Summer is here and it's not a Chicago summer without some heat that comes from nowhere. To top it off, we have awful humidity that makes it hard to breathe. Humidity makes everything sticky, but it can also have some very serious repercussions on your hardwood floors. We want to give you some basic advice when it comes to hardwood flooring in the summer so you can avoid cupping in your hardwood floors. Moisture is a hardwood floor's worst nightmare, so it's important to understand how you can minimize the moisture inside of your home during these summer months in order to prolong the life of your beautiful hardwood floors.
Make sure your home is properly ventilated.
Proper ventilation in a home is very important when it comes to extending the life of your hardwood floors. Moisture in the air can sit on hardwood floors if it's not properly ventilated and begin to affect the actual shape of the wood. We call this "cupping" can it can have fairly catastrophic effects. A floor that begins to cup is going to start cracking in the worst scenarios. Cupping creates waves in a floor that can be irreversible.
This is what cupping looks like.
If it's incredibly humid inside of your home and you're worried about the effect that humidity is going to have on your hardwood floors, we recommend getting a dehumidifier. They can be life savers as that they remove moisture from the air. Therefore, it's not going to end up in your floors.
There is a common mistake people make when they think about moisture levels inside of their homes. It's common sense to think that an air conditioning unit reduces the moisture inside of a home, but this is actually not the case. Moisture is only removed when the AC unit is running. So unless you plan on running that AC unit 24/7, it's not going to do enough to keep moisture levels down for long enough.
Basements and crawl spaces are some of the best places where you can run a dehumidifier. They can be very effective when it comes to keep humidity levels down. If you have hardwood floors, in a basement, you may want to seriously consider a dehumidifier. It can have very real benefits.
If you have any questions, we're always here to help. We love answering your questions.