Mirage hardwood is made in Saint-Georges, Quebec, just south of Quebec City, and it rides out our heated winters and muggy summers well. The reason is less the country than how the boards are dried, milled and built. Above all, it's the TruBalance engineered plank, which Mirage rates for indoor humidity anywhere from 25 to 80 percent. How well your floor does still depends on the construction you choose and on keeping your house inside its range.
Mirage TruBalance, nailed or glued down: the most forgiving choice for a Pennsylvania house. Its 25 to 80 percent range covers a dry radiator January and a sticky August, and it can go on any level, including a basement slab.
Mirage TruBalance, floated: the same plank laid as a floating floor asks for a tighter 30 to 60 percent. Most homes here need a humidifier running through the heating season to stay in that band.
Mirage solid hardwood: 3/4-inch boards that want 35 to 55 percent all year. With a humidifier in winter and air conditioning in summer they do beautifully. Let the house dry out and hairline gaps open until spring.
Basements, concrete slabs and radiant heat: TruBalance only. Solid boards stay off concrete and radiant-heated floors, and hickory TruBalance stays off radiant heat too.
| Mirage construction | Humidity Mirage asks for | Where it fits | In a dry Pennsylvania winter |
|---|---|---|---|
| TruBalance, nailed or glued | 25 to 80 percent | Every level, slabs, radiant (not hickory) | In range unless the air drops under 25 |
| TruBalance, floated | 30 to 60 percent | Every level, over approved underlayment | Needs a humidifier in most homes |
| Solid, 3/4 inch | 35 to 55 percent | Main and upper floors over wood | Hairline gaps unless humidified |
Where Is Mirage Hardwood Made?
Mirage hardwood is made in Saint-Georges, a town in the Beauce region of Quebec, by Boa-Franc, the company behind the Mirage brand. Mirage designs and manufactures its floors entirely in Canada, and none of them are made in the United States or overseas. Every construction it sells, solid and engineered alike, comes out of the same Saint-Georges operation.
The wood itself is North American. Depending on the construction, the planks come in oak, red oak, white oak, maple, hickory and walnut from responsibly managed forests. The core of the TruBalance plank is spruce, pine and fir sourced close to the plant. Because nothing is reimported, the floors travel a shorter road to reach you than floors shipped in from abroad.
Drying is where a floor's seasonal behavior starts, and Mirage does it in-house. Solid boards are kiln-dried before they're milled, and wind-powered equipment cuts the energy the drying uses. The National Wood Flooring Association's director of manufacturer services once toured the plant. Graders were checking lumber from every load, and the drying stacks were laid with precision and kept under cover.
A research team was testing boards under extreme conditions, and a final inspection under strong light pulled any board with the slightest flaw. That's the part of "Canadian-made" that matters to your floor, because one company controls the wood from rough lumber to the finished box.
Does Being Made in Canada Make Mirage Better for Our Climate?
Being made in Canada doesn't by itself make a floor better for our climate. Four things do: how dry the wood is when it's milled, how evenly the boards are cut, how the plank is built, and how steady your house stays through the year.
Where Quebec helps is with the drying and the building. It lives the same yearly pattern we do, a long heating season that dries indoor air and humid summers that wet it, with winters longer and colder than ours. Mirage describes TruBalance as made in North America for North American homes. A maker that dries, mills and tests for that swing is building for a house like yours.
That matters because flooring isn't all dried to one target. Some makers deliberately leave wood wetter or drier to suit damp coastal regions or deserts, while indoor wood across most of the country settles around 8 percent moisture. A floor dried for one climate and laid in another starts out of step with the house.
Evenly cut boards do the rest. Boards that leave a plant at the same size and moisture move together, so the gaps they open in winter stay thin and spread evenly across the room instead of collecting in a few wide cracks. Consistent grade, width and thickness from board to board is what Mirage's milling is known for.
No label can stop a board from swelling and shrinking, though. Mirage's own paperwork says narrow gaps and slight distortions can appear even on a perfectly installed floor, because wood moves with humidity. The construction you choose and the humidity you keep decide more than the address of the mill.
What Pennsylvania's Seasons Do to a Wood Floor
A wood floor trades moisture with the air until the two match. It shrinks when the house dries out and swells when the air turns damp. Here that means living with two different floors each year, a dry one in the heating season and a damp one in late summer.
Once the heat comes on, indoor humidity in a Pennsylvania house easily drops below 30 percent, and lower still in a house heated by radiators. The boards give up moisture, get narrower, and thin gaps open between them. In July and August it runs the other way. Without air conditioning or a dehumidifier, indoor humidity can climb past 60 percent, the boards swell, and the joints squeeze tight.
At room temperature, wood in 65 percent humidity holds more than twice the moisture it holds at 25 percent. A 5-inch solid red oak board that gains or loses 4 points of moisture changes width by about 1/16 inch. Across a 12-foot room of those boards, that adds up to about two inches of movement.
How much a given floor moves depends mostly on the boards. Wider boards move more than narrow ones of the same wood. Quartersawn boards, cut with the growth rings standing on edge, move less across their width than ordinary flat-sawn boards. Species matters as well, and our post on which hardwood species handle seasonal humidity best compares oak, hickory and maple.
Winter shrinking shows up as gaps between boards. Summer swelling, especially with moisture coming from underneath, shows up as cupping, where the edges of each board sit higher than its center. In the worst case, after water gets in, the floor buckles and lifts off the subfloor.
The houses we work in swing by different amounts. Older stone and frame homes on the Main Line heated by radiators have the driest winters, and basements have the dampest summers. A newer house with forced-air heat and central air conditioning usually swings the least.
How Mirage TruBalance Keeps Boards Flat Through the Year
Mirage TruBalance is an engineered plank built in three layers, so that each layer holds the others still. On top is 4 millimeters of sawn hardwood, the part you see and walk on. Under it sits a 13-millimeter core of mostly quartersawn spruce, pine and fir strips, with their grain running across the top layer's grain. A thin wood backing closes it in, and the finished plank is 3/4 inch thick, the same as a solid board.
Wood moves mostly across its width and hardly at all along its length. With the core's grain turned crosswise, the core resists the top layer's urge to swell or shrink, and the backing balances the face. Mirage rates TruBalance for 25 to 80 percent humidity when it's nailed, stapled or glued down, and 30 to 60 percent when it's floated.
For a house here, that wide range is the whole point. A dry radiator January at 25 or 30 percent and a sticky August near 70 both sit inside it. If your house swings that far, have TruBalance nailed or glued, because a floating installation asks for the narrower band.
TruBalance can go on any level, from an upstairs bedroom to a slab at ground level or a basement below it. It works over radiant heat in every species except hickory, and it comes in 5, 6-1/2, 7-3/4 and 9-inch widths. The 4-millimeter top is real sawn wood, thick enough to be sanded and refinished years from now.
Mirage Solid Hardwood Through a Pennsylvania Year
Mirage solid hardwood holds up well here as long as your house stays between 35 and 55 percent humidity all year. In most of our homes, that takes a humidifier in winter and air conditioning or a dehumidifier in summer. Each board is one piece of oak, red oak, white oak or maple, 3/4 inch thick, kiln-dried and milled to size.
The solid boards are deliberately narrow, at 2-1/4, 3-1/4 and 4-1/4 inches. A board moves in proportion to its width, so a narrow strip opens a thinner gap in January than a wide plank of the same wood would. Solid is nailed or stapled over a wood subfloor on floors at or above ground level. It doesn't go in basements or over radiant heat, and kitchens are a less ideal spot for it.
In the driest weeks of a Pennsylvania winter, expect hairline gaps you can see in low, raking light, especially if the humidifier can't keep up. They close as spring humidity returns. That's normal for solid wood, and a well-run humidifier keeps it small.
What solid gives you in return is a long life and a classic look. A 3/4-inch board can be sanded and refinished many times, and narrow strips match the original oak floors in many older Main Line homes. If your house has forced-air heat and a whole-house humidifier, Mirage solid is a strong fit for the main floors. In a radiator house with no easy way to add moisture, TruBalance is the safer choice.
Which Mirage Floor Fits Each Room in Your House
Two things decide which Mirage construction belongs in each room: whether the room sits above ground over a wood subfloor, and how far its humidity swings between January and August. Many Mirage colors come in both constructions, so you can often keep one color from room to room and change only how the board is built.
| Room or situation | Mirage floor | What decides it |
|---|---|---|
| Living areas over plywood | Solid or TruBalance | Whether you can hold 35 to 55 percent |
| Basement or concrete slab | TruBalance, glued or floated | Solid never goes on concrete |
| Radiant heat | TruBalance, any species but hickory | Floor surface kept at 80 F or less |
| Planks wider than 4-1/4 inches | TruBalance | Solid stops at 4-1/4 inches |
| Kitchen | TruBalance preferred | Spills, appliances, more moisture |
| Radiator house, no humidifier | TruBalance, nailed or glued | Range reaches down to 25 percent |
Basements and Concrete Slabs
A basement or a slab takes Mirage TruBalance, glued to the concrete or floated over an approved underlayment, and never solid. The concrete is tested for moisture before anything goes down, and a moisture barrier goes under the floor where the slab calls for one.
Basements here run damp all summer, so plan on a dehumidifier from June through September that keeps the space under 60 percent. That holds a floated floor inside its 30 to 60 percent band. We handle subfloor repair and underlayment as well as the floor itself, so the slab prep and the installation are one job.
Over Radiant Heat
TruBalance can go over radiant heat in every species except hickory, and solid can't go over it at all. Because radiant heat warms and dries the floor from below all winter, the rules are strict. The wood's surface stays at 80 F or less, with no more than 3 F difference from one spot to another.
The system should run for a week before installation and be turned down while the floor goes in. After that, run the humidifier from the first cold night, since a warm floor in dry air gives up moisture faster. Our post on radiant heat and hardwood in West Chester winters covers the heating side of the decision.
Wide Planks and the Seasons
On a wide-plank floor, how the board is built matters more than how wide it is. That's why Mirage makes its wide planks only as engineered boards. If you want 6-1/2, 7-3/4 or 9-inch boards, you're choosing TruBalance, and its range is what carries a wide floor through a dry January.
The widest TruBalance boards also get a bead of glue under them when they're nailed, to keep them tight through the seasons. For the design side of the choice, our post on wide plank vs. traditional planks walks through how width changes the look of a room.
Kitchens and Rooms by the Back Door
A kitchen can take Mirage hardwood, and TruBalance is the steadier pick there, because an engineered board tends to hold up better than solid around spills and appliances. Wipe spills right away and keep a mat in front of the sink and dishwasher. Full bathrooms and powder rooms, though, aren't recommended for any Mirage floor.
The rooms by the back door take the worst of winter. Snow, slush and road salt scratch the finish and leave a white film. Put mats outside and inside the door, and dry wet footprints before they sit.
Older Main Line Homes With Radiators and Stone Walls
Older stone and frame houses heated by radiators have the driest winters we work in, and most have no ductwork for a furnace humidifier. That makes TruBalance, nailed or glued, the comfortable choice, because its range reaches down to 25 percent. Solid works in these houses when room humidifiers can hold 35 percent through January.
In a radiator room, the boards right beside the radiator dry out first, so that's where the first winter gaps show. Run a room humidifier there, not just in the middle of the house.
The subfloor needs a look too. A nailed Mirage floor goes over plywood or OSB of a set thickness, and many older homes have board subfloors or patched framing that has to be brought up to that first. Subfloor repair is part of our work, so we can tell you at the estimate what your floor needs. Our post on engineered hardwood in Wayne homes looks at how engineered floors fit older houses.
Keeping Your Mirage Floor in Range, Season by Season
Keeping a Mirage floor in range means measuring the humidity, then adding moisture in the heating season and taking it out in the cooling season. Aim for about 45 percent, Mirage's own target, which sits inside every Mirage range and leaves room on both sides for a cold snap or a muggy week.
- Put a hygrometer, a small humidity meter, on each floor of the house. They cost $10 to $50 at most hardware stores. Check them weekly for the first year so you learn how your house behaves.
- When the heat comes on, add moisture. A whole-house humidifier on a forced-air furnace, fitted by a heating contractor, is the easiest way. In a radiator house, run room humidifiers in the rooms with wood floors and refill them daily.
- If the windows fog or frost on the coldest nights, turn the humidifier down a few points until the cold snap passes.
- When summer arrives, run the air conditioning, and a dehumidifier in the basement, to keep rooms under 60 percent and inside your floor's range.
- In spring and fall, when the windows are open, watch the hygrometer through long rainy stretches and close up if it climbs past your floor's top number.
- When you travel, leave the heat or air conditioning and the humidity equipment running, because the range applies all year.
Day to day, keep mats at the doors, dust-mop or vacuum the grit, and clean with a barely damp microfiber mop and a wood-floor cleaner. Never use a steam mop or a soaking mop and bucket. Our hardwood floor care guide covers the products and habits in full.
The humidity range for your floor is printed in the paperwork that comes with it, and keeping the house inside it is part of owning the floor. Keep that paperwork where you keep the hygrometer.
When Winter Gaps and Summer Cupping Are Normal
Even, hairline gaps that open in the heating season and close by early summer are normal wood movement. The only fix they need is steadier humidity. Wide or uneven gaps, gaps still open in June, cupping that doesn't settle as the air dries, lifting boards and fine cracks in board faces are different. They point to water from below, air that has been far too dry, or a subfloor or installation problem.
When one of those shows up, it's a job for our flooring repairs and subfloor repair crews, both listed on our flooring services page.
| What you see | When | Likely cause | What to do |
|---|---|---|---|
| Even hairline gaps | Heating season | Dry indoor air | Raise humidity slowly; wait for spring |
| Gaps still open in summer | All year | Very dry air, fastening or subfloor | Have it looked at |
| Edges raised (cupping) | Humid months or after a leak | Moisture from below | Stop the source, dry slowly, don't sand |
| Centers raised (crowning) | After a cupped floor was sanded | Sanded before it dried | Let it settle, then reassess |
| Boards lifting off the subfloor | After water | A leak or flood | Call right away |
| Fine cracks in board faces | Deep winter | Air far below the range | Raise humidity slowly; replace cracked boards |
| New squeaks and pops | Heating season | Shrinking boards around fasteners | Humidify; check if they stay |
Gaps Between Boards in Winter
Thin gaps spread evenly across the room need only patience and a little more humidity. Raise it a few points at a time and wait for spring, when the boards swell back. On a 5-inch solid board, a normal dry spell can open a gap of about 1/16 inch, and narrower boards open less.
Leave seasonal gaps unfilled, because filler is rigid. It cracks and works loose as the boards shrink further, or gets pushed up when they swell back in summer.
Gaps that are still open in June, or that grow every winter, mean the air is staying too dry or the floor can't move freely because of how it was fastened or what's under it. That's the time to have us take a look, before anyone decides on board replacement or a subfloor repair.
Cupping and Crowning in Summer
In summer, cupping usually means moisture rising from a damp basement or crawlspace, a slow leak, or a house left closed up without air conditioning. Find and stop the source first. Then dry the room gradually with air conditioning and dehumidifiers, and give the floor weeks to settle. Many cupped floors flatten on their own once the wood underneath dries.
Don't sand a cupped floor until the wood and the subfloor are dry and stable. Moisture-meter readings tell you when that is, once the boards and the subfloor have stopped changing and read close to each other. Sanding the raised edges off while the boards are still swollen leaves them crowned, higher in the middle, once they dry. When the floor has settled and some cupping remains, a full sanding by our hardwood refinishing crews brings it flat again.
Engineered Boards in Very Dry Air
Every engineered floor has a dry limit, and for TruBalance nailed or glued it's 25 percent. Held well below its range for weeks, an engineered board can open fine cracks in its face, called checks. Its layers can also strain until the edges curl up, which is called dry cupping. Bring the humidity back up slowly, and boards that cracked can be replaced as a repair.
Installing Mirage in a Pennsylvania Winter or Summer
Mirage can go in during any month of the year, once the house is living the way it will live with the floor. That means the heat or air conditioning running, the rooms held near 72 F for at least a week beforehand, and the humidity at that 45 percent target.
- Hardwood is the last step of a renovation. Drywall, plaster, paint and tile work put a lot of moisture into a house, so they need to be finished and dry before the floor arrives.
- The boxes sit in the room where they'll be installed for at least 24 hours, and engineered boxes stay sealed until installation.
- The wood subfloor is tested with a moisture meter and has to be dry and close to the moisture of the boards. If it reads high, the installation waits while the source is found.
That's a much shorter wait than a week of open boxes, which is general advice written for other floors. For a January installation, run the humidifier through that week before the boxes arrive. In July, keep the air conditioning on.
Our residential flooring installation crews follow the manufacturer's guidelines. Because we also handle job supervision and coordination, we can line the floor up with the rest of your renovation so it goes in last.
Choosing and Installing Mirage With Alpine Flooring & Design
At Alpine Flooring & Design, we carry Mirage hardwood and install it, from our showroom at 5121 West Chester Pike in Newtown Square. You can browse the Mirage floors in our catalog before you visit. Then sit down with us for a design consultation to match a color and a construction to each room and to how your house runs through the year.
Subfloor repair, underlayment, installation, repairs and refinishing are all services we provide, so the floor and everything under it can stay with one company. We're Pennsylvania's largest hardwood floor refinishing company and members of the National Wood Flooring Association.
We price every Mirage floor at a free in-home estimate, because the construction, the width, the subfloor and the rooms all move the number, and we offer financing. Our showroom serves Newtown Square, Wayne, Gladwyne, West Chester, Chester Springs and Centreville, Delaware. For a look at Mirage in busy households, see our post on Mirage hardwood for busy Gladwyne homes.
Questions About Mirage Floors and the Seasons
Is Mirage Hardwood Waterproof?
No. Mirage hardwood is real wood under a tough factory finish, so a spill wiped up promptly does no harm. Standing water, though, works into the joints and the wood and can cup or stain the boards.
Does Mirage's Factory Finish Keep Humidity Out?
No. A finish slows how fast wood takes on and gives up moisture, but it can't change how much moisture the wood ends up holding. A prefinished Mirage board still follows the air in your house over days and weeks, which is why the humidity range matters as much for it as for any floor.
Can Mirage Go in a House That Sits Empty Part of the Year?
Yes, as long as the heat and humidity control stay on and the house stays inside your floor's range all year. Those ranges apply at all times, whether anyone is home or not. For a second home or a house closed up for weeks, TruBalance nailed or glued gives you the most margin.
Why Do Hardwood Floors Squeak More in Winter?
Hardwood floors squeak more in winter because the boards and the subfloor both shrink as they dry, and fasteners that were snug in August loosen a little by February. A few new creaks in the heating season that fade by spring are seasonal. Squeaks that stay all year, or come with a soft or bouncy spot, point to the subfloor or the fastening, which our subfloor repair work addresses.
How Can I Tell Whether My Mirage Floor Is Solid or TruBalance?
Check the paperwork or invoice from the purchase first, because it names the construction. If that's gone, measure the width of a board. Solid Mirage boards are never wider than 4-1/4 inches, so a wider board tells you the floor is TruBalance or another engineered construction.
You can also look at a board's edge at a floor register or under a threshold. A solid board is one piece of hardwood all the way through, while a TruBalance edge shows a hardwood top over a paler softwood core.
The best time to match a Mirage floor to your house is before it's ordered, room by room, with the basement, the radiators and the August humidity all in view. Book a free in-home estimate, and we'll walk through the rooms you're planning, help you choose between TruBalance and solid, and price the floor that fits.
