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FishHog
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# Posted: 20 Dec 2014 10:18am
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Heading to the cottage for a few days this winter. In the middle of renovations and have about 1/2 of our tongue and grove pine installed on the walls. 3" boards. Wondering about going up in the winter to a frozen cabin, cranking up the woodstove for a few days and continuing that installation.
Am I just asking for shrinkage/expansion problems by doing it at this time of year. I have other things I can work on, but depending on the weather, its a good indoor project.
But don't want to have a mess next summer just due to my rushing to get it done.
Opinions?
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toyota_mdt_tech
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# Posted: 20 Dec 2014 10:51am
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I think humidity is the biggest factor. Around here, bone chilling cold, we have little to no humidity. Is the wood stored inside? I would say you probably be fine. Spread the wood out, lay it upright against the walls for max warm air circulation to acclimate it and after a while witht he foire going and warm inside, I'd do it. 
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morock
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# Posted: 20 Dec 2014 01:11pm
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I have been installing t&g for the last 3 winters. I purchase my wood in late summer, store it inside and wack it up during the winter. I built a jig for my hand saw ( japanese tooth) and cut them all on the jig so the end joints match up beautifully. The nice thing about a winter install is your end joints don't open up in the colder weather. I'm using 3/4" stock 8 inch pine boards of various lengths. Have not had a problem.
I've got another 3 winters of install to go, I have yet to start the ceiling, that is 950 sq.ft job.
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bldginsp
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# Posted: 20 Dec 2014 02:11pm
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When installing in low humidity, space the boards from each other a slight amount to give room to expand later. Put cardboard shims between them as you put them in place to give a little 'breathing room'.
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Wilbour
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# Posted: 20 Dec 2014 02:33pm
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Quoting: bldginsp Put cardboard shims between them
Like cereal box?
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bldginsp
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# Posted: 20 Dec 2014 05:29pm
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Quoting: Wilbour Like cereal box?
Yes- you just want to ensure that the boards are not all touching each other, because if they are, when they expand, they have no where to go except to buckle.
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Don_P
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# Posted: 20 Dec 2014 07:57pm
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They will not buckle. Winter after acclimating to the lowest humidity is my preferred time for installing things like panelling and flooring. This is in a climate where I'm running in the 35% relative humidity range and will see above 90% for extended periods during late summer. I have installed miles of panelling, tight, in the winter without a callback. When I say tight, I have often screwed a 2x4 ahead of myself and pushed the wood tight when nailing.
In our house I did one ceiling immediately after recieving a load of panelling, it metered out around 13%. That ceiling has shrunk a bit exposing some tongue and is less than pleasing to my eye. The next batch I stickered in the living room and ran the woodstove for awhile. It was installed at about 8% moisture content and has remained tight, yet has shown no signs of buckling. When I work on old houses I remove lots of old tongue and groove flooring. The floors have moved seasonally for many decades. Each winter as the floor gaps, dirt filters into the tongue and groove joints. As the gaps close with the rising humidity the dirt and the wood are compressed... cycle after cycle. The dirt cannot be pressure washed out of the grooves, I finally made a small block plane to scrape it out of the joints, and yet those floors do not buckle. Where I have seen buckling is when liquid water has leaked.
When I was growing up a family friend who was also a contractor decided to try an experiment. He laid the subfloor on the joists and installed the oak flooring on the entire rectangle, saving a bunch of cutting and fitting inside of walled rooms. They were going to be under roof in a week. He got the walls installed on the floor, and we had a storm. The expanding oak took the walls right off the sides of the building. I can also bring to mind multiple examples of humidity buckling and joints opening in furniture and cabinet work. However, during that same time period we were building simple entry level homes which were very light on trim. There were no baseboards around our oak floors. We would run the flooring tight to the walls with no expansion gap. Those homes are 40 years old now without problems. The one exception I can think of had a hole chopped in the roof and a fire hose inside.
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FishHog
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# Posted: 21 Dec 2014 11:21am
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thanks all, appreciate the advise
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toyota_mdt_tech
Member
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# Posted: 21 Dec 2014 12:01pm
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FishHog, looks like best fit it obtained in the winter. 
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bldginsp
Member
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# Posted: 21 Dec 2014 07:11pm
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I think buckling is possible in more extreme circumstances, but it's going to take those extreme circumstances to do it. There was a bar in Santa Cruz, Ca. that was floored with 3/4 oak which came from a warehouse in the Central Valley. Santa Cruz is on the coast with ocean humidity, the Central Valley is hot and dry. The flooring was not allowed to acclimatize, and it buckled after installation. I say better safe than sorry, even though in most cases it may not become a problem.
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