Will a Humidifier Damage Laminate Flooring?

Laminate and Moisture

• Laminate floors are coated with a protective material that makes them less susceptible to the effects of moisture than hardwood floors. Still, moisture can affect laminate. Moisture can cause laminate to expand. This can cause the edges of the floor to buckle upward when installed with insufficient gaps. These gaps are designed to allow for the floor’s expansion. Normally, this upward turn of the floor takes place when it has no room to expand. The edges around doorways and walls are most susceptible to this. The humidity level in a room with laminate flooring should be between 50 and 65 percent. If a humidifier is added, it will increase the humidity to levels that could introduce increased risk of damaging the laminate flooring. Measure a room’s humidity before deciding whether to install a humidifier.

Humidity's Effect

• There actually is a secondary concern for owners of a laminate floor that involves humidifiers. Instead of harming the floors, humidifiers actually contribute to the protection of laminate floors when properly used. The moisture produced by humidifiers keeps floors from becoming too dry. When floors are too dry, they are more prone to cracking and other problems. The concern is much less than with hardwood given the increased versatility and protection that laminate floors provide, but it is still a worthwhile problem. The greater concern with laminate is static electricity. You may experience static electricity on your laminate floors if the air in your home is too dry. Ideally, you want your home’s humidity to be between 50 and 65 percent relative humidity throughout the year. A humidifier might help you to maintain this level of humidity during certain months, but it might push the relative humidity higher than recommended during certain times of the year, and that could introduce an increased risk of floor damage.

Considerations

• How well a laminate floor holds up against the moisture introduced by a humidifier varies based on the type of laminate in the floor. A brand called Aqua-step, for example, is 100 percent waterproof and is suitable for even the wettest of bathrooms. Bamboo flooring, too, is resistant to the effects of moisture. More standard laminate flooring performs less favorably against moisture. Thus, the effect of humidifier moisture increases the chance of floor damage when you have standard laminate flooring.

  If you opt to use a humidifier in a room, be sure to use a sealing compound to fill spaces between joints, particularly where the flooring meets walls, and to fill cracks. This keeps the humidity from reaching the subfloor, which might be damaged by the higher moisture levels created by humidifiers.