Found out engineered hardwood expands way more than solid wood

I was prepping a job last week for a 900 square foot living room in Denver and looked up the manufacturer specs again. Turns out engineered planks can expand up to 3/8 inch across a 20 foot run with humidity changes, which is double what I expected. Any other installers here run into weird expansion issues with engineered stuff they thought they had figured out?

3 comments

3 Comments

hernandez.morgan1mo ago

Ngl that glue-assist trick works because everything in life needs a little flex to hold together.

tylermurray1mo ago

Yeah that Denver climate is no joke, the humidity swings there are wild compared to coastal cities. I had a job in Aurora where the engineered planks actually cupped a bit because the homeowner ran a whole-house humidifier in winter and the AC blasted all summer, the wood never settled into one state. What people don't talk about is the glue-assist method for floating floors, if you put a thin bead of adhesive on the tongue of every fourth row it lets the floor move a tiny bit without that crazy expansion gap blowout. Also check your subfloor moisture content before you even open the boxes, I've seen engineered boards swell at the ends just from sitting on a damp slab for a weekend.

blairj551d ago

Honestly I heard from a buddy who does a lot of work in Colorado that even the wood supplier's specs can be off for that elevation. He told me he saw engineered boards push out a baseboard once because the gap was too tight, and the manufacturer guide didn't account for Denver's bone dry winter air making the wood shrink then expand again fast in spring. That glue-assist trick sounds like it might help but I'd still leave a solid 3/4 inch gap under the baseboard to be safe from what he described.