Hello - great message board. I'm a DYIer who's going to help a neighbor install Bruce 3/4" oak floors in their bedroom. Everthing seems straightforward and your excellent website has great pointers also. However, I do have one question. How long does the new planks have to acclimate before they can be installed? All the boxes are still sealed and have been sitting in my neigbor's garage for the past 6 months. We live in N. Virginia so they've been exposed to temp and humidy ranging from below freezing and low humidity to triple digit numbers and 100% humidity. I want to make sure this floor is not going to cup or box. I hear 72 hours is enough if you lay the wood out. Thanks

you cannot put a time frame on moisture movement. The time to install the planks is when the moisture content of the subfloor and planks are within 2% to 4% of each other. It will require the use of moisture meters to make these determinations not a clock.

Thanks for the quick reply. Followup:

1) Where do you get a moisture meter?
2) Is there a way to tell without a moisture meter?

look for a hardwood supply house in the yellow pages and give them a call they probably have some in stock.

The moisture meter is the only tool to determing the moisture content in a wood subfloor and the planks to be installed.

Be carfeul with this one. That stuff has really been through the ringer by the sounds of it. The boxes on the bottom(if they've been stacked on concrete) may have soaked up alot of moisture