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We plan to shortly begin building our two-story home raised 8 feet on piers, outside of Quepos, ten miles from the ocean and 1,000 feet above sea level. We get about 300 inches a year of rain. We intended to use tile throughout the house but our builder recently suggested we use almond flooring instead. I love the look of wood floors but am concerned about reports that no matter what type of wood, there will eventually be problems with mold/mushrooms/warping. We DO NOT plan to install air-conditioning. We WILL have fans in every room and good air circulation. For the most part, the weather here is humid, but cool. Though the cost of the wood is not inexpensive, our builder tells us we can save 40 percent by not having to lay down a steel and cement floor base for the tile. He also says that there will be no problem if the wood is first climatized at the building site for approximately five weeks. Any advice from anyone knowledgeable?
Acclimating hardwood flooring involves much more than placing it at the building site for five weeks. Any type of wood flooring will expand and contract in the environment where you are building. There is no doubt that it will be less expensive to nail or screw Almendra into whatever type of floor joists you have selected. There are many methods to cut corners when constructing housing. What you should do is determine what amenities you need to satisfy how you envision living in your new home. Without a flooring underlayment, the outside elements and insects will have open access into your living areas. If you envision living in a dwelling like Tarzan and Jane, then perhaps wood floors will work well for you. Keep in mind, that with an open flooring system, not only will your wood floors develop moisture related issues, everything else inside your home will be exposed to the elements as well. When building in an area with heavy precipitation, sealing the building envelope is very important. The exterior siding, roofing and in the case of a home built on piers, the flooring system, should be well sealed in order to keep the relative humidity inside the dwelling stable. You will then be able to control your living environment by opening windows and utilizing your ceiling fans as needed.
I completed an inspection of damaged hardwood flooring in a home in Santa Ana. You can see the problems that occurred and the solutions recommended at, http://groups.google.com/group/housing–property-inspections/web/water-infiltration-inspection-report
Having built recently, I have to agree with crhomebuilder that sealing the building is very important. Besides, wood flooring seems more cozzy, more tropical and to my opinion, it looks nicer than ceramic.
A good compromise would be to have ceramics on the ground, and wood on the second floor. This is what I did and my second level’s floor is my first floor ceiling as well.That said, I don’t know if you can find almendro anymore. It is prohibitted to cut those trees and we couldn’t find any when I made the floor, or other wooden items. There are other kinds of wood very well fit for your needs though.
Good luck with your construction
JoLike Jo, we have tile on the first floor and wood on the 2nd (and 3rd) where the same layer of wood is both the floor and the ceiling of the room below. That seems like a really good “middle ground” where your ground floor is thoroughly “sealed up” but you get the cost savings and beauty of wood elsewhere. We don’t have any trouble with warping or mushrooms or anything like that.
Good luck, whichever way you go.
–arden–Having been in the sawmill/drying/millwork business for many years, I would suggest you
try to locate “quarter sawn or vertical grain” cut material that has been dried properly. This is the most stable cut of wood.John
Thanks ArdenBrinks, this is what I tried to say in my bad english…. and John, was your sawmill/drying/millwork business in Costa Rica ? If so, what can you tell me about how hard it is to fin almendro madera in Costa Rica ?
Thank you JoThanks all who responded especially the great advice from CRHomebuilder. We’ve decided to use the almendro only in the second floor master bedroom and tile the rest of the house. BTW the almendro is imported from Nicaragua as it is no longer harvested in CR. Thanks too to Scott for maintaining this very useful forum.
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