Depth Of Relief Cuts In Wood Flooring

Relief cuts in flooring these small cuts out of the bottom of flooring actually have 2 purposes.

Depth of relief cuts in wood flooring.

Freshly cut wood called green wood is well saturated with natural moisture from its sap and resins. Cupping is when the board becomes curved across the width of the flooring. This should be a series of grooves or fluted across the width not one large groove. As shown in the example below.

The major reason for the kerf on the back of wood flooring is to lighten the weight of the boards after manufacturing. Secondly it cuts the surface area that contacts the sub floor. For example if you re thinking about installing a wide plank hardwood floor in your home that means pretty much anything that s 5 inches wide or wider you may want to consider opting for rift and quarter sawn flooring. Position the circular saw in front of the newly created butt joint with the saw guard retracted the blade clear of the flooring and the weight of the saw balanced on the.

Set the saw blade depth 1 16 in. Knowing what cut your hardwood flooring is isn t just for aesthetic reasons it s mainly structural. Similar to plywood engineered flooring is manufactured by sandwiching top and bottom layers of hardwood around interior core layers of lesser priced processed composites. To help counter the differing degrees of shrinking and swelling among these layers of unlike materials the bottom layer gets kerf cut.

Stress relief depth should be from 20 30 of overall thickness stress relief along the width should be from 50 65 of the finished width dimension. This reduces the cost of shipping and makes the materials easier to handle. Firstly it breaks the tension that causes wood to cup. The differing rates between the two thicknesses will cause a log or board to slip.

Kerf cuts are small grooves sawed into the underside your deck boards using a circular or table saw to relieve the surface tension. As soon as the wood is cut it begins to release that its moisture content with thin areas in the wood drying faster than thicker areas. The relief cut helped the molding span over the plaster grounds and the slight high spot right at the back of a jamb. The relief cut kept the flat surface of the casing and base off the wet wall surface and also provided a bit of air circulation behind the wood which helped prevent cupping and warping.

The stress relief prevents your hardwood flooring boards from cupping maintaining it s flatness. Blade widths are usually 1 8 make sure that the cuts are evenly spaced either one cut creating two halves two cuts creating thirds three cuts creating quarters ect. Deeper than the thickness of the flooring. For stress relief i would cut across the width of boards and not with the length.