This time of year, homeowners in the Kansas City area can get a little restless. We’re past the holidays, and these cold, gray days mean most of us are spending our time inside imagining all the home improvement projects we’d like to do.
Wood floors can be installed in the winter, but winter installations come with some challenges. At SVB Wood Floors, we know a thing or two about winter installation and we do it right.
Why Does Winter Weather Matter to Hardwood?
Moisture is widely regarded as the biggest cause of wood flooring problems. Extremely humid conditions make even the best wood floors swell, and then when the humidity falls away, homeowners see gaps between their boards. Too little humidity during installation means your hardwood floors will later change shape more dramatically when they are introduced to high levels of humidity.
What does that mean for winter installations? Winter usually means your furnace is running full steam, and that dry air has little to no moisture in it. Your hardwood installer must check and regulate the humidity in your home, so the air is humid enough that the wood doesn’t shrink.
Related Link: What to Expect from Your Hardwood Floor During Winter
Here in Missouri (where we’re pretty used to humid springs, summers, and falls) it’s important that your floors are installed correctly. If your floor boards are distorted by lack of moisture during installation, when they expand during the humid seasons, you can expect trouble.
Those shrunken boards swell with humid air, and end up crushing the edges of the boards as they expand into each other. When the moisture leaves the boards in the winter, the crushed boards are smaller than they were at installation, meaning your beautiful hardwood floor is full of gaps!
Find out what else you should be asking your hardwood flooring contractor!
Benefits of Winter Wood Floor Installation
There’s a silver lining to every cloud! Because water, even in small amounts, can drastically affect your wood floors, wood floors are best installed in dry conditions. Winter’s dry air means there’s no moisture to get trapped underneath your floorboards. By the same token, because winter can be a tricky time to install, this is a slow season for many companies. Their slow season usually means fast turnaround for you!
Your SVB Hardwood Floor Installer Will:
- Utilize the humidifier in your home, or bring one in, to control the amount of moisture in the air.
- Acclimate your boards, so that despite the temperature your boards have been stored in, they have time to adjust before installation.
- Test the moisture of your subflooring, before the installation.
While installing hardwood floors in the winter presents some challenges, if you’re ready for new hardwood floors, you don’t need to wait. Give SVB Wood Flooring a call today, at (816) 965-8655 to get a free, in-home estimate. You could have your new floor sooner than you think!
