I used to think a 3/4 inch gap at the wall was always enough

I was helping my buddy on a job in Phoenix last week, and he insisted on a full inch for this engineered hardwood. He said the humidity swing out there can make a 3/4 inch gap close up fast in the summer. I saw his point after looking at the old floor we pulled up, which had buckled. Has anyone else had to adjust their expansion gaps for really dry climates?

2 comments

2 Comments

white.kim2mo ago

Oh man, that reminds me of a guy I know who put down some nice laminate in his Denver house. He went with the standard gap, no big deal. Then one winter when the furnace was running non-stop and the air got bone dry, those planks shrank so much you could have fit a pencil in the spaces at the ends. He had to pull the baseboards and add quarter round to cover the new canyon he had. Dry air will absolutely pull things tighter than you'd think.

the_sam2mo ago

My buddy in Arizona had the same thing happen with engineered hardwood, gaps you could see daylight through. It's wild how much those seasonal swings can move things.