Hi,

We just bought a house. The first time we saw the house I didnt see it. The house is built in 2005 on a street with steep. The bucking of the cherry floors happens exactly at the entrance which is over the garage. There is a crawl space underneath. I feel like the buckling is getting worse everytime I look at it every few days. Please note that there were some cupping of hardwood about 6' away of this buckling and its been sanded and fixed. The house has had water intrusion last year but they have fixed it and ran moist and mold test nothing found last year. The house has been empty for the past 6 months. What could be the problem? No cracks on the walls.
Is it foundation problem? Ground moving? Moisture? what should I do?!?

Im panicing please help.

Pictures would help if possible.

I am not home right now. sorry dont have pictures. There are no cuppings. just buckling. the floor goes up about half inch to an inch and then its flat. it doesnt come down. as if there is a very tiny step. the area buckled is 4'x4'.

More than likely it is a moisture issue. If you have an ice maker on your refrigerator check the hose on that. Also, another common cause is a dishwasher leaking. If the floor is not near the kithen. Then it is probably an issue of excessive moisture in the crawl space.

Thank you. How would I know its not a structural problem? Well, there are no cracks. none. and the house has been built for 5 years now. If its moisture issue in the crawl space, will that be costly to fix? Thank you.

If you can get to the crawl space cover the dirt with some 8mil black plastic and make sure it is properly vented out. I got the specs for crawl space venting somewhere here on my pc but I thinks someoen else here probably knows that spec by heart. I don't deal with them much.

If the house has been empty have you been running the hvac? If not that may be a part of the problem. Need to check the moisture levels, bukled wood means a gain in moisture content, now you just need to find the source. Check expansion gap as well in the affected area.

"Crawl space should have 1.5% of open venting per 1,000 s/f of floor area properly located to foster cross ventilation".

Something to check out. Not surprising to find inadequate cross ventilation at an entrance.

But I'm a little confused....Naz states "crawl space" & "over the garage".

Yea, funny floor plan huh Howard? Floors over garages are notoriously always jacked up. I did a solid teak naildown over one and still am crossing fingers.

Seems like strange stuff goes on over garages I'm thinking maybe it has to do with radical hot and cold in garages, major RH swings. Then you have ceiling/floor, that has no ventilation, causing all kinds of radical spuratic conditions, causing capillary action under the hardwood. How's that for a theory ?

I love a conspiracy theory, is there a conspiracy in there somewhere?

Well lets see...Yea, it's one of the builders conspiracys I think, yea that sounds good It's the bubblin hot/fridget cold/no ventilation under the hardwood installers floor conspiracy.

Thanks everyone. So we moved in this weekend and started the HVAC. The buckling hasn't got worse but it has a trampoline effect when I jump on it. Feels like the hardwood has been seperated from the base. Most probably its moisture content of the house since the house has been empty for more than 6 months. You think the buckled area would go down after we run the AC and get the room temp right? Or it needs to be removed, sanded and re-installed?

Thanks!

I think you should take a "wait and see" attitude for a while and see what the floor will do on its own. And resist the urge to jump up and down on the floor, put a trampoline in your backyard for that purpose. (lol)