hardwood floors buckling
Hi, Our lovely wood floors were fine when we moved into our (relatively) new construction condo 3 months ago. Now the floors boards are separating at the seams and also buckling. Lots of bowing up. What could cause this? Floors were re-done right before we moved in. Always appreciate the advice and experience of the…
Hi,
Our lovely wood floors were fine when we moved into our (relatively) new construction condo 3 months ago. Now the floors boards are separating at the seams and also buckling. Lots of bowing up. What could cause this? Floors were re-done right before we moved in.
Always appreciate the advice and experience of the brownstoners.
If you feel the flooring bounce and give as you walk, you might have a more serious problem. A friend of mine is a carpenter and was recently hired to redo flooring in a ‘new’ condo which was about 2 years old. The hardwood was fastened to the subflooring which was on top of the concrete. It turned out that the original builder did not put in enough anchors to hold down the subfloor (4 per sheet as opposed to 1 every foot), and as the subfloor started buckling, so did the hardwood on top. You could feel the flooring give about 1/2″ when you stepped on it. Hopefully shoddy construction is not the case with your flooring.
Is this by chance one of those condos and rooms where the room is below grade? Shouldn’t do that.
You mention buckling. I am not sure if you mean bowing (or cupping), as the previous person to comment mentions, or if you mean that the floor is actually lifting. Perhaps it was not secured properly and the recent humidity has caused the boards to expand and lift. Now, you say that this is new construction which would indicate concrete under the wood. I have never secured a floor to concrete (I do most of my work in older homes) and maybe they don’t put it on concrete, maybe they put down a wood sub floor and glue to that, but I would be concerned that this was not secured properly; in typical wood constrution the narrow floors are nailed to a subfloor while wider boards are nailed and glued with a glue that stretches a little to allow the wood to move seasonally. I do not know what would happen if one put down wider plank flooring without using some adhesive; I fear it could be the scenario you describe. Glue failure is also possible; manufacturers have bad runs from time-to-time.
The previous post is correct in what they say about bowing up being indicative of too much moisture below. This raises another question which I can only speculate about as I have never put down wood floor on concrete. When floor is put down in new wood frame construction, a moisture barrier is put down over the sub floor. This is to prevent the moisure in all of the new wood from interfering with the floor. I have always wondered how they get around this when laying wood over newly cured or still curing concrete. It is a question worth asking someone.
Steve
http://www.thetinkerswagon.com
In the winter there is less moisture in the air, (less humidity) so, combine that with your heating system pumping out nice hot air and the results are the moisture content in the wood disappears making the wood boards shrink. So that might be the cause of the seam separation you mention.
But then you say they are also buckling, which in my experience means moisture (water leakage?) I suppose your Condo could be too dry on top and wet underneath!? Like there was a leak you didn’t know about before you moved in and the boards got wet, then you moved in, turned up the heat and dried the tops out.
Bowing “up” seems to indicate wet floor boards on the bottom and dry on the top.