I just had hardwood floors installed and am worried they didn't install properly in my hallway. The floors look beautiful and I was very happy overall. The contractors finished on Thursday and my hubby and I have noticed that a section about 3 planks wide "bounces", for lack of a better term. You can actually see this section of floor go up and down dramatically and it feels hollow when you walk on it. The house is only 5 years old and we never had any give with the old linoleum floors in this area. Will this go away? Should I be concerned? I want to call the contractor and ask, but I don't want to complain if this is normal. The wood was left in our house for 5 days to acclimate before the install. Any suggestions are helpful!

if your floor is floated then its probally in a bind. Call the installer and he should be able to add some expansion space along the wall and if the subfloor is flat it should lay down.

We have the similar issue with a floating wood floor installation, 9/16" x 7" x 86" with a G5 loc. The installer opened the baseboards and checked expansion. It looked good all around the area. We could not figure why. Manufacturer will provide the materials and contractor will redo the floor in the hallway which is the only place that bounces in the middle. This hallway is wider than usual, 6 to 7'. Please see the pic below. Hi Kevin, Any idea what caused the middle to come up?

https://picasaweb.google.com/WinstonUWF ... 3169758994

check under the door casings. often when trying to get them to cover you find them tight against the wall studs in the door framing.

Kevin,
Thanks for your quick reply. We did check the door jamb too. Enough space was allowed.
Winston

IF the floor isn't bound on the edges and there's a hump, then there must be a dip in the sub floor .If so , the dip needs to be leveled out .Or maybe there's a high and a low spot which augments the effect.

Or if the installer accidentially threw in some bowed planks, that can make the area bounce since the bowed planks are not affixed to the substrate. Just a couple slightly bowed planks can do this on a floater.

And actually depending on the planks themselves and the balance of the ply's the stuff can twist and cup. Lemme go find some old science for ya.

Here we go. Look how old this "science" is ie; 1940. I like the term "in service". I've gone threw the FPL website for days reading this stuff. Call me a weirdo.

"In examining samples of warped veneered products, it is very helpful to consider that a flat plywood panel or veneered top represents a construction in which swelling or shrinking stresses are balanced. The stresses were at a minimum at the time the glue set during the gluing operation; if, in service, the moisture content and the moisture distribution could again be the same as at the time the glue set, the stresses would again be reduced to a minimum. It is almost impossible to realize this condition, and for all practical purposes plywood construction may be considered as always stressed. If the stresses are balanced, the panel will remain flat. If the stresses acting on one side are not sufficiently well balanced by opposing stresses on the other side, warping will result.
1 Originally written by Don Brouse, former Forest Products Laboratory engineer, in 1940 as Report No. 1252 under the same title.
2Maintained at Madison, Wis., in cooperation with the University of Wisconsin.
The magnitude of the stresses will depend, in part, on how much the moisture
content departs from that prevailing when the glue set. The greater the moisture changes, the greater will be the stresses developed and the greater will be the warping tendencies. The more nearly the average moisture content in service approaches the moisture content prevailing at the time the glue set, the lower will be the stresses developed and the less the warping tendencies.
If all points of the surface of a plywood panel lie in one plane or if...........