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Why does nobody talk about acclimating hardwood in a garage vs inside the house
Picked up 800 sq ft of 3/4 inch oak 3 weeks ago here in Spokane and stacked it in my garage where it sat at about 45 degrees while the house was at 70. Two installer buddies say that temp gap is no big deal and just let it ride longer inside, but my gut says the boards need to sit in the actual room for at least a week no matter what. Who here has actually tested this side by side, did the garage batch cup on you or did it lay fine?
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ray6131h ago
The "no big deal" line from your installer buddies is what gets me, because it kind of is a big deal once you think about what those boards went through. Wood doesn't just want to be at the right temp, it wants the right moisture level, and cold air holds way less moisture than warm air, so three weeks in a 45 degree garage is basically three weeks of your oak drying out to match that cold, dry space. Then you drag it inside where it's 70 and the air is different and the boards start soaking up or letting go of moisture all over again, and that movement is where cupping and gaps come from. The temp gap alone is one thing but the humidity gap between a garage and a heated house is usually the bigger problem, and in Spokane in winter that gap can be huge. Sitting in the actual room for a week or more lets the wood settle at the same temp and moisture it'll live in forever, which is really the whole point of acclimating. Your gut is right on this one, the garage time wasn't wasted but it doesn't count toward acclimation and you should give it a full week inside before laying anything.
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