How Floor Sentry Can Monitor Temperature and Humidity

Hardwood flooring is a costly investment, and both homeowners and professional contractors want to make sure the installation lasts.

But even a properly installed wood floor can develop problems later if environmental conditions change, especially moisture conditions.

That’s where Floor Sentry^® comes in.

• How Floor Sentry Works
• Why Homeowners Should Use Floor Sentry
• Why Flooring Contractors Should Use Floor Sentry

Wagner’s Floor Sentry is a Bluetooth^®-enabled data logger for wood floors that helps you monitor the conditions in and around your engineered or solid wood floor.

Whether your wood floor is in a home or a commercial building, Floor Sentry lets you know when conditions change.

If the temperature or relative humidity goes outside the alarm thresholds you set, Floor Sentry sends a notification to the free Wagner Sentry^® app on your phone.

Floor Sentry is installed on the underside of a floor plank. Its top and bottom sensors monitor and log the temperature and relative humidity within the wood floor and at the surface of the concrete subfloor or underlayment below it.

That makes it easy to monitor your wood floor and subfloor months or years after installation. Its battery can last up to 8 years, depending on how often it logs readings.

Floor Sentry is completely hidden beneath the floor’s surface. You’ll know it’s there, but your guests won’t.

How Floor Sentry Works

Here are the basic steps. (Detailed, easy-to-follow instructions come with Floor Sentry. This is just a brief overview.)

1. Install Floor Sentry. Floor Sentry fits in a shallow cavity on the underside of one floor plank. You can make the cavity with a router. Place the Floor Sentry in the cavity, then install the plank. The installation guide walks you through each step. Note: Install the Floor Sentry in a plank in an area with little to no foot traffic, and note where you placed it for future reference.
2. Download the Wagner Sentry app. The Wagner Sentry app is available for both iOS and Android devices.
3. Open the app, give the Floor Sentry a unique name, adjust the default settings as needed, and start monitoring and logging the temperature and relative humidity of the wood floor.

That’s it! Floor Sentry is easy to install and use.

Why Homeowners Should Use Floor Sentry

Simply put, Floor Sentry helps you protect your investment.

You’ve spent a lot of money on your wood flooring, and it can be seriously damaged if conditions around it aren’t right. That can happen because of something inside your home or building, or because of something under the flooring, in the subfloor.

You might not notice these changes until your floor starts developing problems.

That’s because your wood floor is part of a system that includes:

1. The indoor environment above the flooring
2. The finished floor itself
3. The subfloor beneath the finished floor
4. The environment beneath the subfloor, typically a crawl space or a concrete slab foundation

If conditions, mainly temperature and relative humidity, stay outside the right range for an extended period, the wood floor can cup, split, or crown.

Floor Sentry helps prevent that by continuously monitoring the temperature and relative humidity of both your floor and the subfloor. If conditions go outside your alarm thresholds, you get a notification.

And if your floor does start to cup, split, or crown, Floor Sentry’s records can show whether conditions in your home stayed within the recommended range, which helps pinpoint the cause.

Why Flooring Contractors Should Use Floor Sentry

Wood flooring contractors should use Floor Sentry for a few main reasons.

It protects you against liability claims.

If you do a proper floor installation but the floor later starts to cup, split, or crown, the customer could blame you even though it’s not your fault. That could hurt your reputation and your livelihood.

If Floor Sentry was installed, its logged data will show whether the conditions in and under the floor went outside the recommended range, such as high relative humidity. In other words, Floor Sentry can be your witness if someone files a claim.

It shows your customers that you’re a professional who stands by your work.

Floor Sentry tracks the long-term effects of the environment around the wood floor.

By including Floor Sentry in your installation, you show your customer that you expect the floor to last and have made the effort to make sure it does.

It gives floor owners the opportunity to take responsibility for the floor’s care.

In other words, it makes them active participants in caring for the floor. It’s also educational, because they learn how temperature and relative humidity affect wood.

Anyone who invests in a wood floor should be equipped to maintain it properly.

With proper care, hardwood floors can last for decades, and that care includes monitoring the temperature and relative humidity around the floor.

Floor Sentry makes that easy. It works from inside your wood floor, taking measurements and building a record of the conditions your floor has experienced.

Shop Floor Sentry

Last updated on October 9th, 2026