We often meet the problem of cracking or out of shape with wooden items such as wooden floor, wooden furniture. It is really annoying! However, people's affection to wooden furniture does not affect, because wooden furniture is the most eco-friendly furniture. Any solutions will prevent it to happen? Why wooden furniture go easily to lose shape? Learn about the Moisture Content will help you to prevent wooden furniture from cracking.  

Like other hygroscopic materials, wood placed in an environment with stable temperature and relative humidity will eventually reach a moisture content that yields no vapor pressure difference between the wood and the surrounding air. In other words, when the indoor air is very dry, wood will release moisture. When the indoor air is too humid, wood will absorb moisture, and when the wood has reached equilibrium with its environment and is no longer gaining or losing moisture, the equilibrium moisture content (EMC) occurs. Wood will shrink or swell when it loses or gains moisture below its fiber saturation point. This natural behavior of wood is responsible for some of the problems of wood drying.

Wood drying is a process ensuring that gross dimensional changes through shrinkage are confined. Ideally, wood is dried to that equilibrium moisture content as be attained by the wood. Thus, further dimensional change will be kept to a minimum. Wood is usually dried to a moisture content that is close to the average EMC conditions to which it will be exposed. These conditions vary for interior uses compared with exterior uses in a given geographic location. For example, according to the Chinese Standard for Timber Drying Quality, the EMC is recommended to be 8-15% for the majority of Chinese province. When you are planning to buy wooden furniture, check the EMC of furniture carefully to see if it fits the environment of your area.
 
However, the EMC may be as low as 6 to 7% in dry centrally heated houses and offices or in permanently air-conditioned buildings. So we also have to do some maintenance works, including wipe with wet rag often, keep your room in line with the EMC by humidifier, keep windows open for ventilation etc.