acclimation of a wood product is mainly so the product reaches the average climate humidity condition of the installation area. It is important to install it in the average himidity condition of your area as well. Installing it in too dry of a condition or before it has acclimated itself and is to dry, then as it gets humid it will grow and could potentially cause buckling from the growth. Buckling comes from expansion past the point of any expansion space. The expanding material hits a vertical obstruction and has nowhere to go but up. the same is true for shrinkage if installed in too humid/wet condition. You need to consult the manufacturer for specific acclimation requirements. They should have a technical services or installation phone number or email address. the downsides if not properly acclimated to the average climatic conditions of the installation area is shinkage or expansion. Laminate flooring is more dimensionally stable than natual solid wood flooring.

I had my installer use the floor Muffler under my 1/2" thick 5" wide engineered wood and it feels like and sounds like a hardwood floor where it was installed properly. I floated the floor since I wanted my floor to be insulated and to since no one can predict the future I felt it was safer.

Hi all, sorry I’ve been MIA. Millworkman, you are correct per the mfg directions that is how it’s supposed to be stacked and my husband did so because they didn’t. Timothy, we were going with what the flooring store owner directed. My husband gave me an incorrect subfloor number, it’s 7.5. They have not asked nor done readings on the concrete portion, which they did do a leveling job to. Charles, the inside of my house after 1 month of a commercial dehumidifier along with 2-3 household dehumidifiers makes it feel l like a damn dessert. I’ve been on/out for a total of 2 weeks and had dried out sinuses, chapped lips and overly dry skin. It’s not been a pleasure at all. We are in WI so pretty humid in summer. So here’s the deal, we asked 2.5 weeks ago to get the mfg reps out and are being ignored. Flooring store guy said it’s our house causing the increases moisture, it’s not. The house has only had 1 toilet and a laundry sink in the basement all this time and the house sat completely empty for 9 days with the AC at 72 and the dehumidifiers running 24/7 the wood didn’t drop below avg of 12. It’s been the flooring company who wants the engineered hardwood moisture reading to be down to the wood subfloor level. Its been 5 weeks of this. When we pointed out we were out of patience (asking for mfg rep to come out) over the entire deal the owner didnt respond well. We were told the floor was from last fall but was really mfg in January of this year. We were told warranties don’t really matter as they don’t cover anything. We originally wanted LVP since it seems the in-thing and its a second home. Our house has some subfloor issues, we took out a wall and a chimney. The new floor is going on concrete and wood subfloor over a basement. The flooring company said we would be better off with engineered hardwood based on the floor shape/prep and multi surfacesCRA, that’s how we got here. We no longer have any confidence with the floor or the company. If the floor is fine, why have they wasted our time and efforts with running our AC constantly and the cost of the humidifiers only to say well ok let’s just install? And why go forward with the guy who said warranties don’t matter and who not only opened all the boxes but tore open all the bags, would you still proceed? We are in the camp of the store taking all of the flooring and their moisture meters and give us back the deposit. We just ran out to the flooring store that was #2 on our list, we didn’t got with them because of their install lead time (which sadly/ironcially would be about now had we not wasted time with this other guy) and the salesman doesn’t engage with us and makes it seem like our 2200 sq ft job is beneath him. Because we had priced out LVP we wanted to make the change to engineered hardwood and during the visit floor guy #2 echoed Timothy above on temperature over moisture as the only concern. He noted that our estimate mentions the substantial floor prep that was required for LVP (which is why the flooring store owner who we lack confidence in said go engineered hardwood) and had concerns on putting engineered hardwood on the concrete portions. So now we are REALLLLLLLY confused. Our main flooring whether it is LVP or engineered hardwood will go on 2 concrete surfaces and plywood subfloors. Trying to do the concrete as a different floor type than the rest is just a no, it will be too choppy. Not seeing our floors and what we’ve been through what do y’all recommend? Our #3 floor store bid LVP but didn’t call out floor prep concerns and we know we have them so that’s why we skipped them. I’m ready for a 4th company but afraid they will only confuse us more. *made some edits to missing words and incomplete sentences

Any and all advice appreciated. Ready to pick flooring for kitchen, great room, hall, and two bedrooms. Don't even know where to start, except I've looked at Lifeproof at Home Depot and liked the selections. Medium wear family, currently no dogs or small kids. Live in Hawaii (high humidity) Mahalo!