Wood Floor Expansion

The expansion gap should be around the whole perimeter of the room wherever the flooring may be against fixed objects such as walls doorways radiator pipes and fireplaces.

Wood floor expansion. Here s how to find them. Breaks can be placed in doorways between rooms or hallways and can be hidden or maintained by using basic t type expansion moldings. These spaces are to be expected and usually close up as the season changes and moisture returns to the air. An expansion gap is a term used when fitting wooden flooring.

Conversely when air moisture levels decrease moisture content evaporates shrinkage occurs. Many of the sales associates in big box retail centers do not have the training or experience to assist the home handyman in the proper installation of hardwood flooring they make the assumption that gaps between walls and the. When you ve selected hardwood flooring for your home you ve purchased a living product. Expansion breaks allow heavy floating floors collective and seasonal expansion thereby reducing the occurrence of buckling of the floor.

Here s a brief primer on what s normal for a wood floor as well as how to avoid any true moisture damage. It is an essential gap that must be left around the edge of the room when fitting hardwood bamboo or laminate flooring. A dry subfloor plus correct flooring mc plus a lot of fasteners equals the best wood floor performance. Expansion and contraction is to be expected in a natural product like hardwood flooring.

Are expansion gaps necessary for solid and engineered wood flooring. Wood movement can ruin a seemingly well constructed project. A general rule of thumb is that you should allow 1cm to 1 5cm expansion gap all around the room and wherever there is a fixed object. Luckily getting ahead of the material and calculating wood shrinkage and expansion is fairly easy all you need to do is multiply three numbers together.

Expansion gaps should be left wherever the floor comes up against a fixed object for example next to a wall a doorway or a heating pipe. To reduce the degree of change homeowners can add moisture to the air during the dry months ideally by installing a humidifier in the. Hardwood flooring and laminate flooring are not installed using the same guidelines of expansion and contraction. Know that wider boards expand and contract more than narrower ones.

Hardwood floor expansion and contraction can appear in a few different ways. Expansion takes place and the hardwood grows for lack of a clearer term across the grain or width of the plank see below not all will react this way. The simple fact is that when wood flooring is exposed to excessive moisture the floor will cup even if left with a quarter of a mile of expansion space.