Concrete Moisture Content For Wood Floors

Wood and concrete both have independent changeable moisture levels.

Concrete moisture content for wood floors.

If your subfloor is concrete and recently laid you re likely to face more of a challenge when it comes to moisture. Wood moisture meters for flooring applications come in two varieties. When installing hardwood floors over concrete subflooring appropriate mc levels must be achieved. Determining moisture content is an essential part of quality control within the flooring installation process.

For woodworkers who build cabinets fine furniture musical instruments dishes toys decorative art boat restoration or various other wood products the acceptable wood moisture content normally ranges from 6 to 8. Ideally you re looking for the moisture content of your subfloor to be 2 or less. However in some coastal areas the average rh is in the 58 to 63 range. To avoid these failures from occurring a variety of test methods are used to determine the amount of moisture in concrete before installing flooring.

In most cases your installation will probably in a zone with rh values between 40 and 45. Ideally you should aim to have a reading of somewhere between 35 and 40 humidity air or 2 3 moisture content before laying your new floor. Therefore it s advisable to have a floor tested for moisture content prior to installing flooring or moisture barriers. Flooring installers must know the moisture content of the wood flooring as well as the subfloor.

The normal moisture content of wood or emc varies from 7 19 depending on the rh in the air. These devices can be used to test the moisture content mc of wood flooring in mere seconds. If the temperature of the building is between 75 and 85 degrees fahrenheit the equilibrium moisture content of your wood should be between 7 and 8. In fact mc in both materials fluctuates with changes in ambient relative humidity rh.

Moisture testing for wood flooring and wood subfloors. Concrete slabs and floors can be excellent subfloor surfaces for tile and other floor coverings but too much moisture in the concrete can cause problems with flooring installations.