Acclimatisation of Flooring After Delivery

A very important factor once taking delivery from your flooring from us is to allow time for the boards to acclimates to its new environment. This allows wood to adapt to the moisture content in its new environment and reduces the risk of swelling. Boards are subject to bowing, allowing for any reduction in bowing, leaving the boards for 7 days or more will reduce this. Important to remember that our boards are stored in a warehouse, that will be regulated completely different to your home. Therefore, letting these come to temperature in your property and checking the correct humidity levels in the room present will also be factors to the change in a board’s performance.

What is recommended on every type of wood flooring installation is to first let the boards acclimate to the temperature and humidity of the room where they are being installed. Acclimatisation involves leaving the wood flooring in the packaging that it was delivered in and letting it adjust to the room conditions for up to 5 days or more. The conditions inside your home should be 60° to 80° F with a relative humidity of 30-50%. This will give the engineered wood flooring boards a moisture content of 6-9% which is optimal conditions. Moisture content meter readings should be documented by the installer to check if the flooring is bowing because it was installed without acclimating.

We allow a tolerance for bowing of 1.5% before the floor becomes problematic. Therefore, on our standard 1830mm length boards, you can allow for a 27.45mm tolerance. We recommend contacting us firstly if you have a bigger tolerance than this. Many factors come into effect, and we will accept a return free of charge if instructions have been followed and moisture readings and acclimation levels have been met.

How Do You Acclimatise Flooring?

To acclimatise flooring, simply lay packs flat in the room you will be fitting the flooring in for the recommended time. Leaning packs of flooring against the wall or standing on their edge might seem like a good idea to save some space, but it will damage your flooring and cause the boards to bow or misshape.

What Happens if I Don’t Acclimatise My Floor?

Not acclimatising your new floor can cause many problems that, although not obvious from board to board, will be evident on a finished floor. Cracking, warping, and splitting when drying or expansion-related issues such as bowing, buckling, and cupping can all happen if a floor hasn’t been acclimatised properly and for the recommended length of time.

If you have any questions about the acclimatisation process of your new flooring, or would like to speak to one of our flooring experts, you can give the team a call on 01646 687064