Can I get a away with this? Furniture maker Lonnie Bird weighs in, “I don’t want the wood to shrink after I use it because the wood will warp or split.”. You can hardly see the humps except the first pier that popped up ¼”. (EMC) than other pieces of wood, depending on its location. The house was not in the flood area however they did receive 20 inches of rain. Measured in the 10% area. Because the moisture content of wood is equal to the weight of the water in the wood divided by the weight of the wood without the water, it’s possible for the moisture content to exceed 100%. Over a year ago, I re-shim all the piers with metal shims. The fermented beans are sun-dried or kiln-dried to reduce moisture content to 6–7 percent and bagged for shipment. Other articles where Moisture content is discussed: cocoa: Fermentation: …become plump and full of moisture, and the interior develops a reddish brown colour and a heavy, sharp fragrance. In March of this year I had new white oak 2” flooring installed. The same study showed a 40% loss in joint strength and concluded that a 20% MC may significantly compromise shear resistance of exterior walls. Flour has been considered adulterated with water, under the federal standards of the United States, if the moisture content exceeded 13.5 per cent.Recently this standard has been changed to 15 per cent. We built our home from ground up and have a sealed crawl space dehumidifiers, etc… In January of 2019, we had our builder and hardwood floor contractor come out because our hardwoods were starting to separate a lot. I have built two table tops (douglas fir) that have both suffered major cracking in their final location. Should I wait for the slabs to be within that 6-9% to cut and glue? It is not good judging moisture content from a single sample of drying hay. A general rule of thumb for the coastal regions of FL would be 11-13%MC. Softwoods, such as spruce, can have more moisture. The critical moisture content varies depending on the material, and it is further related to velocity and temperature. There will be statistical outliers on both the low and the high end and you’ll want to catch these by using a quality moisture meter. I live on the fl coast so what should the moisture level be? Two weeks is sufficient for softwood. The moisture content of properly seasoned firewood should be under 20%, as firewood burns its most efficiently between moisture content levels of 15% and 20%. The floor immediately felt stronger. The moisture content at winter time can be estimated to be 3-4 %. I hope that helps. Wonder if they are trying to cover themselves. The new wood was brought in in bundles ~2’ x 2’ x 6’ and left that way to acclimate for ~2 weeks. We had boards that were also cracking/splitting and other places where small pinholes were showing up. When it comes to the moisture content of plywood or dimensional lumber, an MC of 17% to 19% reduces the overall strength of plywood, and an MC of 20% or more reduces the strength of dimensional lumber (i.e., lumber cut to certain predefined sizes, such as 2x4s). The plumber said that the floor has an elevated moisture reading and took a photo showing the 99.9% (maximum reading) on the meter while the meter was on the floor. If the middle is wet, you may experience cracking/splitting if dried too fast. RH where they were built is about 29-30%. Moisture content analysis in food is the cornerstone of prevention. 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 have a question, I have moisture in the crawl space, we insulated the crawl with closed cell, cannot get the osb subfloor below. Water was coming out of this outlet and onto the floor? Hi, in MN where extreme temperatures are very hard on homes. Thanks for the question. A 10% moisture content reading means that 10% of a wood sample’s weight is due to water in the wood. I am from Bangladesh. I wanted to talk to someone at Wagner about moisture guages and is there a dealer near Chattanooga, TN. Hello! Insert the pins into the surface of the wood you want to test. For most areas of the United States, acceptable moisture levels of wood and lumber can be in the range of 9% to 14% for exterior wood or for building envelope components within constructed assemblies. Bird, who runs the School of Fine Woodworking outside Knoxville, Tennessee, says he knows wood shrinks seasonally but wants to minimize the shrinkage and expansion by drying the wood to a moisture content of about 8%. I live in Charlotte, NC. Moisture contents of 12 to 17% is ok. You don’t want to see any subfloor reach about 25% which is where mold will start to grow. Differences Between Pin vs Pinless Moisture Meters. In all cases, determining the acceptable moisture level of wood requires the use of an extremely accurate moisture meter. Different wood? There are legal limits to the maximum or minimum amount of water that must be present in certain types of food. The electrical current will then move from pin to pin and measure the resistance encountered. water leaked over the edge. Obviously, the ambient conditions within which the wood or paper is present can alter the MC% of the wood or paper. (It’d effectively seal the cavity under the vanity, so once the trim is back on, i don’t think it’ll dry out much more.) As it dries, you should expect slight changes in width and length. An easy, catch-all method to get at water content levels remains elusive. Currently the RH is 76%, the residence RH will be set at around 35%. Colorado is cold and dry. Many of our customers are successfully using our hand held moisture meters on engineered flooring. Howard Pruden in Edmonton, Alberta where it’s cold and dry. In fact, according to M. Steven Doggett, Ph.D. LEED AP, the founder of Built Environments, Inc., wood moisture content as high as 15% can cause corrosion of metal fasteners and at 16% may lead to fungal growth. For wide-width solid flooring (3” or wider), there should be no more than a 2% difference in moisture content between properly acclimated wood flooring and subflooring materials. If the moisture content of the product is well outside the range of optimal MC, the wood flooring should not be accepted because it will lead to shrinkage, bowing, cupping, and other physical problems. The other was for a $100 retail gift card. Moisture in coal varies from the point where it is received to the point where it enters the boiler. 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? Learn how your comment data is processed. Three years ago, the floor sank in a heavy traffic area and an engineer told me Masonite was used to shim and had compressed. We’re in northern Indiana, humid summers long cold winters…. I am not aware of a standard moisture content for packaging food or any other product. Standard construction studs such as 2×4 and 2×6’s are typically dried to 19% moisture content before they are installed. Cheers, Can I a cut them first, then glue them once they are dryer? Have I been wrong? 2. Observed water leaking along seams of several sheets of original plywood in attic. The optimal humidity in a home is generally 35%-55% and anything under 20% is actually considered unhealthy, as it dries out the skin. MC d = m h2o / m d (1). The angle iron will prevent much warping, and I do plan on finishing all sides (and ends). If the water leak was bad enough, dry rot can occur causing possible structural integrity issues. The fir windows and exterior doors will be affected by the the exterior and interior RH. Looking back at pictures of the build process, they brought the hardwood bundles into my home in late October of 2017 and installed them 3 days later. I continue to prove to myself, how little I know about the enigmas of determining moisture content. Wood changes dimensions with moisture - it swells when it gains moisture - and it shrinks when it loses moisture. Once the wood sample’s weight stops changing, its weight is compared to what it was before the drying process began. If you want, just give me a call at 800-634-9961, ext 225. I am presently drying it to around 8%-10% and then rotary polishing it, but I am facing the issue of burrs on the edges. I would have thought that if the floor gave a 99.9% water saturation reading, it would have had to have been noticeably wet. I get some water seepage through an exterior wall at basement floor level as a result of heavy rain. The engineered wood floor appears ok. Failure to allow the wood to acclimate or come into balance with the RH at its end-use location could result in any number of moisture-related problems after the wood product is constructed. So, when looking at the relative humidity of the space, spaces left above 70% RH for extended periods will also promote mold growth. is a key parameter affecting the properties of commercially important products such as foods, cellulosics (e.g. 17 and the flooring is at 6 to 7. Most types of wood species will mold above 25% moisture content, including pine. It is best to allow the wood to equilibrate to the room environment. Manufacturers, distributors and retailers each are concerned with how moisture content affects what they are making, shipping, storing or selling. In their warehouse, and perhaps partly also in the container. Moisture. However, this range will vary slightly according to the geographic region because of varying RH levels. Now would the pine be okay to use as a top cover piece to an radiator cover? It is possible, in some species, to have a moisture content higher than 100 percent. Its mc is 11- 12% . The Las Vegas EMC of wood or lumber ranges from 4.0% to 8.5%. These include warping, cracking, buckling, diminished wood strength, corrosion of fasteners, and even fungal growth. I checked it with my new moisture meter and had a reading of between 8-13.5%. Wood is hygroscopic. We are shipping some acacia chopping board to colorado ( US) with moisture ranges from 10-14% while shipping from India but once product received all get cracked . When questioned, he said because Room is under 200 sq feet it is not a problem. Moisture Content of soil can be determined by two methods; 1. Whether you’re 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. Question: Just to make sure that you get accurate moisture measurements, has your moisture meter been checked for calibration? Water is found in all food products. 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? It would seem, then, that determining “how much water” is technically challenging. This particular moisture meter is ideal for checking the moisture content of walls because it has reading scales for both drywall and wood that allow for precise, quantitative moisture measurements in these materials. It is important to have the same temperature and humidity during those 2 weeks that will be maintained after installation. Working with some slabs of spruce. Moisture content influences the taste, texture, weight, appearance, and shelf life of foodstuffs. Hi Moisture Experts, We’re looking to replace the floor in an old (unheated) hay barn with treated tongue & Groove 2×6 flooring and need to know if the advertised 19% MC will be ok and not shrink too much. Any suggestions to this being possible to correct? Phil, what are you making with the cedar, and in what type of environment will it be? One sheet of plywood is 25% next to a 2X4 truss reading 17-27%. Thanks. Typical moisture content for furniture in a home is 6-9%. I’m trying to find specs on treated lumber for NC. Let’s make sure you know the definitions: Larry Loffer is a senior technician at Wagner Meters, where he has over 30 years of experience in wood moisture measurement. Is your electrical outlet that is 3 inches above the floor inside the house? The cedar I have is now at 12-16%. At that point in time, we did not have a conditioned house. Hi Larry, thanks for the great knowledge sharing. Thanks. 1. in Indonesia there are a lot of raw materials consisting of natural fibers, such as: pandanus, water hyacinth, rattan etc. We have had very bad cracking in sheetrock and floors. You must be careful with a thick slab once you cut it. hello I been getting very sick in my home so I had my manger do a mold and moisture test which came back high level of moisture levels which a contractor wants to take the sub floor up and 2 to 4 inches of the wall but my apartment manger is not releasing to report and he’s is saying the spore test didnt pick up any mold spore… question is it safe for me and my family to be in the home with high level of moisture in the restroom which the floor have been really soft for over 9 months now as well as the kids bedroom where a pipe burst. The laboratory analysis is required to be corrected to the actual moisture content in the field. Any advice would be appreciated. We have a free app called “WoodH2O” for Android or iPhone. An MC in this range, therefore, is considered sufficiently dry for exterior in-service wood. As with any wood product, the environment where the finished product will “Live” will determine the correct moisture content. The following four moisture states are defined: Since wood is hygroscopic, it loses or gains moisture depending on the relative humidity of the surrounding air. I really need to know as I am getting so many different opinions The maximum subfloor moisture level for solid strip flooring or wide-width solid flooring is either 12% or 13%, depending on the manufacturer. New roof first week of November. Are the measurements of all wood the same? Best, However, the ideal humidity range in some climates may be higher or lower. We dry materials until they stop losing weight and tentatively assert that the difference between the starting and ending weights is that of the water. Installers should also measure the moisture in wood subfloors and concrete slabs as they can also affect wood flooring. The floor installer put the floors down without allowing the boards to acclimate. Continue reading MC in the home. My first question is how to determine the MC of eng wood flooring which composite of different species layer, face and different species to form plywood core. There is only so much moisture a piece of wood can give up, over time, before a failure occurs. Knowing were all the piers are, I can stand on top and feel a small hump in the floors. I had a water leak under my crawl space which has 3 inches of foam insulation applied to the underside of the sub floor. Measuring Moisture in Wood Flooring. Did the Contractor mention anything about the structural strength of the joists? Thanks for the reply. Are we certain that other volatiles did not leave with the water or decompose with the heat? I have seen home built in the dead of winter, covered in snow, and still dry out enough for a successful home build. While the surface of the floor might feel dry, there could be higher moisture inside. The typical moisture content for hardwoods that will be indoors is 6-9 percent. The next question is almost the same as before, if we have various kinds of wood, such as March wood, mango wood, pine. Last week, as I was reflecting on a recent moisture content problem, I recalled our series “Loss-on Drying and Other Moisture Mysteries.”In that series I examined moisture chemistry in products. That is still quite a wide range. Turn on the meter. The lumber was recently milled, although the tree had been cut months, years ago. In the end, we must compromise rather than seek absolutes, focusing on what actually works for each product, process and end result desired. This means the weight of the water exceeds the weight of the wood by itself. Thank you for sharing such valuable information. Using wood with a moisture content above 14% isn’t recommended because it may have detrimental long-term effects on the construction. Typical humidity levels inside a home is between 40 to 50%. According to the the U.S. Green Building Council's Green Guide, moisture levels in a home should remain under 50 percent. My builder and flooring contractor asked for me to give the hardwoods a season to acclimate and they would surely move back together in june/july time frame. 10 – 14% moisture content is too high. Although some movement can be expected between 6% and 9%, wood flooring can shrink or swell more dramatically outside this range. Moisture content of Chaunceys wood flooring. As the humidity increases, the MC increases, causing the wood to expand. Moisture content is one of the most commonly measured properties of food materials. Thanks If the wood is covered by a material like MDF or other, do we take 2x the measurements? Second, would the same pine slab, would it be okay to use for a side table or Kitchen island. He added that plastic sheet ground covering that his company laid over my crawl space had been moved in spots and that I no longer had full coverage. Let’s go over the basics of each…, Oven dry testing is the oldest method for measuring the moisture content of wood. My question is regarding finishing. Thank you. We will be building fir windows. It’s always a good idea to check with the manufacturer of the finish also. Acceptable wood moisture readings on a meter normally range from 6% to 8% for woodworking. Allowing the wood to acclimate in the final spot before building, really isn’t possible because it is 8 hours away, and I can’t take a week off to go up there and build the table. As the humidity decreases, the MC decreases, causing the wood to shrink. when coffee has a maximum of 12% moisture), or for verifying that coffee in the marketing chain is at a safe moisture content. You mentioned the humidity outside is 55%. The plywood setting is .57. If I dry too much, there’s discoloration and breakage of product during polishing. Failure to do this will result in warping, cracking, and other problems after the construction of the wood product. What would one expect to read in plywood subfloor and old growth pine floor joist? Hi Davetta, You’ll need to contact a local mold inspection company that is certified. Beekeepers must be able to control the moisture level with a good degree of accuracy. To make sure the wood is properly dried, he always uses a moisture meter before working with it. The National Wood Flooring Association (NWFA) has specific installation guidelines for wood flooring and how they relate to moisture content. all concrete) is framed and sheetrocked (though not mudded or sealed in any way) is then the studs are tested for humidity, what would be a reasonable level here in Seattle, living approximately 100 yards Puget Sound? The water wasn’t properly dried and organic growth was discovered by previous owner. But when you touch the pins to the embedded screws, you get between 14 and 24 % in various areas of the board. Let us indulge in a short digression to the main techniques we use to get closer to some answers. Typically, moisture content is determined via a thermogravimetric approach, i.e. The installer should then check the moisture content of multiple boards and average the results. I would like to rip two slabs and glue them together to make a nice large dining room table. Too wet and you get fuzzing. The EMC of wood or lumber exposed to an outdoor atmosphere varies across the U.S. For instance, in the coastal city of Seattle, the EMC of wood or lumber is higher than the EMC of cities inland or in the Southwest. From a strictly static MC%, 16-20% MC for long duration is going to promote mold growth. Please give us a call at (800) 634-9961 or email info@wagnermeters.com, if you’d prefer. I would think it would vary depending on the contents. You should be able to specify a lower moisture content. Required fields are marked *. I have a couple questions. One of the beauties of spar is that it allows the wood to move quite a bit, while still retaining good adhesion. Moisture content of 11.5% for the oak is a little high for furniture grade hardwoods. Pinless moisture meters are even easier to use. that moisture levels, measurement precision and absolute moisture amounts are moving targets. Mold starts to grow in the mid to high 20 percent moisture contents. Any input would be most appreciated. The home inspector failed to report all the sewage stains on the plastic and organic growth on some of the joists have which had been exposed to moisture the whole time even though the dehumidifier has been mitigating the plumbing leaks. Not using the correct procedure. Commonly used moisture analysis technologies are the moisture analyzer and the … Each piece of lumber is unique and carries physical characteristics that may include the following: knots, warping, shrinkage, swelling and/or splitting. CSC Scientific Company, Inc2799-C Merrilee DriveFairfax VA, 22031800-621-4778703-280-5142 (fax)csc@cscscientific.comNo part of this page or any other page in this site may be copied or reproduced in any way. P.S. We’re so sorry for the inconvenience. Moisture Content. Moisture content standards for individual products, services or environments vary greatly. Based on common guidelines or recommendations, the acceptable moisture levels for wood are as follows: Keep in mind that a wood’s acceptable moisture level will depend primarily on how it will be finally used and the average RH where it will be finally used. Flooring didn ’ t gone any further since the condition was found so close to us the! 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