Hardwood floors add more elegance to the home. They are durable, strong, versatile and sensitive. Sensitive? Yes, towards humidity, when not taken care of properly. This vulnerability has a bad impact on the flooring. Slight imperfection due to excess moisture can be corrected by sanding and Floor Polishing Melbourne.
Floor Sanding Melbourne also has its limitation when it comes to some of the listed impacts. It is not like that these impacts cannot be treated or cannot be prevented from happening. This is where we the professionals who are experts in installing the hardwood floor plays an important role.
What Do The Hardwood Floors In The Humid Season?
Humidity means an excess of moisture; hardwood tends to absorb the moisture. Upon absorbing the moisture these hardwood planks expand and swells. Expansion of the wood is natural but what causes the problem is the improper installation of these hardwood planks. The result in humid season is cupping, crowning, cracking and buckling.
Let us know what these are one by one
Crowning – an expansion of the hardwood floor in such a way that the middle of the plank is lifted slightly up due to no room for expansion. This is a result of sanding the floor soon after the cupping. Hence when it loses the absorbed moisture and returns to its normal position the sanded edged seems to be lower.
Cupping – On encountering excessive moisture the absorption of the moisture occurs disproportionally and the result of which is cupping. It can be recognised by slightly lifted edges than the centre of the hardwood plank. On reduction of the relative humidity either naturally or by the use of dehumidifiers this plank takes the normal shape back.
Buckling – these are some of the extreme impacts due to excess relative humidity. This occurs when the expansion of the hardwood planks goes way beyond the expansion space left for the installation professionals, such that they are lifted away from the floor.
Cracking – in cases, if the exerted pressure due to expansion is way too much to handle for the planks, they tend to crack damaging the structural integrity of these hardwood planks.
These are some of the natural as well as extreme expansion of the hardwood due to the relative humidity in various seasons.
How This Can Be Taken Care Of?
Let us start with the correct installation of the hardwood floors. DIY or hiring an amateur could end up as one or more of the above disasters that you are eventually going to regret. Instead, get the installation done by professionals who are very aware of all the attributes and aspects to be kept in mind to avoid situations like these.
The next would be to take care of the hardwood floor after installation. Do not use an excessively wet mop on the floor while cleaning, install dehumidifiers at home, chooses good quality hardwood to best fit your needs. When needed have the sanding and Floor Polishing Melbourne done by the professionals as they know very well what is the appropriate time for sanding the floors.