The ever-dropping temperature reminds me that it’s fall and soon we’ll 
be turning on the heat, if you haven’t already. It also means that more people will be heading indoors to exercise which is great news for your facility!
Of course, the thing about turning on the heater is that it more quickly dries water in the air and this dramatically reduces the humidity in your building. In fact, over time, like after an especially hard or long winter, the humidity never has an opportunity to rise at all. Surprisingly, this can make life really difficult for your hardwood floors.
You see, a hardwood floor expands and contracts based on the humidity of the environment that it is installed in. The fibers in the wood fill up with moisture when it’s humid, and shrink back down when it’s not. When the humidity is greatly reduced through heating, the boards become much narrower and somewhat shorter. In a nailed-in floor, this often leads to noticeable gaps between floor boards and at the ends of the boards. In a free-floating floor, this means that the floor will often shrink away from the wall, creating wide gaps around the outside of the room. In some extreme cases, it will actually cause cracking within the boards itself.
Most wood flooring manufacturers suggest that you keep the humidity between 35%-50%, which can be a bit of a challenge in the winter. If you don’t have humidifiers in your existing HVAC system, it’s not a bad idea to get a portable humidifier to put in a corner of the room, just for the worst of the winter months. Don’t count on just the activity in the room and the sweat to keep the humidity high. It does boost humidity, but only temporarily and not enough to help the flooring. An alternative is to turn the heat way down at night, or when no one is using the room. It not only helps keep humidity higher, but also reduces your electric bills!
So, as we approach winter, keep those relative humidity guidelines in mind and look for strategies to keep the moisture up. Your floors will thank you.