Kiln drying
Controlled drying of sawn boards to a target moisture content before they are milled into flooring.
The kiln is the third link in the chain from standing timber to a finished floor, after the forest and the sawmill. The NWFA/NOFMA standard puts manufactured flooring at 6% to 9% moisture content, with a 5% allowance for pieces outside that range up to 12%.
That is a manufacturing specification and not a site condition, and the gap between the two is where most Toronto floor failures live. A board correctly dried to 7% at the mill will still cup if it is laid against an untested subfloor.
Kiln schedules and drying times for Ontario hardwood are not published in any document we could open. Where a supplier states one, ask which document it comes from.
Related
Terms this one depends on
- Moisture contentThe proportion of water in wood or in a subfloor, measured before installation and used to decide whether the two are compatible.
- Moisture differentialThe difference between the moisture content of the flooring material and that of the subfloor, which must sit inside an acceptable range before installation.
- AcclimationThe period during which flooring material equalises to the conditions of the room it will be installed in — a minimum of 72 hours, in the actual conditioned space.
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Where this definition comes from
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