Mississippi humidity and your furniture
By The LQ Furniture floor team ·
Wood furniture moves with the weather. It takes on moisture when the air is damp and gives it up when the air is dry, and it is the swing between the two that splits a tabletop, not the humidity itself. Keep the air in your house between 35 and 55 percent relative humidity, keep it steady, and most of the trouble never starts.
That is harder here than in most places. Summers in North Mississippi routinely push outdoor humidity past 80 percent, and a house that is shut up and cooled all July then opened up in October puts its furniture through a real swing.
What humidity actually does to furniture
| Material | In damp air | In dry air |
|---|---|---|
| Solid hardwood | Swells; drawers and doors stick | Shrinks; gaps open at joints and panels |
| Veneer over particleboard | Edges lift, surface bubbles | Veneer cracks and peels |
| Upholstery | Slow to dry, mildew smell in a closed room | Generally fine |
| Leather | Can grow mildew if air does not move | Dries and cracks without conditioning |
Solid wood is built to move. Its joints and panels are made with that in mind, which is why a solid dresser that has been through forty Mississippi summers is usually still square. Particleboard with a veneer on top has no such tolerance: once moisture gets into the core through a chipped edge or an unsealed bottom, the board swells and never goes back.
This is the practical argument for solid wood in this climate, and it is worth knowing which you are buying. On our floor you can pull a drawer out and look at the bottom and the back. We will tell you straight what a piece is made of.
The number to aim for
Between 35 and 55 percent relative humidity indoors, and closer to 40 to 50 if you want one figure to remember. A ten dollar hygrometer from any hardware store will tell you where you actually are, and most people are surprised.
The more important rule is steadiness. A house that sits at 60 percent all year does less damage than one that swings from 35 to 70 and back. Rapid change is what cracks a panel, because the surface of the wood reacts faster than the middle of it.
What to actually do
- Run the air conditioner in summer. It is a dehumidifier that happens to also cool, and it is doing most of this work already.
- Add a dehumidifier in the rooms the AC does not reach well: a den over a crawlspace, a back bedroom, anywhere that smells damp in August.
- Do not push furniture flat against an exterior wall. Leave a couple of inches so air moves behind it.
- Keep pieces out of the direct blast of a floor vent or a window unit. That is a dry, cold jet aimed at one spot, and it is exactly the uneven treatment that warps a panel.
- Keep solid wood out of long direct sun. Sun does its own damage to the finish and dries one side faster than the other.
- In winter, when the heat runs and the air goes dry, a humidifier in the main room evens things out.
Rooms that need the most attention
Manufactured homes deserve a word here, because a great many North Mississippi families live in one. They are typically tighter and smaller in volume than a site-built house, so humidity swings faster in both directions, and a dehumidifier makes a bigger difference per dollar. We wrote separately about what actually fits in a double-wide, and the same rule applies here: give pieces a little breathing room off the wall.
Enclosed porches and sunrooms are the other trouble spot. They are not climate controlled, whatever the listing said, and solid wood in a sunroom in Tupelo goes through the full outdoor swing every day.
Everyday care that actually matters
- Wipe spills immediately. Standing water is worse than humid air by a wide margin.
- Use coasters and felt pads. Not for looks; for the finish.
- Dust with a slightly damp cloth, then dry it. Dry dusting drags grit across the finish.
- Skip the silicone-heavy spray polishes on solid wood. They build up and make refinishing harder later.
- Open the windows on a dry fall day and let the house breathe. Moving air is the cheapest mildew prevention there is.
If something already moved
A drawer that sticks in August and slides fine in November is not broken. It is wood doing what wood does, and the fix is patience and a steadier room rather than a plane. A door that is out of square year round is a different matter, and worth showing somebody.
A cupped tabletop will sometimes flatten back out if you even out the moisture on both faces, which usually means taking it off a damp floor and letting both sides see the same air for a few weeks. Veneer that has bubbled is generally done.
Come look at what a piece is made of
The floor turns over every week and we usually cannot reorder. When you are here, pull a drawer, look at the back panel, and ask. Solid wood costs more than particleboard for a reason, and in this climate the reason shows up in about five years.
Walk in Wednesday through Saturday 10 to 6 or Sunday 12 to 6, or see what is on the floor now.