Hello! Live in Dallas, and had engineered wood flooring put in a majority of our house about 5 years ago before moving in (house built in 1978, previous owners there for 20+ years). Room in question had carpeting before, and is on top of concrete slab.

We've got what I'll call a large-diameter bubble- I haven't measured it but am estimating it to be about 30 inches or so in diameter. It's in a room with three outside walls, and the area that's bubbling is 3 feet or so from two of the walls from the bubble's outer edge. The center of this "bubble" is, I'm guessing, raised an inch or so. Stepping on it will "pop" it back down and it pops back up after moving off.

There's no odor, discoloration, or anything else visibly off. It started as a much smaller area that had a hollow sound when knocking on it (but without any physical play), that took 2 months or so to get to where it is now.

Now, in Dallas, especially in our neighborhood, we've got a lot of soil movement and general shifting. I can tell you the month of the year based on the width of a few minor cracks throughout the house We know from two different engineers that our slab is sub-standard. I'm hoping this might be a case of, the slab might be shifting in such a way that there's some side-to-side compression and that's what's causing the bubble. It doesn't come across at all in a picture, and I haven't been able to get a video with one of my kids stepping on it to turn out.

Is there anything to do here besides call out a specialist? Would it be a flooring person, or a slab leak person? Besides compression, or moisture underneath, are there any other reasons this could be happening?

Thanks for reading!

Its what we call buckling or locked in as there is most likely no perimeter gap. Pull some base board and do a relief cut. Could also be lack of adhesion if it's glued down to the slab or both.

Appreciate the reply- will do that. Just did some quick research and will also make sure that the baseboard is nailed to the wall and not through the flooring. We've also got heavy bookcases on one side of the room that would probably cause lock down, but only on one wall of the room.

Thanks!

Any reason why I can't just Dremel out the relief myself?

Not at all but a multi-function tool might be faster. Lots of wood gets locked in under thresholds too so bear that in mind. Book cases should not affect the movement of the floor. I have sub-zeros sitting on wood floors.