Protecting Wood from Delhi’s Humidity Swing (2026)

1. Understand the cycle before you fix anything

The single most useful habit is knowing when not to act. A great deal of money is spent every monsoon planing doors and drawers that would have freed themselves in October.

• A door, drawer or shutter that binds only in the wet months and runs freely in winter is moving normally. Leave it alone and let the season turn.
• A door or drawer that sticks all year, in December as much as in August, has a real fault — a dropped hinge, a worn channel or a frame that has shifted. That is worth fixing.
• Gaps that open in winter and close in summer are the same story in reverse. A hairline gap at a joint or under a skirting in February is usually seasonal shrinkage, not a failure.
• Never force a swollen drawer or shutter. Forcing is what cracks a drawer front, strips a screw hole and tears a channel off its fixings.

Before you plane anything, wait a season and see. If it is still wrong in the dry months, our guides on doors that will not close and drawers that will not slide take it from there.

2. Monsoon habits: air, gaps and quick drying

From late June to September the air is heavy and everything wooden takes it up. What causes damage in these months is not the humidity itself but moisture that gets trapped and stays.

• Leave an air gap behind wardrobes and cabinets standing against external walls. A back panel pressed flat against damp plaster grows mould and rots, and it is where termites start too.
• Open the house up on dry days, even briefly. Still, closed air is what makes cupboards smell musty and lets mould take hold on the backs of shelves.
• Wipe up any water on wooden furniture the moment it appears rather than letting it sit. Most water damage is time, not volume.
• Keep wooden legs and plinths out of mopping water and out of any seepage. A leg standing in water wicks it straight up into the piece.
• If a room floods or a wall seeps, dry it properly with air movement rather than sealing the room up with the AC running and the door shut.

Doors and windows that swell shut in these months are covered in our door, window and lock care tips.

3. Dry season habits: shade, feeding and steady conditions

From March to June the air is extremely dry and the sun is fierce, and wood gives up moisture fast. This is when joints loosen and hairline cracks open.

• Keep good furniture out of long spells of direct afternoon sun. Sun bleaches the colour and dries the surface unevenly, which is what opens surface cracks.
• Do not park a wooden piece directly in the blast of an air conditioner or in front of a heater in winter. Fast local drying is harder on wood than a generally dry room.
• Feed the surface. A suitable wax or wood polish once or twice a year helps the surface hold moisture through the driest months. Our wood polishing cost guide covers when a full refinish is worth it.
• Seal bare and cut edges. Unfinished wood on the back of a shelf or the underside of a table breathes far faster than a finished face, and uneven drying is what cups and twists a board.
• Check joints in April and May. A chair that has started to rock or a table that flexes is a joint drying loose, and re-gluing it early is a small job. Our furniture repair charges guide explains what drives that cost.

4. Storing wood and wooden things safely

Furniture in storage, spare doors, leftover boards, and everything that lives in a Delhi loft take the worst of both seasons with nobody watching.

• Do not wrap wooden furniture tightly in plastic for storage. Plastic traps moisture against the surface, and what comes out months later is mould and a lifted finish. Cover loosely with cloth so air can move.
• Keep stored pieces off the floor on blocks or pallets, away from external walls, and out of any corner that has ever been damp.
• Store boards and doors flat and supported along their length, not leaning against a wall. A sheet standing on edge for months in a humidity swing will bow permanently.
• Remember the loft is the hottest, driest place in the flat in summer. Do not store anything delicate or already cracked up there, and check what is up there once a year.
• Clear out cardboard cartons and old newspaper stacked against walls or in the loft. Damp cardboard is both food and cover for termites, and our guide on signs of termite infestation explains what to look for.