Do Wood Floors Shrink In Winter Or Summer

The winter months bring holiday cheer.

Do wood floors shrink in winter or summer.

This causes the wood to shrink. An un humidified house can easily reach a 25 level in the middle of winter. Especially when we keep the windows open higher humidity can cause wood floors to swell up and close all the gaps between boards. Symptoms of wood floor winter humidity.

Hardwood floors and humidity. When humidity levels decrease the boards will shrink more from side to side than end to end. Customers begin to notice gaps between boards and the phone calls begin. Scratches from snow melting materials and flooring gaps are some of the biggest problems that people with hardwood floors have to worry about.

Also sudden temperature or moisture humidity changes will affect expansion and contraction changes. For example in the northwest winters are humid and summers are dry so wood exposed to those conditions would swell in winter and shrink in summer. That said a hickory wood floor will expand and shrink more than a red oak floor with humidity swings. If humidity hits above 55 you might be opening up a chance for moisture to seep into the wood.

Then the colder winter months rolls around you close your home up tight and crank up the heat. The floor behaves that way because of wood s relationship with moisture in the air there s no accounting for how the customers behave although educating them about gaps. This expansion and contraction can result in the flooring coming loose from the subfloor. The humidity level inside our homes plummets.

Hardwood floors will usually shrink in the winter months and expand in the summer months. But in most areas winter also means cold weather snow and damage to wood floors. Excess humidity in the summer can cause the wood planks to. And with summer there are a few things you might need to know about how humidity can affect hardwood and laminate flooring.

When you do this the humidity level in your home drops and the wood in your floor releases the moisture it s been holding and it begins to contract and shrink. In the puget sound region where we live the average outside relative humidity ranges from 65 to 80 percent in the summer which is high compared to winter indoor air. Hardwood floors do not shrink consistently in all directions. Glued floors come loose or the nails pull loose.

In the summer you should be using a dehumidifier regularly. But at some point in the fall we turn the heat on and bake these floors to desert dryness. The rule of swelling in summer and shrinking in winter might work where you live but it can be the opposite in other places. Here are some tips on how to keep your floors in tip top shape this summer.

If the indoor relative humidity is above 60 you should use an air conditioner to dry out the air.