Turn Your Furnace/Air Conditioner Off When Redoing Hardwood Floor

Redoing your hardwood floor or putting in a hardwood floor is a big job.  You need to move all the furniture out of the room or rooms and you may not be able to go into a certain room for a while.  Whether you do-it-yourself or hire someone, there is a lot of work and inconvenience. 

Throughout this experience, the last thing you may be thinking of is your furnace or air conditioner and duct work.  However, they are still important with this job.  First of all, remember to turn your furnace or air conditioner off when doing the work.  Because working on these hardwood floors-especially the sanding stage creates a lot of dust and your furnace or air conditioner will just circulate the dust throughout the house.

Second, indoor air quality is a topic to think of when doing a hardwood floor. Ventilation is key! Products used to finish or stain the wood, such as Glitsa can create vapors and fumes that smell and are not good for your health.  Depending on the person and concentration of the solvents one could experience a headache or nausea.  The furnace or air conditioner will not eliminate these vapors.  The best way to get rid of them is with outside air.  Therefore, one should open windows and use fans in order to exchange the indoor and outdoor air.

The amount of ventilation needed depends on a variety of factors including the house and its age.  Older, less energy efficient homes are not as tightly sealed and therefore they have natural leaks that will let clean outside air in and odor filled inside air out.  If you have an older home like this, you have more of a chance of being able to just turn your furnace and air conditioner on and not worry about ventilation. 

Fans and windows work better at ventilation than furnace/air conditioners because they let in outside air, and also because the “bad” solvents and vapors can get taken in by your furnace/air conditioner and continue to travel throughout your home and duct work.

For more information you can read this article:   http://www.glitsa.com/documents/breathingEasy.pdf

or Check out the Glitsa website:  http://www.glitsa.com/