Hello All,
The wood flooring has been sitting in the house for about 10 days. I got a moisture meter and I'm getting readings from 9% to 15% on the hardwood depending on the piece and where I take the reading on the plank.
The sub floor has been installed for about 8 years. It's plenty dry at 5%.
I have flooring that has been installed in my house for about 8 years and it reads at 12%.
The humidity in the house is around 55-60%. I live in Oregon and it's been a little more humid than normal but nothing crazy.
I'm confused because the finish in place 5" solid maple that has been installed for 8 years reads 12%. I've been reading that you don't want to install the floor until the wood and the sub floor are at a 2% difference. At this pace is seems like I'll be waiting for a long time to install the floor. Do I continue to wait until I get a 7% reading across the board? What's a normal MC for hickory given the environment?
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks
Steve

What meter is this your using, an impedance meter or an electrical resistance meter (pin meter)?
You should really use a professional grade meter designed for woods. A impedance meter utilizes a specific gravity adjustment table and a specific gravity list of different woods.
The pin meter will or should have a species correction chart.

It's a pinless General Tool model MM8 from Home Dept. It has 4 settings drywall, masonry, softwood and hardwood.

This is how it's explained how it works in the manual.....
The meter exploits two physical phenomena to make its measurements:
1. The linear relationship between a solid material’s moisture level and its dielectric constant—and therefore its capacitance.
2. The so-called fringing-field effect—the slight spreading of the electric field produced by current flowing between two electrodes when both electrodes are on the same side of a material.
Thanks,
Steve

I think that the glue in the plywood has affected the accuracy of the meter. If your existing finished flooring is on the plywood and the maple has a reading of 12% then the sub-floor under it will be very close to the same moisture content.Your Hickory should be fine to go over the sub-floor, in my opinion.

Thanks for the response. I would have never thought of it that way.
Is it normal to have such a wide variance in hickory? 8-15% from board to board. Some boards show a different reading from one end to the other. For example one end reads 9% the other 11%.
I just don't want to rush it and kick myself later.
Thanks,
Steve

The density of the wood can affect the electrical resistance. An average of readings will be more accurate.

Ok, that makes sense. I also took a reading of some prefinished maple I had sitting around from another project and it also read 8-11%. It's been sitting for years.
I think I'm ok to get started. Thanks for talking me through it.
Steve