hello this is Chris Tsai with Carlile wide-plank floors and today we're going to talk about troubleshooting gaps that can occur in your wide plank floor gaps in a hardwood floor are not uncommon and they're caused by fluctuation and moisture of the wood some of these gaps are normal and should be considered acceptable here today we have a antique oak floor these planks are 5 7 and 9 inches wide and you can see that they have little gaps in them the floor was installed tight but through the dry season those gaps actually occurred in the floors the wood dried out slightly this size a gap is acceptable in a floor especially given the width of the plank this floor we've mocked up to have larger gaps that you may experience in a hardwood floor if the moisture content of those boards has changed dramatically the only thing that will make a board shrink and expose this type of gap is if the moisture in the board goes from a normal percentage down to a very low percentage or from a very high percentage maybe into a more normal range most wood floors and most areas of the country should be installed around 8% moisture content in the Mort much more drier high-elevation climates that number may be closer to 6% in more humid climates like in the southeast that number may be more like 9 or 10 percent however if you have gaps this large it means that the moisture content of your board has changed excessively that can be caused by two things the first thing is that the board was put in wet and dried out and therefore Shrunk or it was put in at the proper moisture content but the environment of the home changed dramatically from the time it was installed to the time these gaps appeared to avoid this happening with your wood floor it is very easy to check the waste your content of both your subfloor and your finish floor using a moisture meter like this it has pins in it that are stuck into the wood to measure the moisture content of both the plywood and the floor that you're putting on top of it by making sure that the wood substrate and finish floor are at the proper moisture content prior to installation and then making sure your environment doesn't change dramatically you can eliminate excessive gapping like you see in these boards again this is Chris sigh I hope that some of the tips here help you avoid any excessive gapping in your wood floor