Humidification of Hardwood Flooring in Arid Zones – (Revised Edition from my Floorbiz.com Article)

A common complaint about hardwood floors in arid zones is checking and splitting due to low humidity. Many people believe running a humidifier in arid zones in summer is futile. This is largely due to the fact that an AC unit is a de-humidifier. These will counter act each other but not totally as your AC does not run continually and this counter reaction by the AC unit can be neutralized to a point with a stand alone humidifier. However, some checking should be expected in your wood flooring if the relative humidity gets to low as nothing can be 100% effective. I see more and more manufacturers putting these relative humidity requirements in ink. Even right on the outside of the boxes.