Real interested on how this progresses.

LL hits home with me, but I wont go there.


Thanks for updates

Minor update:
Bellawood chimed in. Owner didn't acclimate the wood properly. Humidity was too high in the house (80%?). Temperature was wrong. They and LL have zero liability.

Geez, I didn't see that one coming at all. If temp and humidity wasn't right; then how come the original floor ain't cracking too? How come the wood still acclimating in the box is severly cracked?
Owner told me that wood arrived Friday. Installed that Friday -Sunday. First crack noticed after work on monday. Multiple cracks everywhere. Not just traffic areas.

Real bad news: He admitted that some handyman guy installed it. It's starting to sound like he got one of those really good Florida deals. "I don't know why proffessionals charge so much. This is easy."

Guy probably never heard of a moisture meter thingamajig.

I'm thinking the owner or installer is going to have to eat this one.

Lesson this teaches us: HIRE A PRO! THEY"RE CALLED HACKS FOR A REASON! Thank you. Will update later. The inspector is supposed to be scheduled.

BTW, how long do you acclimate wood like this in a climate controlled enviroment? I know it's longer than 2 hours.

As long as it takes. There's no set time frame. That's where one of those "moisture thingamajigs" comes into play. lol Actually, it might be 2 hours, it might be 2 weeks, however long it takes until the wood and the subfloor are within 4% MC of one another (2% for 3" or wider).

http://www.lumberliquidators.com/custse ... V_Floor101

Found the instalation instructions for Bellawood hardwood. I think the owner might be in trouble.

I posted to this thread a day ago. I don't see my post now??


In my other post that I can't find, I mentioned stress can cause boards to crack.
Abrupt cycles of high and low humidity, will stress the wood, and cause it to crack.

LOL Thats funny ...kinda. I'm bidding on a large engineered bamboo and read this:

http://www.usfloorsllc.com/pdf/prefinis ... nstall.pdf

Snip: These engineered Bamboo floors DO NOT
need any moisture equalization prior to installation and should be installed from justopened
boxes.

I dont know where they get off with that statement.

Sounds like a time bomb.

When and if I get my hands on a fresh box you can bet I'll be posting pics of my meter stuck in it.

I have seen bamboo come in dripping with condensation in sealed plastic wrappers inside boxes hitting 18-20 on my tramex.

Then again I see long plank right in the zone in just boxes. Theese people make some great cork and it's all made in Georgia or put together there anyways. They have a huge new plant in upstate. Be nice if Ken would run up there and do an article on them. hint hint.

Spoke with the floor's owner over the weekend. He had an inspector out. His opinion came back as installer's fault. Owner is losing it. Po'd the inspector didn't go and look at the wood still in the box. Didn't like the report. Still wanting to go to court.
I politely asked if the installer was going to take care of him and fix the floor since it came back as his fault? He wasn't very receptive to that possibility at all. I'm starting to think maybe HE was the installer.
Not sure how you guys are seeing this; but my take is that the wood was garbage to begin with and the second the installer installed; he bought it. I think he should have inspected the wood more before the install and would have instantly seen these cracks coming through the bottom. Also acclimating more than a couple hours would have probably been a good thing.

Being that the wood was not acclimated properly to manuf. specs, He has zero recoarse , regardless of what went on.