Hardwood Expansion In Humid Weather?

Floordude

In both pictures the floor is bonded nicely around the buckle, no looseness anywhere but the buckle. The expansion space is still intact. Believe me or not. It popped at the path of least resistance. The lack of an expansion space, does not cause buckling, Period! Sounds like I could argue that with you till the cows come home.

Yes, both of these floors were professionally installed. and they did a good job. The problem was, the builder did not maintain the HVAC system running and he closed the homes up, creating a greenhouse out of the homes, and the humidity built up inside these homes, to over 80%rH. Still the expansion spaces left around the perimeter were still there and never moved.

Ok, take a 5" red oak wood floor, let it gain 3% moisture content. In 20 rows or 10 feet, how much gain is that floor going to grow in dimensions....
Is that going to be enough to shear the top nails at the perimeter boards and take that ¾" of expansion on both sides of the room....

Yes, this is your test...

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craigt617

Floordude,
The first picture you present, clearly have no staples or finish nails in them , so in THAT case the path of NO resistence is up. To say I should trust you, that they were professionally installed?! There are no staples or finish nails, very unprofessional. That floor is not buckled! the boards have completely popped out.
Picture number 2- That is a glue down, most likely wet layed, the buckling is occuring in the middle of the floor. When the moisture from the glue "saturated" the wood, it pushed the wood until the wood could not be pushed anymore(expansion), that floor buckled!

Neither picture shows expansion gapping.

One more time: moisture moves wood, lack of a place to go buckles it.

Being certified, you should be well aware that all wood floors move.


Heres a test for you! Look in every box of prefinished for a pamphlet, Look in every hardwood flooring book and read the part about expansion gapping next to walls, then tell me what you have learned.

craigt617

Oh your test ?! what is the original moisture content of the wood? what percentage of moisture is added to the wood? and for what period of time? is it salt water or tap? is the floor nailed or glued?

ahhhh just forget it, lets just stick to the subject.

Floordude

You failed the test!! You sir, are uneducated about wood and the science that involves wood.


In 10 feet the floor will gain 1.9"

The floor you say isn't fastened was fastened with staples every 6 to 8 inches.


Moisture from the glue??? It was installed with Bostik's best. A moisture cure urethane that has absolutely no moisture in it. LOL!!! Ya, you know exactly what your talking about!!!! Hehehehehe. You are ignorant of what you speak!!! I'll leave it at that.

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craigt617

floordude, wake up! heres your answer. I would prefer to see you use your own mind. Your "test" has the exact same scenerio as woodfloors online .com, under water and wood, under how moisture affects flooring products: here it is! Like I said before wood science is easily obtainable through google. Experience is key,but not so easily obtainable. This only proves again- Moisture moves wood, lack of expansion room creates buckling!



Example: A red oak (change coefficient = .00369) board 5 inches wide experiences a moisture content change from 6 to 9 percent--a change of 3 percentage points.
Calculation:
3 x .00369 = .01107 x 5 = .055 inches.
In actual practice, however, change would be diminished in a complete floor, as the boards' proximity to each other tends to restrain movement.
GROWING BOARDS
How much can temperature and humidity affect the dimensions of a hardwood floor? Take a look at one 5-inch red oak plank board:
1) Within "normal living conditions" (say, an interior temperature of 70 degrees and a relative humidity of 40 percent), the board has a moisture content of 7.7 percent and is 5 inches wide.

2) If the relative humidity falls to 20 percent, the moisture content of the board will be 4.5 percent, and the same 5 inch board will shrink by .059 inches. Across 10 feet of flooring that could translate to as much as 1.4 inches of shrinkage.

Floordude

So now you can see, that floor is going to pop out in the middle before any expansion space is moved.

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craigt617

Yep! you understand now. Now dont forget to leave expansion room around perimeter, and you will have alot less problem jobs to look at. good luck.

Floordude

All those fasteners in the floor are going to hold better then any wall plate that is nailed once every 3 foot down the plate.

You leave the expansion so it does not shove the bottom plate off the foundation from a flood/rapid gain in moisture.. It buckles from a gain in moisture. Solve the cause and you don't have a problem. If the floor gained enough moisture to buckle, a little space around the perimeter is going to be the least of your worries.

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Teetorbilt

Simply put, wood expands and contracts according to the moisture factor. If the bowing wasn't a factor, the cracks would be.

Us older folks understand this. In today's world, everybody wants everything perfect all of the time. This cannot be accomplished with wood in many environments due to highly fluctuating humidity.

I don't believe that a win-win situation exists.

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Cdat

What would happen if all the boards were sealed? Would it be an issue then?

Floordude

It doesn't eliminate the moisture gain, but it will slow it down to some extent.

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