I had an interesting phone call this week. It was from the chairman from my master's degree committee. When you go for a master's degree in college, you get a committee that proctors you, and gets to test you before you get your degree. Actually, you can't get a degree if you fail their written or oral exams.
He called about the gaps in the engineered hickory floor he had installed in his new house. So immediately I am intimidated. This person was my boss, so to speak, and had a PhD, and now he had a personal issue that he wants my help with. He taught me a lot of what I know, and now he's asking me a question? But I have realized that no matter how smart someone is, they don't know everything. Heck, the more I learn, the more I find out I don't know.
Anyway, we talked about his situation: gaps in engineered hickory flooring in a house with 20% RH. He had installed radiant heat, but had no forced air system. So adding humidity was going to be a challenge for him. He's already tried a portable humidifier, but that didn't change anything. I pointed him to my article in the October/November 2010 Hardwood Floors magazine about winter gaps, and said I'd work on figuring out how much moisture he needed. His house is an interesting one: about 4,000 sq ft with slab floors on both levels, ICF walls and a spray foam roof. That should be a tight house, but with just two of them living there, they shouldn't generate much moisture.
My last comment to him was that maybe we need to look at the flooring and not fuss with humidity. 20% RH is not real low, even in the south. I think I'll get to look at it next week. If so, I'll let you know what I find.
