wrote:
On 7 Apr 2005 21:09:51 -0700, "RicodJour"
wrote:

As far as laying floors in super dry conditions. That's a problem,
too. A floor that is laid very tight in very dry conditions may not
buckle per se, but the wood fibers at the outside edges of each
board
will be compressed/crushed as the humidity increases. Then when the
floor shrinks back down again in lower humidity the gaps will be
bigger.

There's no such thing as perfect humidity or temperature control
outside of some lab or a museum. Household HVAC helps, but it is
not a
total solution.

Thanks for all your replies. So would you say installing hardwood
floor now in a medium himidity level day and run a humidifier in the
winter is the preferred way to go? Thanks.

To minimize expansion/contraction cycles you should try to maintain
fairly uniform humidification. It doesn't have to be perfect, but try
to minimize the extremes. Do you have central air conditioning to
remove the excess summer humidity?

There are tradeoffs in this as in anything. Adding humidity in the
winter can be problematic if your house doesn't have adequate
insulation and a good vapor barrier. The moisture can end up
condensing in your walls and causing a bigger problem than some
relatively small gaps in your floor. So don't go overboard with the
winter humidification.

If you take care of the acclimation of the flooring during installation
and are aware of the problems created by too dry and too humid
conditions and try to minimize the extremes, you'll be fine.

R