range of regional climate variances. Our region is impacted by the most extreme variances: marine coastal, cold to very cold, arid to hot and dry. Because our temp/humidity is ever changing, we (for the best interest of our floor’s continued integrity) must adapt accordingly and stay within our regional parameters.
First, you need to become aware of what those region parameters are and what your atmospheric conditions are. You can do this by simply buying for yourself a decorative meteorologist’s (weather) board. It usually has three gauges on it: a barometer, a thermometer and a hygrometer. That way it will always be in sight and keeping you constantly updated as to where you stand atmospherically. For the most part, you and your houses can be sealed up and you can create and control a micro climate within the interior envelope of your home. You will then become the king or queen of your castle and thus learn to manage the elements in your home.
We realize telling you that it is a general rule of thumb (that you must stabilize your interior atmosphere and you will be fine) is not quite conclusive. There are dozens of books and articles that arrive at that same one line answer. This is because each of your circumstance are different and that is the only one liner that fits you all. We can’t tell you how many times we’ve heard “We never had this problem before” or “Our neighbors don’t have this problem”. It’s because you’re not the same as your neighbor: something’s different.
Here are a couple of forensic variances: 1) Do you cook on the stove or microwave?, 2) Do you have live plants, if so how many and how often do you water them? 3) Do you shower or bathe and how many of you shower or bathe? 4) Do you have indoor pets and how many? 5) What type of heating system do you have? 6) What type of cooling system do you have? 7) Do you have ceiling fans or whole house fans and do you use them? 8) Do you have high ceilings, low ceilings or both? 8) Do you have window treatments on your windows and do you have the sun shining through them at any time? 9) Do you open your windows throughout the day?
Needless to say, you’re all different from each other. Resolving floor issues are relatively simple, there’s no need to panic. There is also no cookie cut answer that fits all circumstances. Share your specific issue with us and we will simply share with you (and all who read our newsletter) a workable resolve in helping you to stabilize your floor and keep it healthy.
It’s been said that if you’re comfortable, your floor will be comfortable. Keep in mind that throughout the nation, we experience a wide range of regional climate variances. Our region is impacted by the most extreme variances: marine coastal, cold to very cold, arid to hot and dry. Because our temp/humidity is ever changing, we (for the best interest of our floor’s continued integrity) must adapt accordingly and stay within our regional parameters.
First, you need to become aware of what those region parameters are and what your atmospheric conditions are. You can do this by simply buying for yourself a decorative meteorologist’s (weather) board. It usually has three gauges on it: a barometer, a thermometer and a hygrometer. That way it will always be in sight and keeping you constantly updated as to where you stand atmospherically. For the most part, you and your houses can be sealed up and you can create and control a micro climate within the interior envelope of your home. You will then become the king or queen of your castle and thus learn to manage the elements in your home.
We realize telling you that it is a general rule of thumb (that you must stabilize your interior atmosphere and you will be fine) is not quite conclusive. There are dozens of books and articles that arrive at that same one line answer. This is because each of your circumstance are different and that is the only one liner that fits you all. We can’t tell you how many times we’ve heard “We never had this problem before” or “Our neighbors don’t have this problem”. It’s because you’re not the same as your neighbor: something’s different.
Here are a couple of forensic variances: 1) Do you cook on the stove or microwave?, 2) Do you have live plants, if so how many and how often do you water them? 3) Do you shower or bathe and how many of you shower or bathe? 4) Do you have indoor pets and how many? 5) What type of heating system do you have? 6) What type of cooling system do you have? 7) Do you have ceiling fans or whole house fans and do you use them? 8) Do you have high ceilings, low ceilings or both? 8) Do you have window treatments on your windows and do you have the sun shining through them at any time? 9) Do you open your windows throughout the day?
Needless to say, you’re all different from each other. Resolving floor issues are relatively simple, there’s no need to panic. There is also no cookie cut answer that fits all circumstances. Share your specific issue with us and we will simply share with you (and all who read our newsletter) a workable resolve in helping you to stabilize your floor and keep it healthy.
