Hello,

Today we had Brazilian walnut solid hardwood (3/4") installed in our home and the installer recommended we buy a humidistat and also install a whole house humidifier to our furnace.

I picked up the humidistat and am planning on purchasing and installing the humidifier next month.

My concern is that when I left the humidistat in the room with the hardwood flooring it read 25% which I understand to be very dry and could cause the wood to buckle. I would appreciate it if someone could confirm how long it takes for the impact of dryness to show. I.e. can I wait a month to install the humidifier, or should I spend the money on a portable one immediately. I would rather go with the whole house humidifier but wont have the cash or time to install for a few weeks.

Thanks in advance for any help!

@ 25%rH, you should have gaps in you wood floors, if the wood has in fact equalized to MC

During the summers and humidity levels much higher, you may see some buckling.

Shrink and swell of wood is in direct relation to the moisture it absorbs and loses, like a sponge.

Your installer is giving you some excellent advice. If installed at like 9% from the manufacture and your house is kept near that number you should have no problem. If installed at that number and your rh is lower you might see gaps as it loses moisture content. Then it may start checking and splitting a little bit,mostly on prefinished.
The reason manufactures want your rh to be close to manufacturing level is to prevent this from happening. Pre-drying the wood to the zone your in helps prevent gapping but might also cause checking and splitting, although it should not be so bad on engineered as solid hardwood. Prefinished has a trendency to check the finish on prefinished wood more than on site sand and finished wood floors.