Hello everyone, Steve here and I have some questions about installing pre-finished solid 3/4 x 3 1/2 kempas. I have already purchased my kempas, manufacturer is Elemental World. I got a closeout price on it at a local flooring company and it has been sitting in their werhouse for a couple years. I plan on putting it on a 3/4 plywood subfloor with felt paper between. I have read that kempas is corrosive to metal so my first question is do I need to renail my subfloor with a non-corrosive nail and is there a special nail that I need to install it with. I would hate to see the floor pop up because the nails gave way. 2) I was told by the dealer to apply glue to the tongue and grove before nailing. Is this recommeded? 3) An HVAC friend of mine just told me that I should install a Honeywell truesteam humidifier to keep my floor stable and set it to not run during hot summer. So as summer approches it will get very hot and dry here in July and August. We set our air conditioner to 80 as nobody is home during the day. Should I wait till then to install it? I would hate to see it expand and break becase of the higher humidity once the system kicks on. 4) I plan on putting this in the kitchen also but i wonder about water spills?

I'm amazed at so many unusual suggestions (gluing a solid T&G hardwood in this case) from dealers and the like I've seen over the years. I wonder if some ever bother to study installation specifications. Or maybe in this case you have their advice confused with another type of installation? I've also never heard of any hardwood being corrosive to nailing. Sure, maybe if it's outdoors and gets rained on. As far as when to install. It's best to keep the flooring at an average humidity level. I know that's hard to do in some regions.

Most air conditioners should pull enough moisture from the environment to maintain some sort of safe humidity level. Stephen can better assist with arid environments. We could use some more details on the size of house and location.

Not sure where he is Ken but I always warn my clients about keeping the indoor rh from getting to high or low as with any hardwood floor, stability is key. If it is dry and you have the AC on, yes you need the humidifier running, not off. Finding a temperature you can continually run the house at is better than changing it up on a daily basis and shocking the wood, although a 5 degree difference should not effect it that much. Besides that he needs a moisture meter to check that wood thats been sitting for two years of season cycles vs his subfloor/underlayment. Then there's them coated staples you can get.

I live in central Washington where you get all 4 seasons. The summers can get up around 100 for a couple of weeks and it is a dry heat. The last few years the winters and summers have been very mild. I have a done a lot of reading on this board and other sites but still had the questiones listed above. So I wont glue the joints but I read comments like this "The wood has some acidic properties, which can corrode metals installed adjacent to Kempas flooring." So when you say coated nails do you say that in jest?

SteveAG, I have never heard about Kempas being caustic to metal, nor have I read it on any manufacturers installation requirements literature. But there are coated staples, just saying. And talk about holding power, try pulling those baby's out.