Ray Darrah wrote:
Stephen:
2. How are checks affected by moisture from below the floor.??
2. You do understand the tramex reads to 3/4" depth giving indication of sub-floor moisture content.
3. What additional information should be placed into this report to give the manufacturer what he needs to determine the Warranty?
1.) Added moisture swells wood cells. BR-111 is sawn, not peeled.
2.) 1-2% gradient in an engineered... A properly constructed engineered should handle that well. End peaking??
3.) the better question.... A judge looking at that report in litigation!!!! YIKES!!
Don't assume manufacturers know what your talking about. I have had to educate more than one manufacturer or claims person.
Where is the conclusion???
I see more observations.
What was the cause of the claim?
I know what it was, but this inspector and who ever edited the report, still doesn't know, or it would have been included and we would know if it was installation... Manufacturing, or consumer.
This floor went through a winter heating season, only before the concerns were noticed.
Checking is a natural occurrence in wood components that contain the pith, or center of a tree. But what is the cause?
Wood shrinks twice as much in the tangential direction as it does in the radial direction. This can be observed in the amount of shrinkage that occurs in individual pieces of wood cut from trees. But, whenever concentric circles (continuous growth rings) occur in wood, the circumference of those circles (tangential orientation) shrinks twice as much as does the diameter (radial direction). Since the circumference is shrinking at twice the rate as the diameter, something has to give.
One way to visualize how the difference between tangential and radial shrinkage causes checking in logs is to consider the concentric growth rings. The line formed by each growth ring is basically a series of tangent lines, or, one continuous tangent line (in a manner of speaking). As a log dries, the length of each growth ring will shorten by a proportionate amount (tangential shrinkage). But even though the growth rings are shortening, the overall log diameter shrinks at a lesser rate (radial shrinkage). Stresses build up, and checks occur.
The larger diameter outer rings shrink more than the inner rings, since they all lose a percentage of their overall length. Thus, the checks in smaller logs are narrower than the checks in larger diameter logs, just as checks are narrower the closer one gets to the pith. Checking can be avoided entirely by avoiding what is referred to as "heart-centered" wood, which is wood that contains the pith. Whenever continuous growth rings exist, the tangential versus radial shrinkage stresses will cause checking. Can checking be prevented in round wood? Not really.
Since individual boards cut from logs usually do not contain the pith, these boards will not check during drying. Those boards that do contain the pith will typically check only on one side.
The checks were there since the boards were manufactured. They opened up as the wood lost moisture content and shrunk.
Makes you wonder what the MC of the top sawn layer was at time of manufacture, doesn't it.
Request the records (drying schedule) for the charge. Compare it to the Kiln Dry Operator's Handbook schedule for the species.
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