We had 3/4" natural red birch floors installed ten days ago, in 3" width, over a pretty darn level 3/4" OSB subfloor. The wood had be acclimated for a week in the (upstairs) space, and the weather had been dry. The installer put on a Swedish finish.

Ever since the installation there has been crackling when we walk on the floor. It's not creaking - there are lots of small sharp noises, and once you've walked over an area it will stop the crackling when you walk over it again until maybe the next day.

I unfortunately have not had a humidity meter in the house, but I'm pretty sure that once the floor went in the weather turned rainy, and the humidity has probably gone up. The crackling seems less bad when the weather is sunnier (we're in the Pacific NW, so there's generally low humidity when it's sunny.)

We are looking for advice on how to deal with this problem. Are we going to need to have the floor taken up and re-installed?

I don't believe this will be necessary UNLESS the flooring was installed improperly. This has happened to me on occassion. The floor is still "settling" so to speak. This mostly happens with site finished floors, sometimes even before finishing. Most apparent when sunlight is pouring onto the floors from windows. In time, this should diminish. If not, there is an installation problem. Either breaking of tongues during nailing or not nailing to schedule.

Thanks, Gary.

So, is it just a waiting game, or is there any way we can determine if the tongues are split and/or nails are too far apart? I watched the installers working, and didn't see any evidence of tongues splitting. The boards fit together well, and there weren't any alarming noises as they were put in place. The nailing also seemed pretty rigorous, with nails every 6" to 8".

Thanks again!

We install 90 percent of our floors in Boise with Birch, We get a few sometimes that will crackle alover the day after its installed , We walk all over it and it goes away. We sand it and usually we never have a problem again.

Garys right we get the worse spots where the sun beats down on it. Its the strangest thing and no ones ever given us a good answer so We chalk it up to settling.

Why so much birch? More money than oak, not as hard, more difficult to stain, less stable. I've checked on birch prices here. For the same price, I can install quartersawn white oak, select and better, which is a nicer floor, IMO.

price is relativelyt he same in Idaho but mostly because we have Interior Desingners advising contractors here and their are telling them that Oak is old fashioned.

Its been this way for 7 years but the writing is on the wall and Some of the contractors are getting tired of complaints and are shifting back to red and white oak lol.

Ive been trying to tell them this for 7 years lol

thanks for the responses. the crackling is still happening almost 2 months after the floor was installed. we still have not moved up into the space, but we went through a period where it was not crackling very much. now it definitely seems worse when it is hot and there has been a lot of sun on the floor.

are there things we can look for that would indicate that the floor has not been properly installed? someone recommended that we step on the areas where it is crackling, which is all over, and see if the floor is moving. we did that and did not notice any significant movement. the same person thought that the sub-floor might not be level. another theory is that the wood was too dry when it was installed.

what kind of complaints are the contractors getting about birch?

thanks!

The only times I have inspected noises like you describe, was when the flooring was installed over particle board, or they used a finish/brad nailer to do the entire installation, or they laid over all kinds of debris, without sweeping or vacuuning, or when installed without a long enough acclimation and it gained moisture content.

Hmmmm. I do remember noticing that the nails they were using looked kinda small. I had just been through the process of removing the hundred-year-old floors we were replacing which were solidly nailed with common-style nails. The ones the installers used looked more like finish nails. I wonder if you've hit the nail on the head regarding our problem, so to speak.

The installer and the wood merchant are coming to check it out in the next few days - I'll run your idea past them and see what happens.

Rut-Row!!!

Did they hand nail it or have a pneumatic nailer, that was shooting the finish/stick nails.

They used a pneumatic nailer. Does that make a difference?

Finish nailer or a floor nailer?

I'm having what I think is a similar issue in a 3 1/4" 3/4" solid prefinished maple I'm installing presently. There is a crackling noise when one walks on the floor (at least the portion that I've completed so far). And this is not a cheap brand I don't think (Tembec Muskoka)

I've never installed maple or 3 1/4 planks, but I'm wondering whether it has to do with the width of the planks, 3"+ instead of the standard strip flooring. I've never experienced this crackling with the oak floor I installed which was 2 1/4" wide.

I'm using a pneumatic floor nailer with 2" cleats and nail spacing between 6-8".

Jerry - It was a proper pneumatic floor nailer, set at the appropriate angle
for nailing through the tongue. I seem to recall that the nails they were using came in a strip where they were all stuck together flush, not like the strips you put in a framing nail gun where the nails are held apart by the plastic.

Get a meter that will measure the rh in your home, find out what conditions are when the least amount of crackling is going on and try to maintain that. My guess is when the sun kicks through large windows you get a "greenhouse effect" thus raising the humidity this will cause you floor to swell temporaily. Not up to snuff on acid cure finishes but many floor finishes actually bond the boards together on the sides, some of the noise could be from the finish breaking loose. just a guess for what's its worth.