Now it's time to get a floor in the house to move forward and be able to insulate the walls and ceiling. I was thinking of a solid pine floor (165x25) to be laid directly on the joists. But my problem is with the humidity, which at the moment is around 80%. You've heard that if you're laying new flooring, it should stay inside the house for at least two weeks to acclimate to the house's humidity, thus shrinking or swelling accordingly. But this is for a heated house, and my house won't feel any heat for at least another six months. So is there anyone who has experience with this? For instance, can you hammer them together as much as possible during installation since the humidity is at its highest now, and then any potential gap won't be as problematic? Or should I aim for pre-treated flooring that might not absorb as much?
Best answer
I am afraid it's asking for trouble. Can't you get a dehumidifier to at least keep the RH under 60%? If so, it might work.S Skogsgringo said:
Floor planks are usually furniture dried, meaning around 8% moisture. Two weeks is nowhere near enough to adapt to 80% RH (which gives wood an equilibrium moisture content of around 16%). Your problem will be that the planks will expand in width with a high risk of becoming wavy as they won't fit. Now towards autumn and winter, you'll likely get even more than 80% RH indoors, which only makes the problem worse.
Sure, you can lay the planks with gaps to avoid the above issue, but then you'll have to live with it later when you heat the house and the planks shrink again.
The best is not to let RH vary too much.
Yes, you are probably right, the odds are too bad that it will work out well. So it's probably just about biting the bullet and installing moisture-resistant chipboard..
Thanks for the reply!
Thanks for the reply!
What?
I'm in a similar situation... I only have next week to lay 65 sqm of flooring. And this is in Borås, with the notoriously humid climate we have.
@vectrex you seem knowledgeable, I'm asking for your advice. How do I reduce the moisture most effectively? And furthermore, what happens after I've laid the floor, do I need to keep the moisture down for a certain period of time? The more I read, the more it sounds like either you lay your floor under perfect conditions and then keep it in a hermetically sealed climate chamber, or you choose between wavy, uneven floors or gaps bigger than between Thore Skogman's front teeth.
I understand that the air is generally drier in the winter and more humid in the summer, and the optimal time to lay solid floors is actually during autumn, as I've read.
What I'm going to lay is a 28mm spruce floor, 220 mm wide planks of core wood. I asked the seller (own planing mill) about the humidity, and according to him, there shouldn't be any problem laying it now, just snap it together and screw it down into the floor joists, it should apparently move extremely little with the seasons. Sounds too good to be true.
edit: he also said that it's better to lay it right away than to wait, otherwise there's a risk that the boards will warp as they absorb moisture from the surroundings.
@vectrex you seem knowledgeable, I'm asking for your advice. How do I reduce the moisture most effectively? And furthermore, what happens after I've laid the floor, do I need to keep the moisture down for a certain period of time? The more I read, the more it sounds like either you lay your floor under perfect conditions and then keep it in a hermetically sealed climate chamber, or you choose between wavy, uneven floors or gaps bigger than between Thore Skogman's front teeth.
I understand that the air is generally drier in the winter and more humid in the summer, and the optimal time to lay solid floors is actually during autumn, as I've read.
What I'm going to lay is a 28mm spruce floor, 220 mm wide planks of core wood. I asked the seller (own planing mill) about the humidity, and according to him, there shouldn't be any problem laying it now, just snap it together and screw it down into the floor joists, it should apparently move extremely little with the seasons. Sounds too good to be true.
edit: he also said that it's better to lay it right away than to wait, otherwise there's a risk that the boards will warp as they absorb moisture from the surroundings.
I think the same way, so why does the consensus on both construction sites and other retailers' websites seem to be that it must be about 20 degrees and 40-60% RH? What happens if I happen to have 18 degrees and 70% RH when I lay it, will it start to warp and crack as soon as it has time to absorb moisture?Jonatan79 said:
If I understand it correctly, the treated floors are only treated on the top side; for example, I don't think pre-waxed floors are waxed on all four sides...S Skogsgringo said:
I'm in the same situation as you, although I suppose I could turn on the heat in the middle of summer... feels idiotic, somehow?
I've found exactly what I want, a solid 28 x 220 pine floor, the seller manufactures it himself and says it's heartwood (he buys the wood from a small sawmill that specializes in "over-sized logs," i.e., trees too large for the standardized dimensions of the big sawmills). At a surprisingly low price too... now only the question of credibility remains: will the promised goods be delivered on the promised time? My prejudices tell me that no one who speaks so calmly in such a broad Småland accent could be dishonest about a wood product, but he sometimes seems a bit forgetful...
I have installed the cheapest pine floor from byggmax on our uninsulated glassed-in patio. It looks the same now as it did when I installed it 1.5 years ago. And there the temperature (and likely also the humidity) varies extremely. From below zero in winter to 40+ in summer. A bit of a gamble but it seems to have worked so far. However, how it will look in 10 years, I don't know...
Same here, but in an unheated 19th-century cottage in Sörmland. Bought and laid it shortly after in the summer. Fitted it properly, and it looks really great, no gaps or anything, just completely tight and smooth.Marojo said:
Same here actually, Byggmax's cheapest pine floor (25 x 165 if I remember correctly), bought in the summer and left open maybe 4-5 days before I joined it together properly, screwed to the floor joists in a small vestibule that extends a bit into the house. The only thing I have seen happen is that one board has cracked a bit in the middle of the floor, it's the one that lies on top and runs parallel to the sill, and truth be told I probably overlooked the slightly too big height difference there.nikasp said:
In Vetlanda, Mollbergs Byggvaror is the place. He was hard to find; his stuff came up during my third round of searching for the right floor. I had an entire Excel document with different brands on the major retailers' websites, at most places I had to pay 280-500 SEK/sqm for 25mm solid pine flooring depending on width and quality, and spruce seemed hardly available.Jiji said:
And I happened to find this nice (but somewhat confused?) Kenneth Mollberg, whose only marketing is a Blocket ad that is so informally written it barely looks serious, with 28 x 220 spruce flooring for 250 SEK/sqm + shipping.
Disclaimer, I haven't received the floor yet, and even though delivery is agreed for next week, he still doesn't know which day. He keeps the shipping price down by co-shipping with a paving stone manufacturer, who apparently rarely has more than a day's notice? Sounds so-so, but I haven't paid anything in advance, so...