Don't forget about humidity

Happy 2019 Everyone!

We hope your holiday season treated you well and you’ve hit the ground running on your goals and projects for the New Year.

It has been hectic to put lightly here at Two Birds Furniture, we are finally moved into our new facility at 119 Fisher Street in Okotoks, it took most of the holidays where we may have in the past been able to have an extra couple days off but we had some incredible support from our close friends and family help with the final “Big Move” when we finally hauled all of our tools and equipment to our new location and we’d probably still be moving if it wasn’t for those who dedicated their free time to help us, so than-you again!

It was a big week, January 17, 2019 as we’ve passed our inspections for electrical, fire and occupancy for the building and our business licence has been released to us from the Town of Okotoks and we’re officially OPEN!!!!!! But we wanted to speak to all of our current and future clients about the importance of humidity in your house. Quick reminder on the difference between temperature and humidity… Temperature is a measure of warmth or coldness of an object while humidity is the measure of water vapour present in air.

As we’ve mentioned in previous posts, even after it has been cut down and shaped into piece of furniture is still a living organism and adjusts to its climate as it changes. No we’re not talking about global climate change, but home climate change as the slightest adjustment in temperature, changes the humidity in your home which can make your wood move a 16th of an inch from its original state. Wood will always swell and shrink until the end of time and it’s important to watch your product closely

Relative Humidity Chart

Following a relative humidity chart like this one gives a really good reference at what your home should be at for our products. The ideal relative humidity in your house should be sitting at around 28-40% anything lower or higher than that could lead to serious issues within your product and cause severe damage.

We’ve had in the past a few of these instances occur where we’ve received calls on warped wood and our investigations seem to always lead to relative humidity. In one instance a client was having her home fumigated and had to not be in the house for a few days while the fumigators were doing their work and the house was heated up to 60 degrees Celsius and the relative humidity rose exponentially cause this result below.

Damage from a home being fumigated including burst seams and wood damage from extreme humidity change

Seams have burst from their original spot and it will take months for the wood to go back to its original state, luckily for this customer, her door was covered her home insurance and a new door will be built for her in the coming weeks.

One last example of relative humidity causing deficiencies. A door purchased from Two Birds Furniture, sat in a colder warehouse before being delivered and installed into a home that didn’t have their relative humidity set at the proper percentage.

From a distance, the door looks fine from a distance, but let’s go in for a closer look.

Wood separation from the door frame to the door planks

The twists that took place due to inadequate humidity

The relative humidity was set at 22% which is six percent below the minimum a home’s relative humidity should be at. So going back to the facts on our relative humidity chart. A six degree difference, moving wood pieces a 16th of an inch which mean every single board on that board ended up shrinking by a half an inch, pulling away from its supports as you can see in the photos and warping the wood into a state beyond repair.

Hopefully this post will help you understand what can happen when relative humidity isn’t maintained or monitored, you may hit the wrong button on the thermostat by accident or even a power outage may reset your thermostat so just remember once in a while check relative humidity or if you’re still not sure. Give us a call and we’d happily help walk you through the process.

If you have any questions or want to hear more about we offer visit us at:

119 Fisher Street Okotoks, AB

403-498-4517 sales@twobirdsfurniture.ca