Maintenance
Winter humidity and your hardwood floors
July 15, 2025 · 3 min read
Gaps that appear in January are normal. Gaps that stay in July are not. Here is the difference.
Wood loses moisture to dry winter air and shrinks. You will see hairline gaps between boards, especially in wide plank. This is expected and seasonal. A whole-house humidifier set between 35 and 45 percent keeps it within reason.
The gaps to worry about are the ones that do not close. If boards were gapped in winter and are still gapped in midsummer, the floor dried past its balance point. That usually means the install skipped acclimation, or the home runs too dry year-round.
We check humidity on every estimate. The fix is rarely the floor. It is the air. Get the home between 35 and 50 percent relative humidity across the year and the floor will move within a range you can live with.