Hey everyone! I am new to posting but have read several topics on here and many other sites while trying to learn everything I can about my floors. Here is my dilemma:

We purchased a new home (May 2013) (already built, but brand new) that has roughly 1400 sq ft of Regal Hardwood floors in it. Around October we started noticing the corners of some of the boards were "peeling up". We contacted our builder and he immediately notified the installer who came out and determined it was a manufacturing issue. This is where the nightmare begins...the manufacturer came out on the coldest day of the year when it was 18 outside, they measured the RH and told us it was 24 which was too low and told us we could have four boxes and then they left(we live in East Texas where low humidity is not usually an issue). During this we noticed more boards "peeling", some along the edge not just the corners. We don't know exactly how many boards are damaged but there are some in each room. We were not happy with their offer of four boxes and don't buy that the humidity in our home is too low. We hired an independant floor inspector who came out and determined it was either "delamination" (mfg issue) or "wood shear" (job site issue). He also discovered that Regal had changed their warranty after making the visit to our home, they added a whole new section on delamination and a chart show the RH levels and the damage it could cause. So we had an affected board removed and sent it to the mfg. to determine whether it was delamination or wood shear, they emailed me today and said after looking at the board they have determined it was wood shear and they are closing our case. Shouldn't they have done some kind of testing on the board? Can they tell the difference just by looking? I would accept the four boxes and move on but what happens when those run out and we still have more damaged or a few years down the road there are more issues and no one will do anything because we settled with the four boxes? I don't think that it is right to spend $300K on a new home and have floors that are crap. Right now our options are to either settle on the four boxes, the builder and guy that sold the floors have offered to put some money towards repairing but nothing near what they cost, or pursue it legally? Regal is confident they will win but are they just saying that to make us back down? Any and all opinions and questions are appreciated.

Many inspectors don't seem to know the relation between relative humidity and moisture content. Readings of moisture content and then looking at the chart from the Wood Handbook you will get a clearer idea of what the relative humidity levels where that it took to be too low. In the real dry area of El Paso I see many examples of low humidity BUT go to www.buildingscience. com and the consensus, and what I have seen, indicate that a relative humidity of 25% should not adversely affect a wood floor. Current ambient relative humidity readings do not reflect what it took for the floor to fail.
Moisture content readings 20 each per 1,000 sq ft and then averaging that figure will give a clearer picture of what RH was too cause the floor to fail. Recently I took readings where some lifting of edges occurred 1% to 2% moisture content so looking at an average of 1 1/2% MC would indicate, checking the moisture chart, it took an average of 5% to 8% relative humidity for that to occur. Their current ambient RH was 20.1%. Current ambient RH should not be used to determine the RH was less than the mfg requirements. BUT they will use it to decline your claim.
It generally takes 2 to 3 months of constant low humidity for this to occur. Heating cold air drives RH low so generally it is late wintertime for the affect of low RH to manifest itself. Obtain an NWFA Inspector or one who understands what I depicted above. Testing and applying the results to wood science should lead one to the proper conclusion. I'm assuming this is engineered wood. Bond line failure would be if the core separated and this is almost always a manufacturing issue. If the veneer is separating from the core and is smooth this is almost certainly a manufacturing error. If you have face checking and/or cupping and fuzziness where it has separated that would be consistent with low humidity failure.
Good luck!!

"Sheer" is when the fibers are torn, not just a bond line failure. Sheer can also cross bond lines, and the wood looks like it's been torn apart.