How Floor Sentry Can Monitor Temperature and Humidity

Hardwood flooring is a costly investment, both homeowners and professional contractors want to make sure the installation lasts.

However, even a wood floor that has been properly installed can develop problems later on if environmental conditions change, especially moisture conditions.

That’s where Floor Sentry comes in…

Floor Sentry is extremely small and once installed, it collects data for you while being completely hidden from view.

• How Floor Sentry Works
• Why Homeowners Should Use Floor Sentry
• Why Flooring Contractors Should Use Floor Sentry

Wagner’s Floor Sentry is an electronic, Bluetooth®-enabled data logger for wood floors that helps you monitor the environmental conditions surrounding your engineered or solid wood floor.

Whether your wood floor is in a home or a commercial building, when you use Floor Sentry you’ll know when there are any changes to its ambient environment.

If either the temperature or the relative humidity falls outside the desired range for proper floor care, the Floor Sentry will alert you by automatically delivering a Bluetooth notification to your mobile device.

Floor Sentry is installed on the underside of hardwood floors and monitors and logs both the humidity and temperature of the flooring itself and that of the concrete subfloor.

Floor Sentry allows you to easily monitor the temperature and relative humidity of your wood floor and concrete subfloor months or years after installation.

Floor Sentry is completely invisible beneath the wood’s surface. You’ll know it’s there, but your guests won’t.

How Floor Sentry Works

The basic steps are as follows. (Detailed, easy-to-follow instructions are included when you purchase Floor Sentry. This is just a brief overview.)

You can easily install Floor Sentry within a small cavity on the underside of a floor plank by using a woodworker’s routing tool.

1. Install Floor Sentry. Floor Sentry is small and can be installed in a shallow cavity on the underside of one floor plank. You can create this cavity by using a woodworker’s routing tool. Place the Floor Sentry in this cavity and then place the plank. The installation guide provides detailed instructions that will walk you through this.
    
   Note: Install the Floor Sentry in a plank located in an area with little to no foot traffic. Be sure to note where you’ve placed the Floor Sentry for future reference.
2. Download the Wagner Sentry app. The app is available for both iOS and Android devices.
3. Open the app, give the Floor Sentry device a unique name, make any necessary adjustments to the default settings, and then begin monitoring and data logging the temperature and relative humidity of the wood floor.

That’s it!

Floor Sentry is easy to both install and use. You’ll have it set up and running in no time flat.

Why Homeowners Should Use Floor Sentry

Simply put, Floor Sentry helps you protect your investment.

You’ve spent a lot of money on your beautiful wood flooring. However, did you know that it could be seriously damaged if exposed to unfriendly ambient conditions? This could happen because of something happening inside your home or building or from something going on underneath the flooring in the subfloor.

You might not even notice these small changes until you see your floor developing problems.

You see…

Your natural, wood-based floor is part of a system. This system consists of:

1. The inside ambient environment above the flooring.
2. The finished floor itself.
3. The subfloor underneath the finished floor.
4. The environment underneath the subfloor. This is typically the crawl space or a concrete slab foundation.

If the ambient conditions — primarily temperature and relative humidity — go beyond the range for proper floor care and stay that way for an extended period of time, the wood floor could start to cup, split, or crown.

The Floor Sentry’s purpose is to help prevent this from happening by using its advanced technology to not only continuously monitor your floor’s temperature and relative humidity but that of the subfloor as well. If the ambient environmental conditions exceed the safe limits, you receive a notification.

If your flooring starts to cup, split, or crown and you can show using Floor Sentry that the ambient conditions in your home or building haven’t exceeded the safe limits, you’ll be able to show that the damage to the floor isn’t your fault due to ambient conditions.

Why Flooring Contractors Should Use Floor Sentry

Wood flooring contractors should use Floor Sentry for a few main reasons…

It protects you against liability claims.

If you perform a perfect floor installation but later the floor starts to cup, split or crown, the customer could blame you even though it’s not your fault. This could impact your professional reputation and as a consequence, hurt your livelihood.

However, if Floor Sentry has been installed, its logged data will show if the floor’s ambient environment has exceeded the desired range for proper floor care by the high RH condition of the wood. In other words, Floor Sentry will be your ‘witness’ if someone files a claim.

It shows your customers that you’re a professional and that you stand by your work.

The Floor Sentry gives an indication of the long-term effects of the environment surrounding the wood floor.

By including the Floor Sentry in your installation, you’re indicating to your customer that you plan on this floor lasting and have put in the effort to ensure that it does.

Floor Sentry gives floor owners the opportunity to take responsibility for the floor’s care.

In other words, it makes them active rather than passive participants in the floor’s care. It’s also educational because they learn about how temperature and relative humidity affect wood.

This is good because anyone who invests in a wood floor should be equipped to make sure that it is maintained properly.

With proper care, hardwood floors will last for decades and this care involves monitoring the temperature and moisture content of the floor’s environment.

Floor Sentry provides you with an easy way to do this via an advanced, state-of-the-art device that operates from inside your wood floor taking measurements and creating a historical record of the environment your wood floor has experienced.

Jason Wright

Jason Wright, Business Development Specialist for New Products, joined Wagner Meters in 2019. He comes to Wagner with over 35 years of experience in the flooring industry.

Last updated on August 1st, 2023