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Your Cabinet Warranty Doesn't Cover This (The 30–50 Humidity Rule) · USA Cabinet Store Remodeling Podcast

• 0:05
  Welcome back to the Remodel Report by USA Cabinet
• 0:08
  Store. I'm Chris. And I'm Jessica. Jessica, today's
• 0:12
  topic sounds boring on paper. Humidity. And then
• 0:16
  you told me one sentence last week that changed
• 0:17
  my mind, so say it again. If humidity warps your
• 0:21
  cabinet doors, your warranty does not cover it.
• 0:23
  Not because of fine print games. The manufacturer
• 0:26
  considers it normal wood behavior. Normal. Your
• 0:29
  door won't close, and that's normal. Showplace
• 0:32
  cabinetry, which is a line we sell, publishes
• 0:35
  it right on their site. Dimensional changes from
• 0:38
  humidity are inherent characteristics of wood,
• 0:41
  not considered flaws, and not covered under the
• 0:44
  warranty. Diamond Cabinet says the same thing.
• 0:47
  These reactions are normal and not a fault of
• 0:49
  the cabinetry. So the warranty covers the cabinet.
• 0:53
  It does not cover the air in your house. Exactly.
• 0:56
  And the air in your house is yours. Which is
• 0:59
  actually good news, because the air is the one
• 1:01
  thing you can control for about $15. We'll get
• 1:05
  to the $15. First, the basics. Why does wood
• 1:09
  care about humidity at all? Because wood never
• 1:11
  stops being a sponge. It got cut down years ago.
• 1:15
  It got dried, machined, finished, and it is still
• 1:18
  trading moisture with the air around it every
• 1:21
  day, forever. Humid air, the wood slowly absorbs
• 1:26
  and swells. Dry air, it releases and shrinks.
• 1:31
  Even with a finish on it? A finish slows the
• 1:34
  trade down. Nothing stops it. Wood scientists
• 1:38
  have a term, equilibrium moisture content. The
• 1:41
  wood is always drifting toward balance with the
• 1:43
  room it lives in. So the cabinet is basically
• 1:45
  a very slow humidity gauge. That is honestly
• 1:48
  a great way to think about it. And cabinet makers
• 1:51
  know this. A five -piece door holds its center
• 1:54
  panel in an oversized groove on purpose so the
• 1:57
  panel can float as it grows and shrinks. They
• 2:00
  engineer for movement. They just engineer for
• 2:03
  a certain amount of it. And when the movement
• 2:05
  gets bigger than the allowance? Doors bind against
• 2:09
  the frame, but doors meet in the middle and push.
• 2:13
  Mitered corners, those pretty 45 -degree joints
• 2:15
  pull apart at the seam. Diamond specifically
• 2:19
  calls out mitered doors as the first place joint
• 2:21
  separation shows. Okay, give me numbers. What
• 2:24
  should the air actually be? Everyone lands in
• 2:27
  the same narrow band. The EPA says keep indoor
• 2:30
  relative humidity below 60%, ideally between
• 2:34
  30 and 50. Showplace says 30 to 55. Diamond says
• 2:39
  30 to 55. So hold 30 to 50 and you satisfy every
• 2:44
  spec at once. 30 to 50. And how bad does it have
• 2:48
  to get before real damage? Diamond puts visible
• 2:51
  swelling territory around 70 to 80 percent humidity.
• 2:55
  And the other direction matters too. Below 20
• 2:58
  percent, wood shrinks enough to open joints and
• 3:00
  crack paint lines. I want to flag that for everyone
• 3:03
  in a heated house in January. This is not just
• 3:06
  a summer problem. It is a swing problem. Wood
• 3:10
  is happiest when nothing changes. The goal is
• 3:13
  a flat, boring line all year. Alright. Before
• 3:17
  we fix the air, you have a test. You always have
• 3:19
  a test. This one takes 60 seconds and it saves
• 3:22
  people real money. Here it is. Humidity is air
• 3:26
  and air touches every cabinet in the room about
• 3:29
  equally. Water is local. It touches one spot.
• 3:33
  Hard. So read the pattern, not the symptom. Give
• 3:37
  me the two pictures. Picture one. Several doors
• 3:41
  around the kitchen get sticky in August and by
• 3:44
  December they all open fine again. Room -wide,
• 3:47
  seasonal, reversible. That is humidity. And picture
• 3:52
  two? One cabinet, usually the sink base. Swollen
• 3:57
  at the bottom, maybe bubbled, maybe dark, while
• 4:01
  its neighbors look perfect. That is not air.
• 4:05
  That is water. A drip, a leak, a splash pattern.
• 4:09
  And people mix these up? Constantly. We meet
• 4:13
  homeowners who ran a dehumidifier all summer
• 4:15
  at a swollen sink cabinet that had a slow supply
• 4:18
  line drip behind it the whole time. The air was
• 4:21
  never the problem. The fixes are opposites, so
• 4:23
  the diagnosis matters more than the product.
• 4:26
  There was a Reddit thread you showed me exactly
• 4:28
  like this. A homeowner replacing 10 -year -old
• 4:31
  cabinets that swelled up and bowed, asking what
• 4:34
  material survives humidity. And the sharpest
• 4:37
  reply in the thread pointed out all the damage
• 4:39
  sat where the dishwasher had been leaking, and
• 4:42
  said, This is not a cabinet issue. This is a
• 4:45
  water issue. Best comment on the internet. It
• 4:48
  is the whole diagnostic in one sentence. Fix
• 4:51
  the leak or the next kitchen inherits it. Okay,
• 4:55
  the air side. Walk me through the habits because
• 4:57
  you claim most of this costs nothing. Habit 1.
• 5:02
  Run the range hood every single time you cook
• 5:04
  and leave it running 10 or 15 minutes after.
• 5:07
  Not for smells. For water. A pot of pasta puts
• 5:11
  a shocking amount of moisture into the air, and
• 5:13
  the cabinets on either side of the range catch
• 5:15
  it first. I definitely only run mine when something
• 5:18
  is smoking. Most people do. One caveat. If your
• 5:23
  hood recirculates instead of venting outside,
• 5:25
  it catches grease but does very little for moisture.
• 5:28
  Worth knowing which kind you own. How do I check?
• 5:32
  If there is no duct going through the wall or
• 5:34
  ceiling, it recirculates. Habit 2 is even cheaper.
• 5:38
  Lids on pots. A lidded pot boils faster, uses
• 5:42
  less energy, and releases a fraction of the steam.
• 5:45
  The most advanced humidity technology, a lid.
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  Undefeated since the invention of the pot. Habit
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  three. Wipe standing water immediately and blot
• 5:54
  instead of scrubbing. That one comes straight
• 5:57
  from Fabuwood's care instructions, another line
• 5:59
  we carry. Dry excess water right away. Blot it
• 6:03
  up off the finish instead of pushing it around
• 6:05
  and into the seams. And habit four. After a heavy
• 6:09
  cooking session, give the room five minutes of
• 6:11
  air. Leave the hood running or crack a window.
• 6:15
  A quick air change resets the room faster than
• 6:17
  any absorber pouch ever will. You mentioned appliances
• 6:20
  earlier and I want to go there because you said
• 6:23
  something dark about my coffee maker. Your coffee
• 6:26
  maker is steaming the underside of the cabinet
• 6:28
  above it every single morning. My coffee maker
• 6:31
  is attacking my kitchen. Gently. Daily. Forever.
• 6:37
  Kettles are worse. Look at where people park
• 6:40
  them. Directly under an upper cabinet and the
• 6:43
  bottom edge of that door takes a concentrated
• 6:45
  hot steam hit every day, often on the least finished
• 6:49
  surface of the whole cabinet. Then one day, the
• 6:53
  finish clouds and the edge starts peeling and
• 6:55
  everyone blames the cabinet. When the real culprit
• 6:58
  has a power cord. Pull the kettle or the coffee
• 7:01
  maker toward the front edge of the counter when
• 7:03
  it runs. Or move it out from under the uppers
• 7:06
  entirely. What about the dishwasher? Two behaviors.
• 7:11
  A lot of models vent steam at the end of the
• 7:13
  cycle, low, right at the neighboring cabinet.
• 7:17
  And opening the door mid -cycle releases a hot
• 7:19
  cloud straight up at the counter overhang, and
• 7:21
  the door's above. So let it finish and cool before
• 7:25
  you open it. I open it mid -cycle constantly.
• 7:28
  To sneak a fork in? Everyone sneaks the fork.
• 7:31
  Just know the cloud is real. And once a month,
• 7:34
  run your hand along the cabinet edges next to
• 7:36
  the dishwasher after a cycle. If they ever feel
• 7:39
  damp, the door seal or the vent needs attention
• 7:42
  before the cabinet pays for it. Self -cleaning
• 7:45
  ovens made your list too. A self -cleaned cycle
• 7:48
  pushes out heat and moisture for hours. Run the
• 7:51
  hood the whole time. Same for air fryers parked
• 7:54
  tight under a wall cabinet. It is a tiny convection
• 7:57
  steam engine. Okay, now the $15. A digital hygrometer.
• 8:02
  A little battery gadget that tells you the room's
• 8:05
  relative humidity. Put it on the kitchen counter,
• 8:08
  away from the stove and the sink so it reads
• 8:10
  the room and not the pasta pot, and just look
• 8:13
  at it for a week. Why does this matter so much
• 8:15
  to you? Because every other decision depends
• 8:18
  on a number you do not have. Half the people
• 8:21
  who buy one discover their kitchen already sits
• 8:23
  at 45 % and needs nothing. No dehumidifier, no
• 8:28
  gadgets, done. The other half discover their
• 8:32
  August afternoons read 68, and suddenly the sticking
• 8:35
  doors, the stiff drawers, it all has one explanation.
• 8:39
  And if I am in that second group? Your air conditioner
• 8:42
  is already a dehumidifier, so run it. Diamond's
• 8:45
  guidance literally leads with run your HVAC consistently.
• 8:49
  If the number still sits above 55 for days, that
• 8:52
  is when a portable dehumidifier earns its spot.
• 8:55
  Set it to hold 45 or 50 and let it cycle. Not
• 8:59
  30? No, and this is a real mistake people make.
• 9:03
  Overdrying trades, summer swelling for winter
• 9:05
  -style shrinking. Cracks, open joints, panels
• 9:08
  rattling indoors. Aim for the middle of the band,
• 9:12
  not the floor of it. What about those little
• 9:14
  moisture absorber boxes people put inside cabinets?
• 9:18
  Niche tool, not a fix. A desiccant pouch can
• 9:21
  help a closed, rarely opened cabinet in a damp
• 9:24
  corner, or a renter with no control over the
• 9:27
  HVAC. But a box of crystals cannot dehumidify
• 9:30
  a room and keep chemical absorbers away from
• 9:33
  cabinets that hold food. You said something smart
• 9:36
  about these last week. If the absorber fills
• 9:38
  up with water fast, people think it is working
• 9:41
  great. It is actually a measurement. It is telling
• 9:44
  you the room itself needs fixing. The full pouch
• 9:47
  is not a trophy. It is a warning light. Let's
• 9:51
  talk about the sink base because you called it
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  the cabinet that always fails first. Ask any
• 9:56
  installer. It lives with supply lines, drain
• 9:59
  connections, a disposal, a closed dark interior,
• 10:02
  and a drip risk. All in one box. Three -part
• 10:06
  routine. One, line the floor with a waterproof
• 10:09
  tray or mat, about $20, so a slow drip gets caught
• 10:13
  and held where you will see it. Two, once a month,
• 10:17
  run a dry hand along the lines in the trap. 30
• 10:20
  seconds. Three, if anything is wet, act inside
• 10:24
  the EPA's window. Wet materials need to be dried
• 10:28
  within 24 to 48 hours because after that, mold
• 10:31
  has what it needs. 24 to 48 hours. So the Friday
• 10:35
  leak cannot wait for next weekend. Empty the
• 10:38
  cabinet, dry it, point a fan at it, find the
• 10:41
  source. That weekend. Someone listening is renovating
• 10:45
  right now. What do they do differently on the
• 10:47
  front end? Two things, and both come from manufacturer
• 10:51
  install guidance. First, acclimation. Let the
• 10:55
  cabinets sit inside the conditioned house for
• 10:57
  a few days before install, so the wood adjusts
• 11:00
  to your air before it is screwed to a wall, not
• 11:02
  after. Second, sequence the wet trades. Drywall
• 11:07
  mud, paint, concrete, they all dump moisture
• 11:10
  for days. That work finishes and dries before
• 11:14
  cabinets arrive. And material choice for the
• 11:17
  humid climates? Plywood boxes over a standard
• 11:20
  particle board, every time the budget allows.
• 11:23
  Cross laminated layers swell less and keep holding
• 11:26
  screws after moisture exposure. Standard particle
• 11:29
  board swells once and never comes back. MDF is
• 11:33
  stable in normal air, which is why painted doors
• 11:35
  are usually MDF, but it hates standing water
• 11:38
  at raw edges. And remember, no material excuses
• 11:42
  a leak. Plywood buys you time to fix a problem.
• 11:46
  It is not a submarine. Alright, honesty section,
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  when is protection too late? When the structure
• 11:52
  has changed, veneer lifting, board that swelled
• 11:55
  and crumbles, mitered joints that opened and
• 11:58
  stay open, mold that keeps coming back, air control
• 12:02
  does not unswell wood. At that point, it is repair
• 12:06
  or replace, and the honest answer depends on
• 12:09
  what the boxes were made of to begin with. And
• 12:12
  that is a conversation you can have for free
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  at any of the showrooms. Bring photos and a designer
• 12:16
  will tell you straight whether it is a hinge
• 12:19
  adjustment, a two -cabinet repair, or a new kitchen
• 12:22
  conversation. With plywood boxes and a layout
• 12:25
  that keeps steam away from the wood this time.
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  Let's land it. Three things to remember. One.
• 12:32
  Thirty to fifty percent relative humidity measured
• 12:34
  by a fifteen dollar hygrometer. Twelve months
• 12:37
  a year. That band is also what keeps your warranty
• 12:40
  meaningful. Two. Read the pattern. Every door
• 12:45
  a little, seasonally, that is humidity. One cabinet.
• 12:49
  Badly. That is water and you have 24 to 48 hours
• 12:53
  to dry it. 3. Steam is local. Hood on every cook,
• 12:58
  lids on pots, kettle out from under the uppers,
• 13:01
  mat in the sink base. The remodel report is brought
• 13:04
  to you by USA Cabinet Store. Family -owned since
• 13:08
  2011, with more than 14 showrooms across Virginia,
• 13:12
  Maryland, North Carolina, Texas, New Jersey,
• 13:16
  Florida, and Tennessee. The full written guide
• 13:19
  with every number and source from today is linked
• 13:21
  in the show notes. Keep the line flat and we
• 13:24
  will see you next episode.