About 2 months a go I got a new house, and I am remolding it. I order Royal Mahogany / Hardwood Flooring 3 5/8" / 3/4", I let them sit in my house for like 3 1/2 weeks. I ripped out the old carpet and cleaned up the subfloor, and after about 2 months, the floor is grapping in some areas and creaking a lot, and its making me very upset I spend over $5000 on the floor and I would hate to think I F*** the floor up, I did call the company where I got the floor from and they did said because of the winter ( I live in MI ) and the setting of the floor. I have been reading a lot online and a lot of people say that the gaps will close up some in the summer months and the creaking will stop. Please let me know what you think.

Not enough info. Need subfloor type, moisture content reading of wood and subfloor and rh/temp at time of install. Plus how was it fastened and with what type fastener.

I dont remember the moisture content, but I know it was with in the limites. also the room temp was 67F and i used a 1 1/2 in staple with a bostich floor stapler.

From the sounds of it the problem is just seasonal movement caused by the drying effects of the heat. As wood dries out it shrinks. Check the r/h of the house if its below 35% try to get it up to closer to 45% and maintain that as much as possible. You let it get too low you can also get some checks/splits to start to opening up as well as the shrinkage you see now. Check the manufactures recommended guidelines for more specific. they are the ones who spec that out for their products.

Subfloor was, OSB or plywood, floor joist span, and direction of wood vs floor joists?

OK thank you, I did check it and it was at like 30, I turned it up this morning to almost 40. So If I turn it up should the gaps close and the creaking stop a little, and how long will it take.

I did lay the floors the opposite of the floor joists

Greg,

Shrinkage in the winter in MI is normal if the RH is not kept up during the heating season (although this winter sofar has not been too bad, I'm in MI too).

Creaking is not normal, a little may not be a big problem though. It all depends how tight you installed the boards and how tight you nailed them. Nailing patterns should be about 6 - 8 inches apart and a cleat/staple at about 2 inch from each end.
Too wide of a nailing pattern may cause a floor to get loose also when it shrinks excessively.

2 inch cleats or staples are recommended with 3/4" flooring. If the milling was such that the flooring slipped together very easy (read too easy) than that may cause some looseness when shrinking and that may cause some squeeking also.

Give it some time, keep the RH up (difficult in MI when it gets real dry when the outside temp gets very cold) and see what happens. I can not get it over 40 % in the winter without getting excessive condensation on the windows when it gets really cold, so far it has been between 37 to about 40+ % without any problems and I notice only minor gapping (widest ones are where a board is plainsawn with very wide grain patterns (the flame pattern of the grain).

ps. was the subfloor down tight, did you make sure to check that and srew/nail down where loose/squeeky? Subfloors are never completely down firm and often are loose here and there.

Johannes.

Good post except for this myth.

1½" fasteners will work just fine into plywood and dimensional lumber subfloors.
If it is OSB, staples hold better than cleats. DO NOT fasten over particle board!

2" Fasteners were for wood flooring, before it was milled at ¾" It use to be 33/32 and many times laid directly across the joists, with end joints not supported, so stagger, shrink & swell were very important.

When a fastener blows through the subfloor, it looses some of it's holding power. Withdraw strength.

1½" fasteners are actually for ¾" over plywood and OSB.

Don't freak them out on fastener length. I'm more worried about the fastener schedule.

the 33/32 stuff you see today has the same t&g thats on 3/4 it just has a thicker top thus leaving more sandable wear surface. We sell a bunch of 1 3/4" cleats because they will only go thru the subfloor about a 1/16 of an inch but get more of the barb part of the cleat into the subfloor. Just splitting hairs on that, subfloor type and nail pattern is much more important.