I am having major issues with new floors that were installed! Please help! I have a home built in 1909 that we completely renovated. Construction started in January 2013 and finished mid May 2013 (hardwoods went down in April). Ripped out walls, re-insulated, new wiring, plumbing and added an addition to the rear of the house (basically doubled the sq ft of the house). The old hardwoods were not salvageable so we decided to just put down all new hardwoods throughout the house. We used 3 ¼”x5” White Oak hardwoods and laid them throughout the house minus the 2 bathrooms which had marble. They laid close to 1500 sq ft of hardwood. In the old part of the home the new flooring was laid over the old hardwoods (with felt going down over that as well) and new part of the home over the subflooring. We live in Alabama and floors were installed without the AC being on first (apparently it’s hard to get a permit for electricity first). But the floors were allowed to sit in the house and acclimate for a week or maybe two. Not 12 hours after the AC was turned on the floors cupped. It was pretty subtle at first but as the summer came the cupping got very bad. To the point boards completely popped up in some areas where they looked like this /\. You could do a nice calf stretch on a few of the boards. So the humidity in the house is staying between 60-75% at the time. We live in the downtown area and houses are really close together so water was most definitely getting under the house. My builder, who btw is amazing, installed a dry space type barrier where it essentially turns the crawl space into the heated part of your home. So theoretically water could run under the house and we would be ok. So it’s been a few weeks and humidity in home is slowly going down which might have more to do with the seasons. But it’s at least dropping. Does anyone have a clue as to what we can do or what’s going on? And another thing the AC unit is probably just a bit undersized for the house. On 100 + degree days it keeps it about 75 F in the house even if its set at 60 F. So a few weeks out of the year it struggles but other than that it works great (80s to mid 90’s its fine). I did hear having a smaller unit would help with moisture issues in the house because it will run longer and not cycle through as quickly? Sorry for being long winded but this really has everyone scratching their head. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Well, if its buckling heaving you had more than a little water under you house. I would make that builder fix that mess before you warranty expires. If the floor heaves off the floor then the nails have been pulled out. Even if the floor lays back down it will be loose and have some pretty abnormal cracks come winter. WHen a floor swells that much it crushes the boards edge to the point it wont go back.

Thanks for the response. There are areas that he is going to completely replace due to the wood completely buckling. But we need to get the humidity under control first right? Would cupping this bad ever go back right or should all of it be ripped up and replaced? There is not an inch of flooring that hasnt cupped.

Cant say for sure but my gut tells me no way. Part of your problem could be the a/c unit running more than it should drying out the interior more than normal, increasing the difference in m/c from top to bottom. a/c uses evaporation to cool, this process pulls the humidity out of the air inside your home by lowing the r/h drastically inside the house you have made things worse. The idea is to have a similar environment both above and below the floor system. Your sealed crawlspace should be drying out, does it have a supply vent and a dehumidify down there as well? The relaxing is happening because the a/c isnt running constantly now, the weather has changed and that helps the r/h from getting to low inside. Bottom line you have a major problem and I personally wouldnt be happy about the situation. It could have been avoided with proper testing and acclimation. Installing a 5" wide solid oak floor over a crawl space is risky business especially in the south. It can be done but it cant be rushed and you cant cut any corners or this will happen almost every time. He probably is going to give you some hogwash about letting it sit through the heating cycle to see if that helps lay back down. It will help but if it does lay back down like I said it will be loose , squeak like and old rocking chair and have cracks you can put two quarters in between all the boards. Then next year when the seasons change it will just do it again. I would be researching a independent NWFA inspector to evaluate the problem take the necessary readings and tell you with out a doubt what is going on. that is the only true way to say for certain who is liable.

Thanks again for the feedback. The weird thing about all this is, is the rh does not stay down even when the AC runs for 6 hours or so (we have monitors throughout the house). It will drop it some but as soon as it goes off it would come back up. Ive had three different AC guys to my house to make sure it was running like it was supposed to. They all agreed that it was. Yes, there is a dehumidifier in the crawl space. That’s my main issues is that we will get it fixed over the winter then come summer it’s going to happen again. I will look for a NWFA inspector. That’s a great idea. Thanks again for your help. And my builder is trying to do everything to get it fixed. He has told me that he will get this fixed and fixed correctly. I just wanted to get some input from flooring professionals to see if there is something he is overlooking.

As already stated cupping and buckling is definitely a high moisture content issue. Simply stated it can only come from the subfloor or too high relative humidity in the home. An inspector should be able to easily identify which by testing.

good to hear your builder is not passing the buck. The interior of the home should be pretty easy to keep "normal" what kind of r/h are you shooting for? It needs to be around 45% in the house and in the crawl space. which should be obtainable in your region indoors with a properly functioning hvac. Do you have a giant fish tank or an excessive amount of plants? Im guessing here but something is odd. Its will run a few hundred for a proper inspection but testing is the only real way to find out the facts.

Ah yes, the age old excuse from builders "We live in Alabama and floors were installed without the AC being on first (apparently it’s hard to get a permit for electricity first)."

We live in the downtown area and houses are really close together so water was most definitely getting under the house. My builder, who btw is amazing, installed a dry space type barrier where it essentially turns the crawl space into the heated part of your home. So theoretically water could run under the house and we would be ok.


You Need to fix this first. Water running under your house is not ok. Not only is it going to continue to cause you problems with your hardwood there is a host of other problems this can cause.
You need the ground around your home to slope away from your home and if your neighbors runoff is coming under your house this should be fixed as well.
Trying to put a dehumidifier under your house is just putting a bandaid on a more serious problem. Fix the moisture penetration then focus on leveling out the moisture content and relative humidity. Then have them replace the floor installed correctly this time.

If your builder was so amazing he would have schelped out a few bucks out for a temp permit. These guys are so cheap they would risk tens of thousands in wood flooring for a months power bill.

Thanks for all the responses.

And you people must constantly deal with terrible builders to be so cynical. He's built houses and done major renovations for me over the years. This isn't the first time nor will it be the last that I use him. Just wanted to get some thoughts and possible ideas. If the floors don't do right then he'll replace them. He also couldn't find a proper match for the new wood siding so to match the old siding so he spent a weekend with his guys hand milling the wood to match the 114 year old style at no extra cost to me.

A lot of builders just don't understand the importance of acclimation. I was doing an over fifty development and they had me installing in the middle of winter with no heat and wouldn't let me deliver the material ahead of time. We had them sign a waiver. when there were problems they asked how we could fix it. I told them they should have listened in the first place.

I stand by my post. He screwed the pooch from the get go.

The basic problem with builders/GC's as I see it is this. Most used to be framers. Framers don't know or don't care about moisture content issues with wood. They get a pallet of 2 x 4's and 2 x 6's and nail it together. They get a pallet of plywood or OSB and nail it down. I doubt any one of them ( all the ones I know who have built multi-million dollar homes) have ever picked up a meter to check moisture content, nor do they understand the complexities of subfloor vs flooring moisture content and temp/rh and movement of the floor in conjunction with these specs we live with on a daily basis.

The mere fact he did not get a temp permit says it all for me.

My issue is every framer I know thinks he can do my job better than me. The shame off it is they often don't take the time to even read the manufactures instructions on prefinished.(their typical choice) And of course they have no real experience installing any type of hardwood flooring. Then as Tucson pointed out no moisture tests, most around here will argue with me saying they aren't necessary. I don't argue with them saying they are using to many studs. Or tell them they are going with to tight of a nail pattern on their subfloor, and I have actually owned a GC buisness.

My problem with contractors is most think they know it all, and will argue tell they are blue in the face trying to convince a professional he is wrong and doesn't know anything.

While there are exceptions to that (as it sounds your contractor you feel is) my experience is many are they way I described.

I only work for the exceptions, and am cynical of the rest.