To the Pros. We bought a brand new custom ranch home from a builder--closed Sept 1 . The home is app. 2500sq.ft. and have about 1000sq.ft. of hardwood. 4" clear oak with inlay of Braz. Chr. in the dining. The floors were installed in june and the finished coat was shortly after. After looking at the home a few times I started to notice the floors were cupping. The builder talked with the floor installers and they said they may come down. He said if they do not come down they will fix them. After doing hours of research I feel they may have cupped from lack of A/C in the hot months and moisture in the subfloor. The home was locked up June, July, and Aug. It is almost mid Nov. in Chicagoland and I see no change. If anything I am starting to notice areas of lose boards.(Give when you move back and forth) The cupping is everywhere but worse in some spots. We do not plan on doing anything till spring just incase there is moisture in the subfloor. Well I tried to paint a good picture. If I have the floors refinished in the spring than after Sept. 1 2008 the floors start to crown I am SOL. Is it crazy for me to want new floors installed v.s. refinishing? It is a new home shouldn't there be new floors. I am really stuck. Please give me your opinions.

In a word;;; WAIT..
The heating season may find the floors correcting themselves to a degree, if not 90%.
In making repairs to cupped floors, it is best to wait a full cycle of seasons, as correcting now may produce Crowning.
Correcting a cupped floor that may correct itself later only results in the edges now being lower then the centers after the wood and sub-floor completely acclimate to the indoor environement.

My suggestion: Wait until next year to make a decision about corrective work as doing so now may only create another problem.

In conjuction to waiting. If you do not have humidity controls on your Heat - A/C systeim. It can be a significant improvement to the appearance of your floors to add that to your system.

This stable humidity will help make sure that if any repiars need to be made that the environment the wood is in when the repiars are made will be constant and the appearance of the floors will be maintained.

We are going to wait. The wife and I are thinking about May 08. I am also going to buy a dehumidifier and put it the basement. Hopefully this will dry out whatever moisture is left in the subfloor. My biggest concern is the spogy spots maybee from the boards pulling on the nails. I have look in the basement where the spongy spots are and the subfloor appears to be solid and not at joints. The other topic is the aggrivation. I am still feeling why should the floors be refinished. I kinda feel the floors should be replaced. I just do not now what leg I have to stand on when the builder and floor crew say they will be fine if we refinish them. The home was a lot of money is my eyes and I really feel a new home has new floors.

I would also wait a full season, only problem with that is (here at least) new homes only come with a one year warranty on most things, so If you dont get it fixed with in the year youre sol I would get some documentation stating with the shape the floor is in, and the reasons youre waiting to see if it fixes itself, but if it doesnt then even though the 1 yr is up, the builder is still responsible for the repairs.

Exquisite flooring: Did you read my previous Postings. I have the orginal story and than I replied to some on Nov. 11. I understand the year warranty process and waiting is a key factor. What kind of documentation should I get?--The builder is awsome to work with and he is aware of the problem. Nobody has really answered my biggest question yet--- If the floors are still cupped in the spring/early summer should I have the builder refinish the floors or can make the builder replace them to prevent future problems. Refinishing them is obviously the cheaper way for the builder or floor co. but now my brand new floors will have less thichness to them. Floors are suppose to last a long time and can be refinished over the life of the floors. I was just imagining that when somebody buys a brand new home the floors should last atleast 6-10 years before refinishing. Thanks for your input. I am so glad I logged onto this site.

Sorry I only read this post.

My understanding thus far

The floors were finished in summer 07
Closed sept 07
1 year warranty is up sept 08

you noticed cupping late summer 07
one full season would be late 08 (august) to see if the cupping goes away, If it doesnt go away and gets sanded the floors will crown(reverse cupping) they will look good for a few months, but that will fade (unless after august it returns to a normal state).

Basically everyone I am friends with is involved in wood flooring, a close friends older brother hired us on years ago to his company, we in turn brought our close friends on etc. many of us went to go on to own our own companies ect. some for retail work some for builder work, sub work. A few people I know work for giant companies who do floors for builders (not custom builders) but when they build the big subdivisons here, and it isnt uncommon for them to call me from time to time, and say, "youre never going to guess what I did today" Then they tell me a story how they went to install wood in a new house, wich had either no heat, AC, power, vents, wood being delivered as it is installed (no acclimation), even 3 inches of standing water in the basement.
The builders they work for would sign off to the lagre company, and the large company would tell the installer go ahead and install it.

Do you know/they know what the moisture was when it was installed (wood and subfloor) and amount of acclimation time?
Now Im NOT trying to scare you, just giving some insight, but if your builder is good you wouldnt have any worries.

for your protection I would say

1. Spend the $500(?) on a licenced flooring inspector like Ray (but hes not in IL) Get his opinion, and documentation.
2. Draw up some contract type thing to the builder, stating that you noticed the cupping upon closing, but that you are going to wait one full season, to see if the floor returns to a normal state, before attemting repairs.
3. I would even put a clause in it staing that if they are to refinish the floors, and the cuppin turns to crowning iwithin a year, they would take the floor out and replace it. This would give them the opportunity to refinish them like they want, but also would protect you if it didnt work.


I have seen plently of cupped floors in my day, sometimes is a smaller ordeal then it is made out to be, but when boards are comming loose, even if it dries out correctly, the plywood ect, isnt going to swell back around the staples, it would actually lossen up.

That loose board(s) leads me to believe therer is more to the story, that none of us know.....

Thanks exquisite flooring. Your comments are well taken. The builder is a private builder who builds less than 5 homes a year. He uses the same guys for the entire building process. I can understand what you mean by waiting till august 08 to have the floors redone. The reason for me thinking april/may was if they start to crown maybee it will be before sept. 1 and still be under warranty. At the same time you are right if I get it in writing that after they are sanded and than later crown they will replace them. I think an old friend of mine is a realestate lawyer now. Maybee I will give her a call and see if she can help. I can even give my realestate lawyer a call. ? Should my contract be writen up by a lawyer or atleast looked at by one? And than signed by the builder and myself?
The amount of time the wood had to accl. is unknown to me. Also the moisture content of the sub and harwood is unknown.
If I remember correctly the builder did not have the A/C on the first few times we looked at the home in late June, early July. But in August I stopped by the home and I think the a/c was running.
I was even thinking about telling the builder to send his floor guys out to the house just to see what they say. With my many hours of research maybee I could ask them some key questions such as the ones you mentioned.
I take very good care of my stuff almost OCD. This is just so frustating for me. What makes it even worse is the floors look amazing except for the cupping. Even some the cuts they had to make within the floors are fantastic.

I would have an attouney(sp?) look it over.
And like I had mentioned get a NWFA inspector out to look at the floor, maybe you can get the builder to fund it, given that he is a custom home builder alot of the worries i mentioned before are most likely moot.

I am not an expert on site finished floors but if you are seeing "loose" boards now.... that is an issue that re-sanding/refinishing will not resolve. Once they are loose they are loose.

Being an expensive new home and with that amount of square footage involved I would look into hiring a "certified" NWFA or NOFMA inspector. Normally being certified in something does not mean a whole lot... but it does when one claims to be a hardwood floor inspector.

Jerry has a good point::::::::: LOOSE floors.
a NOFMA inspector is trained to perform field tests and wood moisture tests to determine Wood Moisture Content upon Milling and Installation which is critical in your particular situation.
As a general rule, if the cupping is less than .02" it is considered repairable or may flatten on it's own.
If the cupping is .03" it is serviceable too, but may have edge damage (cell damage).
You may be wise to have a NOFMA inspector take a look at this problem, but I would wait until spring to do that after you see what happens after the heating season.
My best guess: they installed the floor in a building not acclimated which usually means the sub-floor was too high in moisture content which is the source of moisture to cause the cupping. As the home acclimates and dries out, this may all be self-correcting with exception to the loose boards, which can be either top nailed or replaced.

Good Luck and be patient. Removing and replacing hardwood floors would not be enjoyable to live through.

Now, lets not confuse a moisture imbalance cupping, with compression set, cupped appearence.

A moisture imbalance can be corrected, with little effect to the floor, compression set, is not so forgiving, and is only corrected by a full sanding.

Compression setting will not crown if sanded. Moisture imbalance cupping will show crowning, if the imbalance is not corrected.

Nothing is certain at this point in time, but waiting until after the heating season will tell the story on this floor;;;;; or do you disagree?

I just wanted to say thank you for your advice on my floor situation. I plan on waiting until after the heating season to do anything. All of coments were very much appreciated.

Could not thank you enough, Eric