Amish made hardwood

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 Post subject: Re: New construction issues with hardwood floors
PostPosted: Wed Mar 15, 2017 8:01 pm 
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I believe I have 2 distinct problems.

#1) Uneven floors due to high spots. The high spots seem to correspond to subfloor joints on both floors. The flooring subcon pulled up some floor and it revealed a high spot on the edge of the subfloor that was about a foot long. The subcon shaved down the high spot and that seemed to fix that instance. The high spots seem to be only 1 board wide or more likely at the joint of the floor boards. So I can rock a 2' level rocks on these high spots. There are some places where I can rock the level that are around 3' long. The first floor has joists while the second floor has open web trusses. I've added the inspectors conclusion at the end that I missed in the earlier post. I believe I will have arguments with the GC and flooring subcon on the extent of the repairs required. The reports says there are 4 problem spots but as I've said before. The inspectors inspection was not exhaustive.

#2) On the first floor I've got an area where there is a high ridge and the floor slopes down on both sides from that ridge line. The ridge line corresponds with a steel beam under the house. The slope in both directions from the ridge line is over 1/8" over 6'. I discovered this after the inspection and the inspector never checked the floors for being level.

Inspector report conclusion
Analysis and Conclusion: The floor is not flat to required installation standard of 1/8" in 6' radius. The unevenness of the subfloor is causing the 4 areas with raised boards. This condition can be corrected by removing the affected boards and correcting the subfloor underneath the boards. The boards can then be replaced. The subfloor being out of the flatness requirement found here is an installation related condition.


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 Post subject: Re: New construction issues with hardwood floors
PostPosted: Fri Mar 17, 2017 1:43 pm 
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You don't need the small levels, they won't tell you the whole picture. You need either a 6' or ideally a 10' straightedge (I use an aluminium 1x3 that's 10' long)

Put it down anywhere you want to start - Direction doesn't matter. If the bar rests completely flat, then that section is good. Check in a circle, keeping the centre roughly the same. Then check along walls and through doorways etc, until you feel you've covered enough of the area to find all the spots.

If you notice a gap at any time between the bar and the floor, stop and measure that gap. If its less than 1/8th you're still OK. Over 1/8th and you've found a problem, either a high on one or both sides of the bar, or a low in the middle. A gap doesn't always mean its a low spot, if one side of the bar is on a high spot it will create visible gap that can be quickly mistaken for a low spot.

To determine how high a high spot is using the straight edge method, put the middle of the bar over the suspected high spot - you should be able to rock the bar back and forth like a see-saw. Let the bar come to rest and measure the gap at the end of the bar (it's important that the high is in the middle of the bar for this measurement, as you can manipulate the bar to produce a higher gap by sliding it over the point in different ways - I fight with the concrete levellers over this distinction all the time)

Once you have the areas mapped out, pull the floor and fix the subfloor, then reinstall. Side note, some installers will cheat a little to even out a subfloor if you have an underlayment (cut the underlay around a high spot, or double up a low spot) or are gluing the product down (excess glue fills the low spots)

And remember, LEVEL doesn't matter, FLAT is what's important. Hope this helps!


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 Post subject: Re: New construction issues with hardwood floors
PostPosted: Sun Mar 19, 2017 10:24 am 
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It does rock over floor joists but I think the problem is more poor subfloor prep. The one spot where we pulled up the floor revealed a high spot on the edge of the subfloor sheet. Taking that off allowed the floor to be reinstalled flat. I've got another spot that is about 4' from the wall and rocks along a 4' line parallel to the wall. It could be a joist issue but I'm guessing that's another subfloor joint problem. Does that make sense?


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