I had 2000 sq ft of hardwood flooring installed in my house back in March. Here are the specs:
-Somerset Options Natural Collection, 5" prefinished solid wood plank, maple
-installed over concrete slab (about 20-30 yrs old), above grade
-moisture barrier & plywood was used.
-Installer tells me he used a moisture meter for the wood, but not for the plywood (that the plywood came right off the truck, was dry, and was installed within a day of arrival)
-the flooring itself was stored in the house, in the boxes, for a few weeks, I think.

Within weeks, the floor started expanding & cupping, and buckling up. By the start of the summer, the floor had buckled as much as 5"-6" height in several places. There were constant groans, & pops as the floor pulled away from the plywood/concrete, buckled up & left squishy empty pockets underneath. The flooring company urged me to wait it out thru the summer & see what happened in the fall, once the humidity level decreased. (I'm in Long Island, NY).
They also came & cut out the places where there was a 6" rise & replaced it with planks of cedar just temporarily, as it had gotten so bad, I was tripping over it, and had to move furniture out of the way.

Today I met with the flooring installer, the flooring supplier, and my contractor. They insisted the floor had gotten better over the past month, but I don't see it...it is still cupped throughout the house (even the closets) & the bumps are still there. They are urging me to keep the floor as is throughout the winter, to see if the constant heat will shrink the wood back to normal. (they insist it will) They are also urging me to install a/c as a way of stabilizing the climate & controlling humidity.
They say that in the spring they will come back, replace the planks that have gaps underneath them, and sand down any raised areas in order to smooth out the floor.

This doesn't sound like the ideal way for me. It's a weekend house, and frankly, I'm quite happy w/o the added expense of a/c. Also, I will sell the house at some point, and can't really plan that to happen around the times when the floor is settled flat. I just want a smooth, perfect floor, year round, not just for a few months.

I'd like to hear your professional advice on what should be done to rectify the situation at this point.
How should the floor have been laid in the first place, using which materials in order to avoid this problem?

Thanks so much for reading. [/img]

That could be a clue. Fred Gamble, flooring inspector allowed us to publish some comments and pictures of a similar situation.
Comments are near the bottom of the page.

http://www.hardwoodinstaller.com/hardwo ... allers.htm

Any hardwood floor that literally buckles (not just minor cupping) has been subjected to lots of moisture. The simple fact is that the vapor/moisture barrier they used either did not work or was done incorrectly. There is no "saving" your floor once it has moved as much as you descibe. The only recourse it to completely remove everything down to the concrete subfloor and start over, this time using the proper materials and procedures. I question the wisdom of using a solid, 5" maple plank over concrete. Maple is an unstable wood. If I were you, I would select a quality engineered wood floor and have it glued down with Bostick's Best Adhesive using their MVP Moisture Protection. Or have a vinyl vapor barrier installed first. Also, the slab should have been tested for moisture. What were/are the readings? I'm afraid the company you are dealing with may not have a clue about what they are doing. You may nee to hire an independant flooring inspector to determine the exact cause of failure and suggest a remedy. P.S. While damp plywood could have contributed to the cause, I seriously doubt it was the ONLY source of moisture.

In reading the original post:
1. Recreation home.
2. Save money by not installing air conditioning.
3. Moisture barrier placed under plywood. On concrete.

It appears to me this is not an installation or Subfloor moisture related issue, but an "acclimation after installation" problem.
Wood requires year round acclimation. No air conditioning results in high relative humidity in the home, increasing Wood Moisture Content leaving you with expanded wood.. then buckling, cupping and problems as you described.
Sorry, but I think the lack of year round acclimation is the root cause of your problems.
More information on this problem can be found at www.nofma.org.
Sorry, but I think this is the result of "saving money".

Ray, what did they do before A/C or central heating was invented??

Lots of pre-HVAC homes built with hardwood floors.


I say it is lack of installer education.

what did they do before heat/air? What does that have to do with today? NOFMA/NWFA, as well as common sense, tells us to acclimate homes. Black mold/mildew/ is another reason. Installations TODAY are based on the assumption of home acclimation and installation at the average "in use" conditions.
When was the last time you installed a product in a home that was not acclimated? Did the installer know the home was not to be acclimated? Was he told the home would not be acclimated? Did the homeowner tell the installer and GC about saving money concerning acclimation of the home? Did the GC know the home would not be acclimated after installation? Was this flooring installed to specifications based on the home being acclimated?
I think there is more to this story and the consumer is culpable in part or in total.

Hmmmmm??? Makes you wonder, just how much the consumer is culpable in part or in total, if at all.

This pooch was screwed from the get go. 5 inch maple?!? That is about as unstable as it gets. Add to that it was sitting in an environment with zero airflow, and you have............well, you have what you have.

What happened is that all of the available moisture in the house wound up in the floor. There was some air movement due to daily temp changes in the dwelling , but it was all destructive. This is the way dewpoint works. It is mostly temperature driven. Without some mechanical air-mover/exchanger in operation, moisture will naturally find its way to the floor. It is a pretty simple phenom. Air gets warm, rises and grabs available moisture and then, after darktime, falls to the floor bringing that moisture along with it. In a still environment, the floor simply sucks the moisture out of that air. This daily cycle repeats itself until the floor blows up.

Sound crazy? Think about it before you call me a fool.

p.s. If you are having trouble understanding this, ask yourself this question,"Which takes wood floors longer to do, taking on environmental moisture or getting shed of it?"

Had the installer knew what he was looking at, when he stuck his lost moisture meter in some of the framing timbers, he would have realised, it was doomed from the get go.

The best place I found to do it is at floor level. Under the bottom of the sheet rock, into the walls floor plate. Use 6d nails if your pins in the meter won't reach. Then touch your pins to the nails.

Perry,
I would submit that, over concrete, it was just a matter of time regardless of readings. Maple is as big a mover as they come. In the absence of airflow, the result was inevitable.

I don't think it is emissions related. It is more a matter of the floor temp associated with concrete.

Hell, I could be way off base, though. For all I know, the stuff got nailed over pressure treated plywood.

Thanks for all your input!
When I met with the installer this weekend, he told me he 'hadn't realized' during the time of installation that the house had no a/c & didn't bother to ask. The house had never had a/c (it's a 60s ranch), and during my recent renovation I had no intention of putting it in. Not just to save money, but also because I prefer ceiling fans to a/c. Should I now consider putting in a/c in order to have a floor that doesn't buckle & cup?

Definitely the plywood was not acclimated to the house. He told me it was installed within a day or two of arrival, and my best recollection is that it was stored outside, as I don't recall seeing it in the house at any time.

Is it possible that the floor might revert back to a normal state after the next few months of having the heat on? That's what he's trying to convince me of....I'm trying to have patience here, but the floor is uncomfortable to walk on, and looks awful. (None of my doors open fully as a result). He's thinking to let it settle & then sand down the rest of the cupping & refinish the floor. I'm concerned the refinishing will not look as nice as the factory finish.

As a consumer, I wanted maple for the light colored, modern look. I had no idea it was such an unstable wood. At no time did anyone suggest that it's a bad choice & I should not use it.

Two other points to mention: I had a flood in the house 2 yrs prior to the
renovation. I'm assuming the concrete slab had dried during this time.
Prior to the flood, the house had parquet flooring over linoleum tile. For a few months in the summer, it would pop up in only a few areas (NOTHING like what I have now which is everywhere) & then settle back down in the fall. I now remember that when they were ripping up the old floor, they couldn't remove all the linoleum tile because of how it was glued down....I need to ask the installer if they ever did remove it all or if the plywood was applied over top some slab/some linoleum. Could this be a cause of the problem?

Your problems on this job are multiple.
1) Using a wide plank SOLID unstable wood.
2) Failure to acclimate properly
3) Failure to maintain normal temps and humidity
4) Flawed moisture barrier (if there really is one)
5) Hiring the wrong contractor

Some of these could be considered your fault. However, that doesn't let the contractor or salesperson off the hook. They are supposed to guide you in your selection of flooring and if inappropriate, advise you so. By going ahead with the work, they automatically warranty the job (unless they can show factory flaws or damage caused by something else after the fact). As I stated before, this floor will NEVER perform normally after what it has been through. If I were in your shoes, I would demand it be replaced with an appropriate flooring product.

The consumer has a responsibility to inform the contractor concerning air conditioning. I think it is safe to assume homes will be air conditioned in this day and age.
I don't mean to pick on the end user here, but giving the retailer the information needed concerning use of the house, ect..........

DOn't put wood products in homes without ability to acclimate. The "greenhouse" condition will result, without temperature controls and wood will fail........................... ANY WOOD product on the floor will fail under Greenhouse Conditions...

Chuck has brought up a good point that needs clarifying. Was the plywood pressure treated?

I'll find out if the plywood was pressure treated.

The flooring company was hired by the contractor, who knew the house had no a/c. I had no contact with them & met them this weekend for the first time.

The flooring guy is telling me that he's a small company, and if I make them replace the floor, it will 'put them out of business.' Would his insurance not cover this?

If I push to have the floor replaced, is there a best time of year to do it? In the winter, or the summer? Should I forget maple all together or are the narrower strips a better choice than 5" planks?
How stable is bamboo by comparison?

Thanks!