Hardwood Floors February/March 2025

By Scott Taylor | Wisconsin-based NWFA Certified Wood Flooring Inspector HARDWOOD HINTS

Moisture Testing

When testing wood for moisture content, being specific is very important. When testing an engineered flooring product, moisture testing mistakes are common. When testing an engineered floor with a dual depth pinless moisture meter, your meter readings can vary significantly. For example, on an American walnut engineered floor with a veneer less than ¼” thick, if you were to set the meter on the American walnut species setting and to the depth of either ¼” or ¾”, you will get completely different, and inaccurate, readings. What we often do as inspectors in that case is take a special pin meter, go into pin mode and pick the species setting. The four pin non-insulated is what you want because it has an insulated pin mode and it has a non-insulated pin mode. The pins are very shallow when they penetrate the veneer. This demonstration helps contractors understand how to test an engineered floor.

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Try it on a solid wood floor. Again, look at your species correction. Here, I am measuring at a ¼” depth reading which is 11.1 percent. Then, measure ¾” depth where the reading is 10.1 percent.

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For additional information about moisture meters, check out the NWFA's Installation Guidelines at NWFA.ORG/TECHNICAL- GUIDELINES/

So, there is a delta between the two readings, indicating the moisture is high near the surface of the board being tested. This helps us understand how dry this material is through the thickness of the material. In this scenario, the higher moisture readings are caused by elevated RH in the space. This shows why relative humidity and temperature is very important.

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PHOTOS COURTESY OF NWFA

WATCH IT! See Scott Taylor complete this process in a video on NWFA’s Facebook and Instagram pages.

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