Hello All,

We recently bought a condo built in 1984. It has a carpeted living room above the unfinished basement and above it two carpeted bed rooms.

We just installed prefinished Hickory hardwood (3.25 inch X 3/4 inch tongue and groove nailed down, Edge Type is micro bevel) after removing the carpet. This is my first experience with hardwood and I paid around 4.50$ /sq. foot for wood alone. The wood was acclimatized in house for about 15 days

Note that the the carpeted floor was very squeaky and my installer screwed the 3/4 inch old plywood subfloor to the joist. Almost 80% or more of squeaks are gone after screwing. However though the subfloor is old he thinks they are still strong enough (there are no water damage or mold growth) and didn't replace any. Secondly, he didn't do any leveling of the subfloor as he thinks it is not necessary.

The floor looks nice , but as I run my finger over the tongue and groove joins
they don't seem flush and I could feel slight unevenness. I could feel the same with my bare feet as well. We have old hardwood installed (possibly 20 years ago) in the kitchen and it gives a similar feeling. However the hardwood installed in my brother in law's house which is also 20 years old, has almost complete flush join, feels nothing as one runs his finger across T/G for several feet.

My questions are:

Is such unevenness across T/G common in my chosen hardwood micro beveled edge or is it due to the installer?
Are low priced woods like mine prone to such unevenness?
Can it be remedied now or later?


Thanks

Quality of milling is likely the reason. Lower priced hardwoods are mass produced where more attention is paid to quantity over quality. The speed of milling plays the largest role.

"almost complete flush join" Was that floor installed, sanded and fished? No bevels?

Remedied? No. Unless you sanded it flat or replaced it. You're probably the only one noticing it. Enjoy what you have.

Thanks Ken Fisher. For the "almost complete flush join" was part of a townhouse complex. The joins have no bevels. Possibly they were unfinished and then finished at the site, not sure.

Sorry, I didn't know that this is called the "overwood" problem. Seems within prescribed limits.