Moisture Level for Hardwood Flooring

What’s a safe moisture level for hardwood flooring?

When you’re considering hardwood floors for your home, the level of moisture and humidity in any given room will help determine which type of flooring is best. When solid hardwood floors are exposed to high levels of humidity, the wood will absorb moisture and cause the floor to swell and expand. In extremely dry conditions, the wood will shrink and contract, potentially causing gaps to appear between boards. In a worst-case scenario, changes in humidity can cause floorboards to warp or crack.

When you have a room with a high moisture level for hardwood flooring, engineered floorboards are an excellent option. Engineered floors are ideal for installation below grade – think basement or cellar flooring – and over radiant heating systems or concrete slabs. When you have a low moisture level for hardwood flooring – anything below 30% relative humidity – solid hardwood is your best bet as engineered boards aren’t designed to perform well when the air is that dry.

At Carlisle Wide Plank Floors, we offer a diverse range of solid and engineered hardwood surfaces that make it easy to find the perfect floor for any room and any environment. Our design consultants can help you decide on solid or engineered boards, sort through the benefits of light or dark engineered hardwood flooring, and help you explore the many options for color, wood grade, texture and finish available for our wide plank floors.

Types of hardwood flooring from Carlisle

You’ll find a wide range of hardwood options at Carlisle, making it easy to choose the perfect floor for any room.

• Ash features meandering grain patterns and hues that range from cream to blonde to rich nutty brown.
• Birch has tones that run from rich reddish-brown to warm amber and blonde, and features grain patterns that range from subtle swirls to flame-like effects.
• Brown Maple offers subtle and consistent grain patterns with hues of rich brown, gold and amber.
• White Maple has strikingly beautiful grain patterns with cleaner and more neutral hues that are perfect for homeowners considering light engineered wood flooring or solid wood flooring.
• Cherry features subtle but distinctive flowing grain patterns and deep red tones that darken to a burnished auburn color as the wood ages.
• Hickory has interesting grain patterns and hues that range from cocoa brown to beige in the heartwood, with lighter blonde sapwood.
• White Oak features dramatic grain that ranges from simple and sleek to intricate swirls, complemented by light, nutty brown hues in the wood.
• Rift and Quartersawn White Oak is fashioned with special cutting techniques that produce straight grains with parallel lines running the entire length of the plank.
• Red Oak has deep salmon tones in the heartwood, and tight and consistent grain patterns that yield boards of exceptional widths and lengths.
• Walnut has complex grain patterns and sumptuous chocolate hues with surprising auburn undertones.

Why choose engineered hardwood flooring from Carlisle?

For the past 50 years, Carlisle has been handcrafting the finest wood floors in the country. Our unfinished engineered flooring is produced with a much thicker top layer and more backing layers than standard engineered floorboards. While the industry-standard engineered board is typically 3″ wide and 3′ long, our engineered floorboards are available in widths up to 10″ and lengths up to 12′. And our Slowcraft® process ensures that our engineered flooring meets the industry’s highest quality standards.

When you come to Carlisle, our floors are not the only thing that will astonish you. We are widely known for our outstanding customer service – your Carlisle wide plank specialist will be your guide through the entire process of creating your one-of-a-kind floor. Our goal is to make the process of designing your Carlisle surface as exciting as possible, and to ensure that your floor meets your exacting expectations – and ours.