The first year of owning a new hardwood floor offer such a great feeling. The rooms look beautiful. You have been careful to cause no damage! You remember how much they cost if you didn’t buy them from ReallyCheapFloors.com. However, you may notice some spots of your flooring isn’t exactly level. The wood floorboards seemed to buckle a little bit. You noticed last month but it seems to have gotten worse? What do you do with these buckled floors? How did this happen? You were so careful!
The Hardwood Flooring Buckling Problem
The washboard look and tactile feel caused by buckling hardwood floors can run you up a wall in frustration! Hardwood floors are typically installed because they can help increase your home value and of how beautiful they can tie a room together. We need to make sure it stays that way with proper maintenance or repair.
Buckling wood floors are a result of individual floorboards expanding and contracting typically due to moisture changes. All hardwood will expand and contract due to seasonal changes in most regions of the US. Usually, the floorboard changes are small and will reset to their original size and position.
Unfortunately buckled wood floors are a common occurrence. Fortunately, it can be prevented in most homes. To prevent your hardwood from buckling, we must first know what causes it in the first place.
What are the causes of hardwood floors buckling?
The main causes for hardwood floors to buckle are moisture changes, accidental spills, and poor installations.
Water Damage:
Your hardwood floors are made from trees! If your refrigerator leaks water the hardwood planks will absorb the water and begin to push against its neighboring floorboards. With nowhere to go but up, the floors will buckle and add a visible vertical dimension to your floor. A concrete subfloor can also be the culprit for an increase in moisture from environmental changes. It’s obvious to try and keep water from sitting on your floor too long.
High Humidity:
If you live in an locale with high humidity or drastically fluctuating humidity we recommend you not buy a wide plank wood floor. Hardwood can and will soak up moisture in the air. If there’s a lot of moisture in your environment the best way to combat it is to have fans and ventilation in mind. Don’t have wood flooring down in rooms without windows with high humidity climate. These are good places for a luxury vinyl plank or tile floor.
Did You Acclimate Your Hardwood Flooring?
You have probably heard of making sure you acclimate your solid or engineered hardwood floors. If you don’t do this, you can expect some gaps, elevated or sunken spots, increased floor noise, or other visual and tactile problems.
Watch our youtube video on acclimating your home correctly. And do not hesitate to call us if you have questions.
Did Your Clumsy Uncle Install Your Floor?
Maybe your Uncle is clumsy but a great flooring installer! If not, a poor install can be the main reason your floors are buckling. For example, If your floors lack empty space between all the walls surrounding them, the natural expansion and contraction that comes from a hardwood floor can cause buckling as a result of no room to move. We highly recommend shopping your installer as you do for your floor.
Is Buckling or Cupping an Installation Issue?
Cupping is one form of warping that is not typically considered an installation issue. Now, if your new hardwood floor starts to cup within 2 or 3 weeks of the installation, then yes. That is the installers fault as he did not check the moisture in the subfloor before he began his installation.
Remember that cupping is caused when the surrounding local environment, whether it is the moisture content of the subfloor or the relative humidity in the rooms above or below, exceed the amount of water in your hardwood flooring. That wood will absorb the moisture which will cause it to warp. Cupping is one type of warping, and can be defined by the edges of the boards rising up. This is a result of the boards being installed tightly, as they should be. The problem is that there is no room for expansion, so the cupping that will follow is easily understood. Your house must be kept at a constant moisture level to ensure this does not happen, or the problem will persist. If you see your floors beginning to warp, that is a good time to begin a removal of moisture. Lowering the thermostat and turning your fan on full time will help, as will the placement of a dehumidifier in a basement or crawlspace. If you are using a dehumidifier try to use on that is self-bailing and can be plumbed or hosed into a drain so you do not have to empty it frequently.
How Do I Fix a Hardwood Floor That Is Cupping?
The question, “Can I fix this buckled wood floor?” is typically answered with, “Depends on the damage.” If you have caught this issue early in a small area you can try pulling out air fans and space heaters to dry it out. This may bring the swelling or buckling down.
Put your couch legs on the space and see if the pressure helps press the floor down flat. It could shift the wooden boards back in place.
If these simple solutions don’t work, you may need to replace the buckling floors. We hope you have an extra box of flooring set aside from your previous installation for repairs. If not, you may need to match the color which can be a pain. It is fixable though. If you want to fix a buckled floor and need to match the color, get a free sample from most of our flooring inventory to see if we can help you save money on your hardwood floor repair.
