CMC Flooring Explains How Temp & Humidity Swings Impact Flooring

Denver, CO, July 27, 2026—After weeks of record-challenging heat gave way to a surge of monsoon moisture across Colorado’s Front Range, CMC Flooring, a Denver-based flooring installation company, is explaining how Colorado’s sharp swings between dry heat and humidity affect the floors inside area homes. 

The company’s message is that many common flooring problems homeowners blame on defects or bad luck are actually the predictable result of wood, laminate and vinyl reacting to a climate that can shift from bone-dry to humid in a matter of days.

The region has spent July under a prolonged heatwave, with Denver recording its first 100-degree day of the year on July 20 and Boulder setting a record for consecutive days above 94 degrees. That stretch has now collided with monsoon moisture pushing up from the south, raising both humidity and flash-flood risk. For flooring, this whiplash between extremes is exactly the condition that exposes weak installations.

“Floors are always moving a little, and most people never notice,” said Christian Martinez, owner of CMC Flooring. “But when you go from weeks of dry 100-degree heat straight into monsoon humidity, that movement gets extreme. Wood swells, then shrinks. Vinyl that was baking in the sun expands. If the floor wasn’t installed with room to move, that’s when you see gaps open up, edges cup, or planks push against each other and buckle. It’s almost never the material failing. It’s the install not accounting for Colorado.”

According to the company, each flooring type responds differently. Hardwood is hygroscopic, absorbing moisture during humid monsoon stretches and releasing it during dry heat, which causes boards to expand and contract across the seasons. Without proper acclimation before installation and adequate expansion space at the edges, that movement shows up as cupping, crowning, or gaps between planks. Laminate, built on a fiberboard core, is especially sensitive to moisture and can swell at the seams if water reaches the core or if humidity swings are severe.

Luxury vinyl plank reacts less to moisture and more to temperature. Vinyl expands and contracts as it heats and cools, so a floor that sits in direct summer sun through a large window can push outward, then pull back when the air conditioning runs. When LVP is installed without acclimation or without the expansion gap the manufacturer specifies, those temperature swings can cause the planks to lift or separate. Carpet is the most forgiving in day-to-day humidity shifts, though its padding is vulnerable to trapped moisture and mold when flooding or leaks occur.

CMC Flooring notes that the fixes are largely preventive and happen before and during installation. Acclimating materials to the home’s actual conditions, leaving proper expansion gaps, testing subfloor and concrete slab moisture before laying anything on top, and following each product’s manufacturer specifications are what separate a floor that holds up through extremes from one that fails within a season. For homeowners maintaining existing floors, keeping indoor humidity in a stable range of roughly 35% to 45% year-round reduces the seasonal stress that leads to gaps and cupping.