IMPORTANT NOTE
By far the most common reasons for problems after installation are either poor subfloor preparation or insufficient acclimatisation time. Having said that, when problems do occur the owner/fitter is usually far too keen to blame the product, when in actual fact very rarely is it anything to do with the product, even when installed above UFH, and is usually down to either insufficient acclimatisation or incorrect subfloor preparation.
In this modern day of rush, rush, rush and everyone wanting everything yesterday, too often are the very important elements of successful wood floor installation overlooked or the efforts towards them reduced, thus resulting in challenges and costs afterwards that could have easily been avoided if a little more time and effort had been taken prior to installation.
Natural hardwood floors are a product of nature and therefore it must be expected that they will vary in shade, colour, and grain pattern from piece to piece and that they will sometimes vary from samples previously viewed. Surely, two of the main reasons that you are considering buying oak flooring is that no 2 pieces are the same and that it's a natural product.
Natural hardwood will also experience colour change and sometime dimensional movement over time as it matures, and when it's exposed to varying conditions of light, heat, moisture and humidity. The only way to avoid such movement is to keep the surrounding conditions consistent throughout the different seasons of the year with humidifier units or similar equipment.
PRODUCT STORAGE
The flooring must be kept dry during transportation and offload, and then stored within the room it is to be fitted when delivered. The room should be completely dried out before the flooring is introduced into it, to the level that will be consistent when the room is occupied and lived in.
The packs can be opened and it is important that they are stacked with bearers or sticks in a way that allows the air within the room to circulate around them for at least 10 days.
Avoid stacking the packs near to heat sources like radiators or large windows because this can create a false environment.
Any areas of excess moisture must first be fully dried before the flooring arrives. If there is a consistent area of moisture that’s not drying out, the source of this problem must be found and solved. If not, it will continue to cause problems after the floor is installed.
ACCLIMATISATION
Most people will tell you that to prepare your flooring for fitting will take 7 days or some may say 14 days to ‘play safe’, but the fact is that there is no set period for acclimatisation.
Every site situation is different, which means that every acclimatisation period can be different too.
The whole reason for acclimatisation is to allow the flooring to reach equilibrium with its surrounding conditions before being fitted, so in other words, you want the flooring to do its moving before installation and not afterwards!
The room should be completely dried out before the flooring is introduced into it, to the level that will be consistent when the room is occupied and lived in.
Then the moisture level of the room should be checked and monitored (take a reading regularly and when it is consistent for 3 days, the room has reached its constant).
Then the flooring should be introduced and stacked as the storage paragraph above. Moisture check the flooring now with a suitable moisture meter and monitor the reading. Even if the reading is the same as the room, acclimatisation is still advised before installation. (OakFloorsOnline advise a minimum of 7 days acclimatisation period, even if both readings are the same).
Leave the flooring stacked within the room for at least 5 days (this depends on site conditions) and then check the moisture level with a moisture meter.
Continue to check and monitor the moisture level until the reading is constant for 3 days and matches the moisture reading of the room. Then installation can begin.
As emphasised within the first paragraph of this page, when an expensive Oak Floor is being installed, you should want to install it once only without risking further costs and disruption through attempting to rush or ‘speed up’ the project. It’s not worth trying to cut any corners because this is certainly false economy and in the vast majority of situations, will end up costing you more time and money in the long run.
FOR ACCLIMATISATION & INSTALLATION ABOVE UFH, PLEASE REFER TO OUR FITTING GUIDELINES ON THIS WEBSITE
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