It’s set up day. You arrive on the jobsite anticipating the wooden ground planks to be acclimated absolutely and able to go. However as a radical skilled, you continue to verify the planks with a moisture meter. That’s once you discover the wooden is just a few proportion factors above the wanted moisture content material.
What occurred?
The HVAC system has been off, shifting the environmental situations and affecting the wooden. Shaking your head, you notice you in all probability must wait one other week to put in. You might set up now, however you already know that with out correct acclimation, you’re placing the ground susceptible to future harm. And that’s not an possibility that meets your requirements.
If solely you’d been in a position to catch the issue sooner. And you could possibly have – with the suitable instruments. On this article, we’ll take a look at how knowledge loggers can assist you monitor acclimation situations to keep away from these irritating situations.
However first, why does acclimation even matter?
A Essential Step in Stopping Wooden Moisture Injury
Moisture is enemy quantity one in every of wooden flooring. Greater than $1 billion is spent yearly repairing flooring failures as a consequence of extra moisture arising from a concrete subfloor. Concrete moisture isn’t the one drawback, although.
The wooden planks themselves have to be on the proper moisture content material for his or her ultimate setting – a quantity often called the equilibrium moisture content material (EMC). The EMC is the moisture content material the wooden will attain at a sure temperature and relative humidity. If the setting shifts, the wooden will shrink or increase accordingly.
The consequence? Warping, cupping, or gapping.
To keep away from harm, you (and later the home-owner) should preserve the house setting constant – someplace between 30 and 50 p.c relative humidity and 60° and 80° F.
To find out the EMC utilizing an EMC chart, you simply have to know the temperature and relative humidity of the jobsite. For instance, a house with a relative humidity of 40 p.c and temperature of 70° F would have an EMC of seven.7 p.c. Then, merely enable the ground planks to acclimate to that quantity for a profitable set up. Nevertheless, a shift within the setting might have an effect on the acclimation course of. That’s the place environmental knowledge loggers are available in.
How Information Loggers Make a Distinction in Acclimation
Environmental knowledge loggers are essential for guaranteeing an area stays on the proper temperature and relative humidity for acclimation. As soon as the wooden acclimates to the EMC, you gained’t have to fret about it shifting (so long as these situations keep the identical). That’ll prevent time and the frustration of coping with flooring harm later.
An information logger offers you with the house’s ambient temperature and relative humidity measurements. It takes readings at set intervals so you may have a report of these situations. Many more moderen loggers can connect with a smartphone app. Then, everytime you’re on the jobsite, you may sync this info to your gadget for evaluation.
Much more handy, some knowledge loggers use mobile networks so you may monitor the room situations from anyplace and at any time. The information you achieve from the info logger will profit your work in some ways. For one, you’ll be capable of rapidly catch any modifications in environmental situations that might hinder the acclimation course of. Thus, you’ll be capable of be sure the ground reaches the EMC, stopping harm later.
Make Environmental Information Loggers A part of Your Set up Package deal
Including an environmental knowledge logger to the bundle earlier than your set up will show useful as you acclimate supplies, set up the ground, and information your buyer in sustaining their ground.
You’ll impress your buyer with how thorough you might be and up-to-date with the newest know-how. You’ll equip them with a device to be answerable for their ground. Most significantly, you’ll save so many troubles – wasted acclimation time, ground harm, and the price of repairs. The ground you put in will keep lovely for years to return.
Jason Spangler, gross sales supervisor for Wagner Meters, has greater than 25 years of expertise in gross sales and gross sales administration throughout varied industries. He has launched varied merchandise efficiently to the market, together with the unique Speedy RH® concrete moisture check. Spangler has intensive business involvement, together with the Nationwide Wooden Flooring Affiliation (NWFA), the Worldwide Licensed Flooring Installers Affiliation (CFI), and is vice chairman of associations for The Flooring Contractors Affiliation (FCICA). For extra details about Wagner Meters, name 800.505.1283 or go to wagnermeters.com.
