Hi all

I have 3/4" x 3.5" solid maple to staple to 5/8 plywood on second floor, now the maple (bruce kennendale) is at 5.5%mc and the subfloor is at 10%mc (according to my j-lite delmhorst), iknow i should get it within 2% before installing, but its been sitting in the room out of the boxes for almost a month now with no movement in mc. The subfloor has been a steady 10%, will the mc of the maple increase if i leave it another month or two?

It's probably low because you are heating the house. I rarely see subfloors go below 10%. If you use a humidifier, you can probably increase the MC somewhat. Stick your meter in other woods in the house to see where they are at. Is that 5.5% MC the average or are all the boards testing at that amount? Generally, I'll see some higher and some lower. Then I average the numbers to get a reading. Or test a bunch of boards keeping track of how many boards tested at what %. Then use the % that the most boards tested at. What is the RH in your home now? Should be between 45 and 50%.

rh in the house has been steady 39-40% for months now, the meter only reads down to 5.5% so some boards may be lower but i never get a reading higher than 5.5 %. Just wondering why do you want me to check wood in other parts of the house?

i am testing about 5 boards

[/quote]Just wondering why do you want me to check wood in other parts of the house?[quote]
To see what other wood is reading. If all the other wood is reading 8 to 10% and your flooring is 5.5%, I see that as a problem. And that lower RH is why the flooring is not going up in MC. The recommended interior RH is 45% minimum with 50 % ideal. If you install the flooring with that lower MC and at that lower RH, then, when the more moderate weather hits (and higher interior and exterior humidity), your floorig will expand. And because it's solid maple plank, it is not a very stable wood; less than average. It may/can look cupped if it expands a lot. I still recommend a humidifier and an RH at 50%.

Are you pinning the wood across the grain or with the grain? With that low of MC, they should start checking any day now. Heard any loud pops come from the bundles?

well i don't think i can get the house up to 50% in winter, i was hoping it would be ok to have 40% winter and 50-55% summer (running ac), i have put up some other posts and a feew guys (maybe you) told me use playing cards between each row to allow for expansion come summer. i will test other subfloors in the house and get back to you on that, but do you think the maple will come up a bit, or am i wasting my time with that?

fllorguy i'm pinning with the grain as it says on the j-lite box

no loud pops (not sure what you mean by that), the wood came in cardboard boxes with no plastic wrapping, so maybe it was dry where they were storing it, however its been in the house since mid january, half the boxes are still closed the other half is in the room opened.