In this issue, we will kick off with a gadget that has immense use in wood flooring installation. As we all know, there are many factors that affect a wood floor installation process. One of the key factors to consider is the moisture content of a concrete sub-floor. As most of us live in high-rise apartments, a concrete sub-floor or screed is usually the default floor that is given to us upon key collection. A newly-completed house usually has a concrete sub-floor with a high moisture content as the water in the sub-floor may not have enough time to evaporate out. This is a problem as most wood floors need a sub-floor moisture content of between 10-12%. This is even more important for solid wood flooring products such as parquet and solid wood long boards.
Failure to heed to the manufacturer's recommended moisture content specifications may lead to warping and cupping of the floor boards. This is especially so for parquet floors where the strips are shorter in length and more susceptible to water absorption from the concrete sub-floor.
There are many moisure test kits out there, but the cheaper paper-based ones tend to be inaccurate. It is also a problem if you have to test the moisure content in a few areas to ensure moisture content consistency. So how would we solve this problem? Enter the portable moisture meter...
The one shown here is the Lutron MS-7003. It has both a digital readout as well as a coloured graphical indicator to show the moisture content of a particular material. It has 2 modes: Concrete and Wood. This comes in handy when doing wood flooring installation as a it allows you to test both the concrete sub-floor as well as the wood flooring itself.
Some of the more advanced functions of this particular moisture meter is its ability to record maximum and minimum moisture content over a particular area. This is handy when trying to determine the average moisture content and to detect locations where there is a higher concentration of water.
Usage of the instrument is pretty easy. Simply switch the instrument on, select the material, and stick the 2 pin probes into the material to be tested a minimum of 2mm below the surface. The digital readout will show the exact percentage of moisture content (accurate to 1 decimal place).
Quick and easy determination of moisture content is important in wood flooring installation, and the Lutron MS-7003 is one such instrument which makes an installer's life a lot easier!
