It's winter. I just bought my Red Oak hardwood strip flooring that is packaged and right now in the garage. There are 40 boxes and they are 60lbs a box. I would like to install it in a couple of months. Is this OK to do this? I just stacked 10 in the house and man they are really heavy. The floor seems to have a lot of pressure on it.

The garage is dry and clean. But really cold and high humidity because it's winter.

The guy from the hardwood floor store says that it's OK but would like a second opinion.

I need to work on the floors inside the house so I'd really prefer not to store them in the house.

Thanks a lot.

If you are going to install the floor in the garage, it is ok to acclimate the product to that environment. Otherwise, store it in the area it is going to be installed in.
Generally, depending on geographic location, humidity levels ar LOW in the winter season. That is, unless you are in a tropical climate.

In the winter, the outdoor humidity is 80% right now. So my garage is 80% humid because it's winter and cold outside.

Indoors, the humidity is 23%. I'm trying to get it up to 45% with the use of a furnace humidifier.

Example of Epic DIY fail.

Well, if you acclimate your floor to an 80% humidity space, and install it in a 23% space, you should end up with wide enough gaps between the boards to install more flooring in them.
Seriously though, I am trying to be emphatic about the need for PROPER acclimatization.
May I ask where you are located, geographically?

Your hardwood floor salesman said that????!!!! WOW!!

Yeah, you know what experts floor sales people are and how they have the highest integrity.

Oh yea Gary I know. My advice would be to contact the manufacture.

Mike said he needs to work on the floors right now, so is storing the flooring material in the garage, I assume temporarily. When his floors are ready, he should move the flooring to the area it is to be installed. When he does this, how long would he have to wait until the instalation?

There is no set TIME for acclimatization of flooring material. It is determined by reaching equilibrium with the environment it is going to be installed in. It could be as little as a few hours (or none) and as much as a few weeks.
The salesguy who made this sale obviously was anxious to close the deal, without regard proper procedures.

Always remember, there is no set time period for acclimation....the only way to know if the floor is properly acclimated is to check moisture content in the flooring and the subfloor. Acclimation is done so that the moisture content in the wood is equal to that of the "normal living conditions" of the jobsite.

Again, you can't be sure unless you use a quality moisture meter to check the hardwood AND the subfloor........if you're laying wood less than 3" width, the wood and subfloor should be within 4% of one another before installing; for wider flooring, the two should be within 2%.

I'm in Canada.

I should have been more clear though.

I want to store them in the outside cold for a couple of months, and this spring install them. Outside during winter, the humidity can be 80-100%. Inside it's much dryer. I still have to remove carpeting and other things around the house so don't want these things lying around the house while i'm trying to work on the subfloor.

Of course I'm going to leave them in the house 2 weeks and test their humidity at the time of installation.

I'm sure the guys were thinking that you were, or might , be planning to install the wood right out of your garage. And you just clarified that isnt your intention.

But still that's a 60% to 80% RH swing . I know your trying to bring the RH up in your home, but it will still be a heavy swing in RH to acclimate.
Out here the flooring warehouses are somewhat climate controlled, and we dont have the drastic differences your talking about.
I would still consider getting the wood in the house, no matter how inconvenient.

My suggestion would be to try and scatter the flooring inside the house. It's inconvenient somewhat but not worth the risk.

Ok I'll do that then.

That was my first hunch..

I hope the 3 days in the garage didn't hurt the wood or anything.