Before you spend your hard earned money make sure you understand the need to maintain the right amount of humidity in your home to protect your investment.
Hygrometer for hardwood floors.
Pinless meters tend to be the fastest for checking large amounts of wood flooring while pin type wood moisture meters tend to be better at pinpointing the depth of a moisture pocket in wood.
A stand alone thermo hygrometer such as the delmhorst s ht 4000f is used by flooring installers and restoration contractors alike.
Hardwood flooring is beautiful but relative humidity can ruin it in very short order.
As you can see engineered wood flooring is more stable than solid wood flooring.
Make sure you have a hygrometer to measure if you want whole home hardwood flooring avoid using it in your kitchen bathrooms and basement and consider installing a whole home humidification system to keep things within normal ranges.
Ideally it should be between 7 and 9.
Fluctuations in the wave are used to measure the moisture content of the wood.
When humidity levels decrease the boards will shrink more from side to side than end to end.
You can get one at your local hardware store.
These particles can scratch the surface of your hardwood.
In recent years engineered flooring has surged in popularity both in homes and commercial applications for several reasons.
Use a thermo hygrometer to keep an eye on your indoor humidity level.
Water snow often containing dirt pebbles and salt and harsh abrasives are natural enemies of hardwood floors.
If you live in an area of dry winters and muggy hot summers monitoring and controlling indoor humidity will preserve your floors and your health.
Pinless meters use electromagnetic radio frequencies to scan hardwood floors to a fixed depth.
Some prefer a multi function meter that includes a moisture meter and a thermo hygrometer in one device.
In general 12 moisture or above is too wet to install flooring.
The totalcheck and navigator pro 3 in 1 meters are examples of these multi function meters.
Relative humidity levels of 30 80 expert engineered lauzon hardwood floors relative humidity levels of 35 65 other lauzon engineered hardwood floors relative humidity levels of 35 55 lauzon solid hardwood floors.
On the other hand excessive moisture will cause wood to swell.
To determine if your hardwood floors need to be acclimated you can use a wood floor moisture test.
First test the moisture level of the subfloor.
This device measures relative humidity so that you can easily monitor humidity levels in your home.
Why use a hygrometer.
Use doormats on your hardwood flooring.
During periods of high humidity the cells in the hardwood collect or gain moisture.
Hardwood floors do not shrink consistently in all directions.
If installing wooden floors these meters can double as a hardwood floor moisture meter.
Conversely during dry periods it will be lost.
We highly recommend the use of an hygrometer to check the humidity.