Hi all,

I have a question about an issue we have with our floors. Long story short, we moved into this home about a year ago and these floors were installed new prior to us moving in. I don't know much about flooring but I had always assumed these were not original wood floors, but some sort of artificial or composite wood but I was unsure. Shortly after we moved in we had a handyman a friend referred do some minor work. One of the things he did was install tracks on closet doors in the hallway as the doors swayed from side to side because no tracks were installed. We asked him if the floors we had were "real" wood and he said he thinks they are because when he drilled into the flooring to install the tracks he said if it was artificial wood it would of reacted differently. I don't remember the exact specifics but he thought the floors were "real" wood when I had always thought otherwise.

Anyway, we recently noticed the floors are "bubbling" in certain areas. I've taken some pictures but don't see any way to upload them here. The best way I can describe it is as a "bubbling" effect. Any ideas on what may be causing this and is there any way I can upload a few pictures on here to show the issue? Thanks in advance for any suggestions or input.

I just uploaded the pics to photobucket. The bubbling can be seen towards the middle/top of the pictures. Most of the floors are fine, the bubbling just started out of nowhere.

http://s816.photobucket.com/user/cornerbax/media/20130903_092727_zps5cf45e51.jpg.html


http://s816.photobucket.com/user/cornerbax/media/20130903_092547_zpsd414e309.jpg.html

Here is a close up of the flooring (there's no bubbling in this picture, just a close up to see the flooring itself.)

http://s816.photobucket.com/user/cornerbax/media/20130903_095220_zps98dfcebb.jpg.html

I actually don't see the pictures. Not sure if there is a privacy setting or something.

Debbie Gartner aka The Flooring Girl
http://TheFlooringGirl.com
Westchester County NY

Sorry about that...I just fixed the links. The first two links here are the close-ups of the flooring itself and the 3rd and 4th link are where you can see what i'd call humps or lumps in the flooring. Also, I don't know if you can see it in the pictures, but this flooring is always EXTREMELY GLOSSY...which is the reason I always felt like it was not real wood. Any ideas on what type of flooring this is and what is causing these humps/lumps?

http://s816.photobucket.com/user/cornerbax/media/20130903_095220_zps0c04fe38.jpg.html?sort=3&o=0

http://s816.photobucket.com/user/cornerbax/media/20130903_095254_zpse640a622.jpg.html?sort=3&o=3

http://s816.photobucket.com/user/cornerbax/media/20130904_101507_zps7c2257fe.jpg.html?sort=3&o=1

http://s816.photobucket.com/user/cornerbax/media/20130904_101422_zps53e1eff8.jpg.html?sort=3&o=2

Sorry I couldnt tell much from those pics, it looks a lot like one of those high def laminates. The bubbling looks like a wet laminate also. If you have some floor registers for the hvac you can pull one of those and see if its a laminate or an eng wood.

@Kevin,

thanks for your response. I'm not familiar with high def laminate, but I will search it through google and educate myself. When you say it looks like the bubbling is a "wet laminate" can you explain what exactly that means and what exactly may of caused this? Also, do you know if there a way to fix a high-def laminate floor that has this bubbling issue? I appreciate your response and any additional info you can give would definitely be helpful....thank you.

Yes, it's really challenging to tell from those pictures. I had the same reaction as Kevin - it sort of looks like a high grade laminate. But, it could also be an engineered floors. It's really hard to tell by those pictures and wo/ being there.

I agree, it looks like someone got water on it somehow.

If it's laminate, you definitely can't fix those pieces as it's just a picture of the wood. If it's engineered wood there might be an option.

If it was just installed a year ago, are there extra pieces? maybe you can replace those pieces. try to see if you can see it from the side to see if it's wood or laminate...or it there are extras. Or, if there is a register in the floor that you can pull out so you can look at it from the side.

@ the flooring girl...thank you for the response. Quick question, IF the floors were REAL wood, would leaving some water on the wood cause this same kind of "bubbling" reaction? I'm guessing it would not, but I have to ask. I think it is possible I trekked a little water in from outside and while I cleaned it up I may of missed a few spots and this could be the result. It's good to know not to get water anywhere if that's the case. I will try to have someone look at it, I can't tell if it's real wood it's EXTREMELY thin and I feel strongly as though it is Laminate of some sort.

Just a curious quick question....for a small hallway and a moderately sized living room, what would the cost be between laminate flooring and a decent real wood option? I don't know for sure but i'm thinking the hallway and living room (which are the only rooms to have this flooring) are about 200sq ft. total. So for 200 sq feet, what's the Rough estimate cost between a high def laminate and a moderate (real" wood option? I know there are probably lots of different wood to choose from but i'm just trying to get a ballpark range to have an idea. Thank you again in advance for all of your help.

A good laminate will usually run around three bucks a foot where a good 3/8 eng floor will run .50 to a buck a foot more. Laminate is know for dropping colors and styles often and then you can pick them up at a slavage/surplus store for half the original cost.

Kevin,

those prices you stated, are they INSTALLED prices or just the prices for materials? So when you say laminate is $3/ft. is that installed or just the price of the laminate itself on average? If the price you stated is not the installed price, how much more on average should be added on installed?

Kevin, as far as I know, it can be both "real" wood AND laminate. There are hardwood floors that are premade to be laminate on top of hardwood. Usually these are the cheapest quality woods and will easily warp. What I assume happened from the picture is that water got between the laminate and wood and warped the laminate.

As far as living in a house like this goes, there is no real danger to damaging it further if you just keep water off the wood. Take your shoes off in the house or get a carpet to clean your feet before entering the hardwood areas of your house. Also keep in mind that if you live in a very humid area, this may also affect laminate.

If you're unsure to what your floor is, you can check the space between the boards in the hardwood. If you look very carefully, you should be able to tell hardwood from laminate. If you still can't tell, check near the edge between the floor and permanent objects like cabinets. That's where it will be most evident.

As far as pure laminate goes, If it's a full sheet laminate, it really shouldn't bubble. We had a sheet laminate sink and got water on it all the time. only had this issue after about 20 years of use as the laminate finish keeps the water from getting through.

You're thinking of engineered wood floors, that are yes technically laminated, but in flooring laminate refers to products such as pergo.

Thanks for adding in the terminology. I didn't know what specifically to call them.

Never seen wood swell like that. Looks just like what everyone else said, topical water intrusion into the HDF core. That makes it swell exactly like that. If that was wood you'd expect to see some finish peeling or checking with the swelling.