If you've ever had new hardwood floors installed, you may have heard of acclimating your hardwood floors. This is an often overlooked process that it crucial when it comes to installing new hardwood floors. We won't get into the technicals too much, but we'd like to explain why this process is just so important.
Acclimating new hardwood floors to the home in which they will be installed it incredibly important. It can prevent things like "cupping" from occurring. Cupping is a process in which hardwood floors begin to "cup" and visibly bend due to moisture. This can happen for a various number of reasons, but one of the most common is going to be due to a lack of proper acclamation.
Your hardwood floor specialist will want to acclimate fresh hardwood to a specific environment so that the wood has time to match the moisture levels of the environment in which it will be placed. The best way to do this is through time. Hardwood needs plenty of time in order to acclimate to an environment. Improper acclimation can lead to things like cupping which will completely ruin the floor.
Hardwood Floor Cupping
We typically recommend at least three days of acclimation before beginning a project. This way, the wood has plenty of time to acclimate to the moisture levels in the project site. The project site should be enclosed and set to the temperature that the people living in the home will typically have it set at. This can often times seem wasteful as people do not like running things like AC when no one is at a home, but we want to point out that ruined hardwood floors in a home can set someone back tens of thousands of dollars.
We put this little write up together because we had a few customers ask us this question during the past couple weeks. We hope it clears up some basic questions that you have. As always, we're here to help. Don't hesitate to contact us with further questions or to begin your next hardwood flooring project today.