Floor drying out in front of stove...

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Slow1

Slow1

Minister of Fire
Nov 26, 2008
2,677
Eastern MA
I just noticed this evening that the hardwood floor in front of my stove seems to be drying out. By this I mean that gaps are appearing between the boards and it clearly is more pronounced right in front of the stove and less so farther away and to the sides.

Anyone else experience this? Is there a 'cure' for it? Some way of keeping the floor from getting progressively worse?

Thanks.
 
A cure? Nothing that I know of other than remove the heat source that is drying it out by not burning.

Throw a hearth rug on top of it (out of sight out of mind).

Remember, wood swells and shrinks as the humidity level raises and lowers. Right now you're at an extremely low humidity level. In the summer the wood will swell back up a bit.
 
Unless I'm missing something, it sounds like a good old case of needing to add some moisture to the air. We have hardwood floors throughout the house and the advise is to keep the humidity between 40% and 50% in the stove room. I keep a pot of water on the stove and keep track of the humidity on our indoor weather station.
 
I get that too, make sure not to get too much dirt in the seams. As other posters said wood shrinks & swells & shrinks again as the seasons go by...
 
Wash the floor more often in front of the stove.
 
I'm curious about the type of wood used for the flooring. Our white oak floors haven't shown any shrinkage. However, I remember the installer testing with an expensive meter to be sure that the reading was no more than 8-10%.
 
I have no idea what type of oak it is. We always have a pot of water on the stove but I do think we can do better with managing the humidity in the room. I like the "wash the floor" Idea - I do recall being warned that too much washing with water could over-wet the floors, guess it could work to our benefit in this case.

Thank for the input!
 
Yup, sounds like a low humidity problem to me. Years ago before water continually on the stove the wife noticed cracked furniture. Can't believe this is from too much washing the floor.
 
How about another reason to add a blower to a stove to move more air?
 
How much clearance do you have from the face of your stove to where the wood floor starts? Sounds like you have too much heat hitting the wood floors.

Shari
 
so do I,. I ahve wide planked tounge and groove southern yellow pine. I will tell you another thing, it aint gonna go back 100% that is for sure. My entire floor in my downstairs is doing this, to the point of needing to be totally replaced. Not so much due to the stove but the shotty install job by the guy who remodeled the house. but it is worse in front of the stove for sure
 
Cracks in my oak flooring open, close and heave in front of my wood stove depending on the time of year. It is humidity driven, I can steam over 2 gallons per day in my leaky old log home and my humidistat still reads under 20% right now. We also use an electric cold air mister that is good for another gallon or 2 per day. If your home is leaky, the stove is busy drawing in really dry outdoor air making it near impossible to keep any kind of humidity in the air.
 
yup, hear you there! we have a whole hosue humidifier that has two containers that hold 5 gallons each so 10 gallons overall. When I run it, and it is located next to the stove, it dropps the temp of the house a couple of degrees, dont know why, maybe its jsut the airmovement. everyone told me that it would feel warmer in the house but it definatly doesnt!
 
We're putting something around 2-3 gallons a day into the air with the stove. A bit more with our house humidifier (can't measure how much as it is piped in). However, with the extreme cold lately house is still running around 31-35% RH. (34% at 71*f right now). Most of the floors in house are doing fine. I'm pretty sure it is the heat radiating from the stove keeping the flooring right around the stove warm that is making it dry out.

I will continue with pushing water into the air (my goal is 45% anyway so this isn't a change) and will start daily water washing around the stove to see if perhaps some water into the cracks might soak into the boards and perhaps help to slow down the drying. May have to consider putting a rug or something there to cover this area, but then I wonder if that becomes a hazard of another sort.
 
Is the floor noticeably warm or hot to the touch? Perhaps a hearth board laid on the floor will protect it from the heat.

Ken
 
Warm, not hot at all - nice place to sit or stand (with bare feet). I suppose extending the hearth pad could be done, but then that affects the whole looks of the room of course... I don't think this is at all unsafe (well, not in the burn the house down way - perhaps in the "floor will look bad in a few years and that will affect the whole looks of the room' way!). Humidity and moisture control measures will be my first attempt - if things don't improve then I'll have to look for things to cover it in order to block the heat, perhaps just for part of the time at first... like when we aren't in the room etc.
 
I have an older house with a lot of unlevel section, I have noticed that I have a few boards that have some spring to them, I even had a nail poking up on one, and yes I have noticed that spacing has grown some. my house is stable at 30% humidity a little dry but as long as it stays there I should be fine.
 
wow..what a coincidence you posted this...

Ive only had my woodstove up and running for about 6 days now....but I noticed pergo flooring in front of my woodstove glass, got VERY warm when I had the stove up to the 600 degree temperauters..


I knew this type of drastic temperture changes could not be good for the flooring..so just yesterday, I went out to the garage and cut me a piece of 20 " x 9 " black flat plate steel about 1/16 " thick. I then used magnets to attach this plate underneath my woodstoves door. Problem solved...the floor area that was heating up, no longer does
 
rumme said:
wow..what a coincidence you posted this...

Ive only had my woodstove up and running for about 6 days now....but I noticed pergo flooring in front of my woodstove glass, got VERY warm when I had the stove up to the 600 degree temperauters..


I knew this type of drastic temperture changes could not be good for the flooring..so just yesterday, I went out to the garage and cut me a piece of 20 " x 9 " black flat plate steel about 1/16 " thick. I then used magnets to attach this plate underneath my woodstoves door. Problem solved...the floor area that was heating up, no longer does
Click to expand...

I'm really curious about this - can you post a picture of it?

I also wonder just what sort of clang that will make in the middle of the night if the stove gets hot enough to warm the magnets to the point that they loose enough pull to hold onto the metal :)
 
Slow1 said:
Warm, not hot at all - nice place to sit or stand (with bare feet). I suppose extending the hearth pad could be done, but then that affects the whole looks of the room of course... I don't think this is at all unsafe (well, not in the burn the house down way - perhaps in the "floor will look bad in a few years and that will affect the whole looks of the room' way!). Humidity and moisture control measures will be my first attempt - if things don't improve then I'll have to look for things to cover it in order to block the heat, perhaps just for part of the time at first... like when we aren't in the room etc.
Click to expand...

I agree that it is not a danger.

But I doubt that humidity control is going to help the floor from shrinking in that area. If it's warm, it's going to dry out unless you get the humidity to some horrible level like 90%.

Remember, humidity is relative to the temperature and the temp of that floor is higher than the rest of the house.

Ken
 
Slow1 said:
rumme said:
wow..what a coincidence you posted this...

Ive only had my woodstove up and running for about 6 days now....but I noticed pergo flooring in front of my woodstove glass, got VERY warm when I had the stove up to the 600 degree temperauters..


I knew this type of drastic temperture changes could not be good for the flooring..so just yesterday, I went out to the garage and cut me a piece of 20 " x 9 " black flat plate steel about 1/16 " thick. I then used magnets to attach this plate underneath my woodstoves door. Problem solved...the floor area that was heating up, no longer does
Click to expand...

I'm really curious about this - can you post a picture of it?

I also wonder just what sort of clang that will make in the middle of the night if the stove gets hot enough to warm the magnets to the point that they loose enough pull to hold onto the metal :)
Click to expand...


well I had the stovetop up to 600 degrees last nite, and it didint cause the metal plate to fall..

keep in mind, the plate and the magnets are below the window of the woodstove, so they arent getting the full brunt of the heat but it defintely helps redirect the heat, coming off the woodstove window, so that heat doesnt bombard my woodfloor . it deflects its in the other direction.

this was just a quick idea I had, and it seems to work good..

I also took my circular iron wood holder, and cut it in half, and rewelded 4 longer strips of steel rod to it, then rewelded it back together. Now, instead of being able to only fit 8 pieces of wood in it, I can fit almost 16 pieces. Saves me a trip out to the wood pile every other day.
 
rumme said:
well I had the stovetop up to 600 degrees last nite, and it didint cause the metal plate to fall..

keep in mind, the plate and the magnets are below the window of the woodstove, so they arent getting the full brunt of the heat but it defintely helps redirect the heat, coming off the woodstove window, so that heat doesnt bombard my woodfloor . it deflects its in the other direction.

this was just a quick idea I had, and it seems to work good..

I also took my circular iron wood holder, and cut it in half, and rewelded 4 longer strips of steel rod to it, then rewelded it back together. Now, instead of being able to only fit 8 pieces of wood in it, I can fit almost 16 pieces. Saves me a trip out to the wood pile every other day.
Click to expand...

Clearly you have much more skill with metal working than I do anyway... I am curious to see your solution though. I wonder if I can rig anything like it.
 
its quite simple really..

do you have a metal ledge under your woodstove door, that sticks out about 3-4" horizontally ?

all I did was cut a piece of black 1/16"- 1/8 " flat plate steel with my plasma cutter to about 20" x 9" ...you could also use a cutoff wheel to do the cutting. I then took 6 rare earth magnets and stuck it to the bottom and back of the steel plate and then used those magnets to hold it to the ledge that comes out from under my woodstove window...
 
I would just add a pot of water to the stove, and in that put some cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice...

Whole house smells like apple pie, humidity is better, and at least in my house it seems to warm the air a bit better.
 
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