AN ESSENTIAL Jason Wright, Business Development Specialist at Wagner Meters,
To make sure your wood floor installation is a success, you’ll want to pay close attention to the moisture content of the wood.
A moisture meter is a vital piece of equipment in any flooring installer's kit. It’s the only tool that can tell you if the wood has acclimatised. Installing wood flooring that hasn't acclimatised to its service environment can be a killer to both the floor and the installer's reputation.
Wood is acclimatised once it stops exchanging moisture with the air around it. As a hygroscopic material – a material that absorbs and releases moisture – wood flooring interacts with its surroundings. If there's a discrepancy between the moisture levels in the air and wood, it can impact the physical integrity of the wood.
When the flooring soaks up too much moisture or has its moisture sucked out, a beautiful floor can turn ugly. Cracks, warps, and splits are only a few of the ways a moisture imbalance can deface a wood floor.
This begs the question of how to find the right moisture meter for your work.
PIN OR NON-DAMAGING PINLESS
MOISTURE METER? This is an easy question for wood flooring installers. You want a pinless moisture meter for two critical reasons: integrity of the wood and speed.
If it hasn't acclimatised to
its surroundings when you install the wood, you’re taking on a high level of risk that the floor will disfigure in the future.
Only a moisture meter can give you a quantitative measure of the moisture condition of the wood. You need to know the moisture condition, measured as a percentage (MC%), to know whether the wood has reached its equilibrium moisture content (EMC). Wood hits its EMC when in balance with the air around it. When this occurs, moisture no longer moves between the wood and air. As a result, the wood isn't at risk for shrinking, expanding, or otherwise disfiguring due to moisture. It’s acclimatised.
34 | MACHINERY, TOOLS & ACCESSORIES
A pin meter will put two holes in the wood in each spot where you take a moisture reading. That's a lot of holes marring the look of the wood. To get an accurate picture of whether the wood has acclimatised, you need to take several moisture readings on multiple pieces of wood. One moisture reading from one spot – or multiple readings from one plank – can't tell you whether the batch has acclimatised.
You don’t want to damage multiple planks with a pin-style meter. Nor do you have the time to use it. They aren't as user- friendly as a pinless meter. Pushing the prongs deep enough into the wood for each reading takes time and effort. With a pinless meter, you only need to press the sensor plate on the flat plank. You can take readings with a pinless meter in less time and with less exertion than with a pin-style meter.
If you're working with a pinless meter that has an alarm to alert you when a moisture level is out of range, you can go
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