my flooring has been down over a year and it buckled a week ago. it is solid oak prefinished glued down. it was installed by professionals. how can this be fixed.

1st step is to find the source of the water. Someone with a non invasive moisture meter should easily be able to locate the source of the problem.

Has it been raining a lot?

Have you gone on vacation, or took a trip away from the home for an extended period?

Tanya,

Most experts agree that it's a really bad idea to glue Solid wood to concrete. Even with an expert installation, it's runs a high risk of buckling.

I'm not sure why any professional would recommend you glue solid wood down to concrete.

Solid wood is much more prone to expansion and shrinking with the seasons

Engineered wood with mulit-ply layers is what you should have used.

What can I do about the buckle?

We have been home all of the time, and it has not been raining a lot. We have had one big rain of 6 inches but it had been very dry before and the water ran off quickly. We have moisture barriers in concrete and under the rock ledge and a moisture block glue was used, it was a Bruce product from Lowes.

Have you done any landscaping or have/added a sprikler system??

The floor has gained moisture from someplace. Is there a cupped/ washboard appearence to the surface of the floor?

Is there a kitchen, or bathroom near the area?

Have you started to run the AC, yet?

[quote="Tanya"]What can I do about the buckle? [quote="jperryrocks"]Tanya,

Tanya,

Sorry for the bad news, but there's no easy fix for a glue down floor. You have to pull up the old floor up and start from scratch again. It's extremely expensive and time consuming.

There's probably a misture problem underneath your slab. If you didn't put a moisture block on top of your concrete slab, it makes the glue down even more prone to failing if you used used solid wood.

That bruce glue from Lowes is good stuff (if it's everbond, I've used it before with good success). But that glue is not warrantied as a moisture block. It's designed to help retard moisture, but a seperate mositure control product is a totally different thing. But maybe you used 2 seperate products and i'm mis-understaning you.

If you would have used an engineered wood product, there's less of a chance that it would have buckled, even if there was some moisture.

There's only two solutions really. You could sand and re finish the floor if there is enough material present to be sanded flat without sanding down through the top half of the boards. It's hard to say as one would have to see the floor to gauge how severely it buckled.

The second as mentioned is to rip all the flooring out and replace it. Sanding would be better if the buckling isn't too severe but you still have a moisture source and it needs to be located and dealt with

Thank you for your replies. A little more info on my wood floor. There is only one buckle that is 7 boards wide and the center of the buckle is 2 1/4 inches high and 12 feet long, it is flat against the outside wall and begins to buckle 14" in. and then belvels off, with the peak at 5'.
Yes, we have put in a sprinkler system "after" the buckle, and the ac has been turned on "since" the buckle thinking that might draw out some moisture if that was the problem.. Our kitchen floor where water is present more is solid. We have a 3 foot handicap walk all around our house flush with the outside of the rock house wall.

Things that can cause a floor to buckle:

High humidity: Closing up the home, and not running a dehumidifier or the A/C to pull the humid air across the evaporator coils, lowering the humidity, can cause the humidity inside the home to build. The wood gains that added moisture from the air, swells. Having the A/C on but turned up to 78-80º may not run the A/C in the late evening, all the way to the late morning, with humidity building up.

Acclimation: Not acclimating the wood, to regional moisture content range, especially if the windows are let open most of the time. Or acclimating the wood, during the winter time, when the heater is running and drying out the inside of the home. The wood is installed, dry and come spring time, the windows are opened and the humidity rise is too much for the dry installed flooring. It is all about moisture content equilibrium, and maintaining it pretty consistently, especially a plank wood floor. The wider the floor, the more critical.

Water Leaks: Well, that is pretty self explaining.

Dew Point: If you like to have the windows open, the dew point may be close to the temperature. Concrete will always be cooler then the air temperature. It is real easy for a dew point to be achieved on the concrete. Solid wood cannot handle this, where a cross-ply engineered will.

Concrete MVE: Concrete will always emit concrete vapor emissions. You cannot see vapors. The emissions are dynamic, not static, meaning they constantly change. Some more then others. This is why it is mandatory to apply a moisture barrier under the SOLID wood flooring, when installing over concrete.

A cupped appearance, usually accompanies a buckled wood floor, but not always.

Tanya,

I think it just took a year to catch up to you.
I doubt there is a moisture barrier on the concrete surface as required.
Therefore: there is no fixing the floor. Complete removal is the only answer.