we just bought a 15 year old house with 2 1/4 oak flooring. The wood was installed when house was built and is glued down to concrete. (EAST TEXAS) A month after I bought the house a spot in the middle of the living room started to rise (about 7 board widths) I called every flooring company in my area and called the best wood floor guy in east texas. he came over and pulled the area and put new in, sanded, and refinished the entire floor. Another month and a spot right next to the old area started buckling. Called him back out and he met with a leak specialist and he said no signs of any water. Wood guy said he has no clue and now I have no options. Anyone have any thoughts. House also has dehumidifier in it so I know theres no humidity problem.

Buckling is only caused the excessive moisture.
As an NWFA Inspector I have seen it from the following excessive relative humidity in the slab. Insuti testing will verify this must be less than 75%.
Drill a hole through the slab 5/8" look for ground cover under concrete. Utilizing a simple soil tester check how moist the soil is. Water running down a broken drain line from ac has caused what you are experiencing. Remember concrete is a just a solid sponge if water touches it it will increase moisture in the slab. Only testing can verify this. It may look dry, it may fell dry but only testing will verify it is so. Broken water pipes in slab can cause this I have seen it take 3 weeks to locate this situation. Improper grading of the land outside, most building codes require 6" drop in 10 feet, can cause water to pool against the slab and cause the wood to buckle. The floor will buckle at the place it is least secured to the slab not necessarily the wettest. Flood irrigating can be cause. If you have difficulty locating someone who knows this go to www.woodfloors.org consumer website for the NWFA and locate an inspector in your area he will know exactly how to advise you. ONLY MOISTURE WILL CAUSE A WOOD FLOOR TO BUCKLE ONLY A TRAINED WOOD INSPECTOR WILL FIND IT FOR YOU.

Furthermore most mfg's do not recommending gluing 3/4" solid wood to concrete. Concrete always has some moisture or it would be dust. How much is the question. And if you do glue to concrete use a sealer such as Sika MB Primer which will allow up to 6% moisture content using a Tramex moisture meter.

A sub-slab moisture barrier is rather standard now but has not always been. If the water table in your area raises and your slab does not have a barrier beneath it, it will take on the moisture and pass it through to the wood flooring. I've experienced this over the last twenty years a few different times where a calcium chloride test would show an acceptable 3 pound or less moisture release reading, only to test again later using the same methods per ASTM standards to find the moisture release to be much higher. As stated in a previous reply, the only thing that can cause buckling and tension between the planks to the extent that they raise off the floor is moisture, which obviously coming from underneath in your case. It takes a lot to buckle 2-1/4". You have to mitigate the moisture or eliminate it's access to the wood flooring. If the problem persists, remove the flooring and treat the concrete with Bostik MVP or similar and install a new floor, OR put down a plastic moisture barrier, two cross linked layers of plywood and nail down a new hardwood floor. As a hardwood flooring manufacturer for 20 years we have done both to fix such problems with 100% success.

Best of luck to you. Sincerely, Kevin Pennington

Remember that concrete continues to absorb moisture. So yes water from underground could continue to rise and wrecking the floor.

I am wondering if you could do relief cuts into the floor and make em look part of the design of the floor? I just see this continuing if it already happened 2x.