Why does flooring need to acclimatise?

Timber straight from a cold warehouse into a warm house will move. Forty-eight hours in the room prevents gaps later.

The short answer

This is a very important stage of the pre-installation. If the timber product came straight out of a cold, damp Scottish warehouse and came into your nice, dry home and we installed it straight away, you are more susceptible to expansion and contraction throughout that process.

On the day it might look perfect with no gaps. A couple of weeks down the line, where it has now dried out, you can probably see some gaps forming.

So what we require is a minimum of 48 hours in your property, so the timber or laminate can get to your temperature. And then we can install it. That removes most of the risk of it expanding and contracting.

Related questions

• What is your flooring installation process?
• What should I look for in engineered timber?
• How long should a wood floor last?

See our flooring installation service or get an estimate.

We install floors across Edinburgh, East Lothian, Midlothian and West Lothian.