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Installing hardwood floors in dry climates, such as Central Oregon’s, can affect the overall performance of your wood floor. Luckily, The HFC prides itself on knowing what’s best for your floors throughout your installation. From proper acclimation to choosing the right flooring materials, our team of experts makes installing hardwood floors in dry climates look easy. And we’re happy to tell you why.
Dry Climates and Hardwood Floors
Different problems like buckling and squeaking can arise over a hardwood floor’s lifetime, especially if your home’s humidity levels are frequently too low or too high. When it’s dry, hardwood floors can shrink, forming gaps between your boards. Once the humidity levels rise again, they’ll expand and close up. During this time, floorboards could also split, check, or crack and those are the last things we want. To ensure lasting performance, you want the humidity within your home to stay at a stable range. According to the National Wood Flooring Association, a stable range lands between 30-50%. And in Bend, monthly humidity levels average anywhere from 40-80%. That’s why The HFC recommends we install your floors in a space where we can keep things climate-controlled.
Not All Hardwood Floors are Equal
With the right acclimatization process, we can install every hardwood floor in Central Oregon. How we do that will depend on the type of hardwood floor you choose with our HFC designers in our boutique showroom. Woods will react differently in dry environments, especially if they’re not originally from the same region as your Central Oregon home. For example, an aged hickory floor may react differently to the climate than an American Cherry hardwood floor. But solid hardwood isn’t the only option.
Engineered Hardwood and Solid Hardwood
There are a lot of differences between engineered hardwood floors and solid hardwood floors. Performance in a dry environment is one of them. Often, an engineered hardwood floor can provide you with more consistent results and can handle humidity levels from 30-80%. Meanwhile, solid hardwood floors can usually only handle a range of 30-50%. That being said, a solid hardwood floor and engineered hardwood are both great options due to Central Oregon’s dry climate. If you live in an area with soaring humidity levels, you may want to consider engineered hardwood due to its high durability.
Dry Climates, No Problem
So, is your home ready for an installation? With the right combination of materials and a climate-controlled space, The HFC will install your hardwood floor in even the driest climate. And if you’re stuck between choosing solid hardwood or engineered hardwood floors, come into our boutique showroom and receive a free estimate today.