Flooring a Home Near the Beach

Q: We are buying a house and I want wood/looking floors. Since I live about 30 mins from the beach, which flooring would be better in my location. I am worried about the humidity. What materials would I need to keep my flooring tip top shape?
thank you!
Royce
A: My first piece of advice would be to avoid 3/4″ solid hardwood floors as they are going to move too much if you have much humidity. Your best bet for a wood floor would be to look into an engineered wood floor, laminate, or an eco-friendly choice like bamboo and cork.
Regardless of what product you look into there are a few key things to ensure success with a wood floor in your new home. The first thing you should do is check the ambient moisture levels in your home. You will want to get this level to between 30 and 40% to be optimal for wood flooring of any kind. This may call for the need of a dehumidifier to keep the moisture levels optimal in your home. Another part of keeping your floor optimal is maintaining a norm temperature through out the year. Wood flooring, much like we humans, performs best at a temperature around 65 degrees Fahrenheit.
Next you will want to ensure to give your product plenty of time to acclimate to your home. My final bit of advice would be to leave plenty of expansion room at the borders of your floor so that your room has a bit or extra space to expand and contract with the seasons.
As far as keeping your floor in shape, make sure you practice a good routine of maintenance. We have a great floor care guide which should give you all of the information you need to keep any wood floor in top shape throughout the years.