Help - wooden floor buckling?

K

kilbird

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I have a wooden floor in 5 rooms in my house and in 2 of them it has started to buckle - not cup or crown but actually rise a couple of inches off the subfloor in certain parts - and it has happened in the larger rooms not the smaller ones.

It was a new build - we are in since end of June. The floor was a concrete floor which had been left to dry for 12 weeks prior to flooring being laid. The flooring was solid oak flooring that was laid over a foil backed foam and glued ( as directed by supplier). Its even causing some of the skirting to come off now....What can I do? I just wanted to get some feedback before I contacted the builder.

What are the possible reasons for this?
Not enough expansion gap?
No sign of leak but could it be?
Bad quality flooring product?

The 2 rooms that it happened in do get a fair bit of direct sunshine so would have been quite warm in those rooms which might have added to expansion. I haven't had the heat on once since we moved in. I actually tripped over the "Alpine slope" in the middle of my daughters room this morning - If you put a toy car/ball on the top of it, it rolls down the side such is the slope on the floor!!!!

I can feel the builder trying to dodge this one already!!
 
Almost certainly insufficient expansion gaps were left and when the floor boards expanded they had nowhere to go.

The solution involves removing the skirting, cutting 5mm or so from the outer edges of the boards adjacent to the walls and reattaching the skirting. The trick is not to damage the floor, walls or skirting while doing this.

I'm surprised that a solid hardwood floor could expand to this degree and can only conclude that either the concrete floors were insufficiently dry (12 weeks might not be enough if it's wintertime), the underlay was not moisture-proof (or did not have a moisture barrier laid on the floor first as some require), there is a leak and / or the builder is not a floor expert.
 
thanks
Have my doubts about the builders capabilities in lots of areas...
Definately moisture proof barrier laid underneath - just wonder if it was taped at each joining??
Also hope it isn't a leak - only way of telling to pull up the floor???
 
Hi Kilbird,

How long were the floorboards sitting in the house before they were laid. The same problem happened to a friend a few years ago. Boards started rising alot! Apparently the builders did not give the boards long enough time to acclimatise in the house. It was a pain to fix.
 
Go to your builder and tell him to get it fixed, if he thinks its a fault with the product he will call the supplier and it will be up to them to sort the problem at their expense. If your only in since June they should have no problem this.
 
moisture in the main problem for movement in wooden floors. More than likely the screed was not dry enough. This is still the builders fault unless he advised you not to put the floor down. We you putting him under pressure to move in? The only way to sort it out is to trim the egdes under the skirting and keep your fingers crossed...
 
It could have been warped floor boards as well as not enough expansion gap around the side. My floor boards epanded 15mm all around after I laid mine.
 
I know this is not quite the same thing but we're putting down a white deal floor in the kitchen. It's an old house and we're insulating between the joists and then putting white deal floorboards. We want the builder to put the floorboards down using secret nailing but he is worried that the boards are more likely to warp and buckle if he does this. Anyone have any experience of this?
 
White deal really needs to be nailed across the board. Secret nailing at the tongue of the board will not stop the boards moving and any expansion is going to pop your floor into a zig-zag.
White deal is especially prevalent to moving with the seasons. If you fit it tight in the winter you could have 3/4mm gaps at each board in the summer which will close up again in the autumn.

Only solid or engineered flooring is really suitable for secret nailing.
 
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