Your table may have been a little too high in moisture, hence the crack as it dried slightly in the drier environment. On a hot, humid summer day, the air venting into the crawl space could be as much as 75% relative humidity and 85 degrees. As a general rule, with geographic exceptions, wood flooring performs best when the interior environment is controlled to stay within an RH range of 30% to 50% and a temperature range of 60 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Mold growth can be limited if the MC of wood can be kept below 20%. You should be able to tell where the water reached the subfloor because it will be discolored and may also be swelled up. He asked if I could double-check the findings of another home inspection company that requested expert advice on some mold/fungus they found in the crawl space of the home. I have one question with regards to pinless moisture meters and wallboard/Sheetrock. Avoid unnecessary moisture exposure of all wood components by enclosing the frame against adverse weather as soon as feasible. They are in an unheated and currently very cold barn The moisture ranges from 11% -16% according to my meter. He wants to install his companys system, seal all external openings around connections, etc. Longer pins with insulated shafts are designed for the purpose. Is it possible to get a 99.9% moisture reading (using a Cassain GM-200 hydrometer) on a particle board floor which looks and feels completely dry? Using South Carolina Residential Construction Standards to Solve Problems, Website by Integritive Web Design :: Asheville, NC. I checked it with my new moisture meter and had a reading of between 8-13.5%. Retain this information with your records. The company they hired measured 47% in the wood and declares that this must be ripped out and replaced. Call 256-318-0982 or, Engineering Inspection Mortgage Companies, Unnecessary Panic! The floors have started cupping across the entire area with more in some parts. The interior was 3/4 BW the tables dimensions were 40x 70 . The failure in your case sounds as though the piece was exposed to a rapid loss of already low ambient moisture, causing the cracking in the piece. Please commenr? Normal moisture content of wood ranges from 7% to 19%. Thanks in advance for your input! Houses with timber-framed floors can be at risk of having poor underfloor ventilation. If the moisture is less than 20% and the floor joists are structurally sound, like the joists at this home, there is no need to worry about any fungal staining that might exist. It depends on the size of the project, but anytime you put a waterborne urethane on the wood you are adding moisture to your project. Here is the one I would recommend: https://www.wagnermeters.com/shop/mmc220-extended-range-moisture-meter/, My potential house in North Carolina Fayetteville area was just checked for moisture content in the crawl space. Very educational! The normal outside equilibration moisture content (EMC) for Indiana is anywhere from 13% to 16%. Hi and good day , I would like to find out what r the right temperature readings for workable wood slabs in South Africa specially Matumi wood slabs. Perhaps there is something different about the East and West walls. A termite repair company (also licensed contractors) told me that I needed to replace the planks on my second story deck. Any advice would be appreciated. Good luck. i cored out a small section of the bottom beam (3 inches wide) all the way down to the foundation. And it really helps to pay an HVAC contractor to better seal and insulate the A/C ducts so they dont leak cold air!!! In an air conditioned house the wood floor. For example, if the moisture content of the delivered wood is 12% and the optimal MC is 6%, then physical problems will occur during the acclimation process. As lumber dries, it may split, cup and warp. The thinner veneers wont have much bearing on the reading. New roof first week of November. Last reviewed: 12 Sep 2021 Last published: 12 Sep 2021. 1= z@ Keep monitoring it. 12.5% is gettin there but not quite to the 6-9% mentioned in the article. As a general guideline, an emission rate of 1.4 kg/100m (3 lbs/1000 ft) or less is considered acceptable for most floor coverings. Thanks Phil. Characteristic of this wood easy to absorb of water and have large open pore. Stopping the moisture is much cheaper and easier than repairing the structure. This weight difference is then used to calculate the woods original moisture content. Brilliant article. Hello, I am renovating my kitchen and installing hardwood floors. What is the acceptable moisture level for plywood? A Brick Veneer Crack Tragedy: A True Story, Spraying for Mold on Floor Joists: Pest Control. Yes, it is possible to have a moisture content reading of 99.9%. This can be a problem once installed in furniture or a floor. I had engineered hard wood installed and it is curling at the joints. My question for you is: after a smallish unheated underground space (similar to a basement, i.e. hj0Ed=h].J-)_q},jR3$\ eH"wCk)E)J8 Wall Corners-Perpendicular within 1/4" in 10'. Whether youre a woodworker making cabinets, a wood flooring professional installing hardwood floors, or if you use wood in construction, wood moisture content (MC) should be always on your mind. The excess moisture source should be corrected if found. Ideally, you want to check the EMC in the area you will be working on your slab, along with the area it will live in. These are typical readings for exterior wood. Yes, the wood can still be read for MC with a stain on it. The SG setting is on the card that comes with the meter. After my inspection I wrote the following report: As per your request, I visited the subject residence today to evaluate mold or fungus growth on the floor joists. I had a water leak under my crawl space which has 3 inches of foam insulation applied to the underside of the sub floor. Hi Larry, We are a joinery company and we have a project here in UAE which is located in another part of the emirates and the humidity in that area is very high especially during summer because it is near the coastal area. In contrast, Las Vegas in the drier Southwest has much lower EMC percentages than most other U.S. cities. 11 0 obj << /Linearized 1 /O 15 /H [ 1017 209 ] /L 26721 /E 14333 /N 2 /T 26383 >> endobj xref 11 18 0000000016 00000 n 0000000724 00000 n 0000000820 00000 n 0000000963 00000 n 0000001226 00000 n 0000001393 00000 n 0000001566 00000 n 0000001771 00000 n 0000002827 00000 n 0000002934 00000 n 0000004271 00000 n 0000005322 00000 n 0000005517 00000 n 0000007871 00000 n 0000007949 00000 n 0000009756 00000 n 0000001017 00000 n 0000001206 00000 n trailer << /Size 29 /Info 10 0 R /Encrypt 13 0 R /Root 12 0 R /Prev 26373 /ID[<2277e06d91c56aa37caf41071ab29f47><2277e06d91c56aa37caf41071ab29f47>] >> startxref 0 %%EOF 12 0 obj << /Type /Catalog /Pages 9 0 R /PageMode /UseThumbs /OpenAction 14 0 R >> endobj 13 0 obj << /Filter /Standard /V 1 /R 2 /O (D+K\r,s\n?$+%{Nhjp-!) I want to use it to build a table and will be moving it to the location where I will work on it shortly. I would think it would vary depending on the contents. You mentioned it was installed just 3 days after it was delivered. The same study showed a 40% loss in joint strength and concluded that a 20% MC may significantly compromise shear resistance of exterior walls. Do you have any recommendations on how to prevent mold from getting on the wood? The acceptable moisture levels of wood and lumber are in the range of 6% to 8% for interior and 9% to 14% for exterior wood or for building envelope components within constructed assemblies. The lumber was recently milled, although the tree had been cut months, years ago. I called them back out in August of 2019 because after installing a humidifier and in the prime of humid season, the floors were showing no signs of improvement. Do you see any dangers of using poly with a MC of around 12, or am I risking adhesion failure especially if the wood does end up shrinking dimensionally? Please provide us with regular updates. 1. If your subfloor is a wood product, make sure the reading is less than 20% on the moisture meter. 15% is too high, at least for hardwoods. I have an unusual question, if I was to sandwich recycled paper (similar to hardwood floor paper only heavier) between 2 layers of wood as a draft stop what should the moisture content be to avoid the paper absorbing any water and ending up with a mold issue thanks in advance for any info you can provide. Foundation Underpinning Repair: Unnecessary? If you need further clarification http://www.nwfa.org is an excellent source. The excess moisture source must be immediately corrected, and the situation carefully monitored until the WMC returns to the 12-16 range. 1 4 Thanks Mark, The EMC outside and the wood should be the same. This building was constructed around 1966 and this little space appears very dry, in spite of a recent leak from an nearby hot water tank. The floor installer put the floors down without allowing the boards to acclimate. ft., and averaging the results. You will want closer to 6% in the drier climates and 9% MC for the more humid climates. i dont understand how the bottom beam looks like swiss cheese from all the holes ive drilled and has had a commercial blower on it for days yet the number is still high despite there being no visible water to keep the wood wet. I have 1 1/2 thick cherry boards that I had milled from a tree in my yard last fall. Hi Davetta, Youll need to contact a local mold inspection company that is certified. Under the floor. However, and unless otherwise permitted by a flooring product manufacturer, the following maximum moisture emission levels over a 24 hour period are permissible for the following floor coverings types: When determining the acceptable moisture levels in wood flooring before installation, the NWFA states that the flooring professional should establish a baseline for acclimation. Be notified when an answer is posted. Surface molds may develop. These WMC readings are usually provided by pest control operators, and are included in the termite letter (form CL-100 Official South Carolina Wood Infestation Report). The three main sources of moisture: Condensation, Foundation wall transfer, and leaks. The front of the . Will your meters work to find MC levels for composites? Hello Larry I am from Bangladesh. Accuaracy is of course more important.. "Mold requires moisture to survive, so protecting lumber and wood structures from moisture will prevent mold growth. The inspector said his meter reading taken from my basement on subflooring/joists/framing was too high. The average annual relative humidity will play the biggest role in determining what the optimal MC should be. Headers, columns, and joists are rotting. Knowing were all the piers are, I can stand on top and feel a small hump in the floors. These tools will give you the confidence that you have done everything on your part to ensure the highest quality in the piece you have built. We will be building fir windows. For severely rotten joists though, you're going to want to remove the rotten section. What do you recommend the reader to be at before insulation and drywall on new construction? You must be careful with a thick slab once you cut it. My question is regarding finishing. When wood is subjected to an environment that is higher in humidity, it will swell or expand. I would have thought that if the floor gave a 99.9% water saturation reading, it would have had to have been noticeably wet. Treated wood is typically still wet when its delivered to the job site. Should you check moisture levels on a trailor floor on a massive rainy day? 1. Mobeen, If a wooden sample gains moisture, then the sample will increase in size. h26P0Pw/+Q0L)66 I am building a farm style dining table with pecan 2 thick X 8-0 long boards. Once the summer cooling season ends, and the A/C is shut off, and the outside air cools, and the humidity drops significantly, the cool dry air now flowing beneath the home dries out the floor joists. Two weeks is sufficient for softwood. I requested the treated lumber be brought in a few weeks prior to build, stickered and put under cover to acclimate and dry it. Very simple and understandable. Thanks for the question. In other words, the water weighs more than the wood fibers. Specifically in the first 3-4 on one side of the door is 11%, then drops to ~8%. Also, the glue manufacturer should ideally give you some specifications for max and min moisture content. So what do you think is the ideal moisture% I should dry them to before rotary polishing them? Standard construction studs such as 24 and 26s are typically dried to 19% moisture content before they are installed. If the moisture is less than 20% and the floor joists are structurally sound, like the joists at this home, there is no need to worry about any fungal staining that might exist. Moisture contents of 12 to 17% is ok. You dont want to see any subfloor reach about 25% which is where mold will start to grow. For example, if the expected EMC ranges from a low of 6% to a high of 9%, the baseline moisture content of the wood would be 7.5%. What can we do to get the row products closer in moisture content, we are currently using fans, We are in northern lower Michigan I am the general contractor for the house, and want to avoid any problems, would love to talk to you on the phone, my number is 9894647248, Mark Skiba, This is a great site about moisture content. Step 1: Check the Floor. Once the wood samples weight stops changing, its weight is compared to what it was before the drying process began. Too wet and you get fuzzing. If that is the case you need to remove the flooring and examine the subfloor. Timber logs & Lumber into India company remained actively involved in harvesting and sale of Hardwood logs of Indian origin. But the table will be inside? They were installed over existing plywood subfloor. I have come across this and havent made the purchase from my friend because I am not sure about the warp or breaking it will come. A wood moisture content of 47% is too high. Wood exposed to air with a RH of about 90% will reach a Wood Moisture Content of about 20%. If after the inspection we find that your sagging floor joists need support or your home's foundation needs repair we may recommend using IntelliJack, JES Helical Piers, or JES Push Piers. They delivered the wood one day, and began to stain and install it over the next two days, finishing on the 6th day. Thanks for the email. The crawl space must be a minimum of 18" to the bottom of the floor joists, and the soil in the crawl space covered with a heavy duty plastic moisture barrier, and sealed at the seams. The joist span tables start with 26 lumber and it goes all the way up to 212. Add an answer. if not, can you tell me why? Should it be less? There are water stains on the particle board floor, but the flooring felt completely dry a few minutes after the reading was taken (I didnt see the reading being taken), the floor looks dry in the plumbers photo, the particle board flooring is not noticeably swollen, and it certainly has no flaking or other signs of disintegration or lessening to its structural integrity. Currently reading a 12.5%. I had a pin meter but found I had to put the pins in the ends or try to find an area that wouldnt be seen, so Im thinking a pinless might be better. Including some high-end species like Rosewood, ebony, Mahogany, White Cedar, Bija Sal, Walnut, Gmelina, etc. Im in Milwaukee, wi if that matters. Ceilings account for 35%, walls - 25% and windows 25%. I have removed the 1 3/4 edge and resawn to take out the splinter (1/4) re bicuited . 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