When looking at your lifestyle, we have two scenarios to consider:
Your Existing Home
In most instances, you will want to find a product that matches your living conditions so it will perform as intended in your home. For example, if you keep your humidity level around 35%, you do not want to purchase a product that requires 40-60% relative humidity. If your humidity level runs low for most brands, you may need to add humidification to your home in order for the product to perform as intended. However, very seldom are any changes other than a proper sub-floor needed in an existing home.
A New Home
A new home generally has issues with high humidity that needs to be addressed before the flooring is delivered for acclimation. Many times, the drywall has been taped, textured, and painted shortly before the flooring is delivered for acclimation. The major component of joint compound for sheetrock and most paint is water. Hundreds of gallons of water has been introduced into the new home, which needs to be removed before acclimation of the flooring can take place.
I have been involved with building trades for over forty years. Many new homes have a relative humidity of 70% or higher for the week after the wet trades have finished. The problem arises when the finish trades get to a new home that is already several weeks behind schedule. The general contractor and homeowner do not want to take the time to bring the humidity down to the living environment of the homeowner, since this could push the closing date back a week or two, delaying the general contractor’s payment and the homeowner’s move in date.
Acclimating and installing flooring at these high levels is asking for trouble. The percentage of failure is far higher when you do not bring the humidity and temperature down to the homeowner's living environment. Many times, the flooring manufacturer or the flooring installer is blamed for the flooring failure when they had no control over what caused the problem.
When building a new home, it is a good idea to include humidification and dehumidification as part of the HVAC system. This cost investment is very little in comparison to the damage that can be done to the home and the flooring by too little to too much moisture.
When buying an existing home, the process is very similar as to a new home, but rarely will you have to deal with the high humidity found with new construction. The environment still needs to be adjusted to your living conditions to minimize the chances of a flooring failure, but the time needed to do this is usually much shorter. Humidification and dehumidification are what typically need addressing.
Many people do not pay attention to temperature and humidity levels in their home. Now that you know how important this is for flooring to function properly, what temperature and humidity level do you keep in your home?
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