Moisture and wood flooring

[seekir]

Most of these floors are "floating" floors which aren't nailed or glued to the subfloor. The manufacturers recommend (or require for warranty coverage) the sort of on-site acclimation previously described before installation. The boards can be removed from their boxes and "sticker-stacked" in layers running in perpendicular orientation to promote air flow, though I doubt if excess materials can be returned once the boxes have been unsealed. Flooring should end short of the walls, usually 3/8", (especially on the walls parallel to the boards I would think) to allow for expansion. Thinner baseboards and door casings may not be sufficient to hide shrinkage in dry periods in this scenario. One solution to prevent this potential is to cut drywall short of the floor level so that the floor boards can expand underneath it in moist times. This can be accomplished after the drywall installation if necessary by screwing a blade to a board a bit thicker than the floor (and any additional thickness vapor barrier or under-layment adds) and drawing it around the perimeter of rooms to cut the drywall bases short of the floor. Once this is done, the floor can be installed closer to the walls since there is room under the drywall for the floor to expand.