It's perpendicular to the joists. When the first hump appeared, I was convinced it was from a joist, but then it started happening all over so I wasn't sure. It's pretty inconsistent; there will be a stretch of about 8 boards with no tenting, then one, another couple boards, a tent, more boards, two tents in a row, etc. I agree that from what I have seen in pictures, it doesn't look horrible; I am a bit shocked that it's a problem though in our home considering the climate we live in; nobody here has issues with too much humidity, it's the opposite, considering we spend 1/2 our winters in -30 degrees Celsius. We all have humidifiers installed in our homes to keep our floors from gapping too bad in the winter! I talked with the builders site assistant today, and asked if he has seen this in any of the other houses in the neighborhood that were completed around the same time as ours, or since; and he said he hasn't. Will this kind of tenting damage the actual floor boards? Is the integrity of the finish and wood destroyed from the extra stress on the boards when they are tented and then walked on all day? This post was edited by CLJP on Fri, Jul 5, 13 at 2:11

An undercut saw or a toe kick saw okay. I will have to get myself one. The installer does not seem to care who his man hired and what his man did. My own contractor on the job said common sense would tell you. It is good product by Award Flooring. I was told this wood was very stable. my enivironment is not too moist. no no moisture problems. i have old subfloor up there and it is measuring fine. i had another man come up and take some moisture readings with his good delmholst. I have a patina relics wide plank 6. distressed engineered. It is in my cottage so why would i have put real hardwood. I have dogs this is the ideal flooring. Now i am hearing that the cracks-from what i have read-could be the glue settling and people walking on it. How long would it take glue to settle? This floor has been down two weeks. From reading about I now know get the subfloor and your wood reading no more thatn 4% in the difference. But this might be slightly different with wider planks? maybe. Do you know anything about glue drying. Could the cracks be the tongues breaking? My installer will not listen to me and won't tell me what he did with the float in install. I found nails-oh yes- in the hallway. the hall is not finished. So what do i have now a combo job. This was not a cheap job. I paid for complet flooring in the place plus some fiber flooring. thanks for your input. Greatly appreciated. I have a show down with this man on wedneday i have asked him to bring along his installer. He refused to cut an expansion gap and insists the floor does not need it. This is a man in the businness for 14 years. I have lots of pictures taken. i do not know if he taped the seams on the foam underlayment either. ....

And WHY is this 'nail only'? These are 5" HICKORY planks. A wide plank floor (anything 5" or wider) must have glue assist during install. And hickory has a little bit more movement than oak...which means it needs a bit more stability (ie. glue assist) when installed. The "American Spirit" brand is sold by Floor & Decor. Their installation instructions are...limited. Which means the installer has to have quite a bit of knowledge to know all these things. A guy with a hammer (or nail gun) will have little flooring knowledge. At the price of $5.29/sf (as listed for a store in WA state) the chances of milling issues could be quite high. I think we have several issues going on here. As Oak & Broad suggests, start by CULLING all the boards that are BAD (this is what you are paying your installer to do...but he's not doing it so it falls to you to go for it) and then find out your TOTAL square footage of bad boards. Figure out if they are MORE than 5% (industry standard allows 5% waste for bad wood). If your culled footage is MORE than 5% you have a claim worthy of the paper it is written on. And while you are culling your wood, have someone that is well versed in wide plank install come in and have a look at this install. I'm PRETTY sure you need glue assist on this one. A 5" solid hickory plank (3/4" thick) for LESS than $6/sf is going to need some help. And please tell me that it was acclimated for several days/weeks. And please tell me your installer took moisture readings from random planks equal to 10% of the wood delivered to your home. And please tell me the boxes were opened and stacked PROPERLY while acclimating. And good luck with Floor & Decor. It's my understanding they take quite a bit of time to get moving if there is a claim that they have to deal with. The sooner the better is what I've heard.

If you still like the floor and it's feasible to reuse, then go for it. I wouldn't worry about resale value unless you are flipping the house. It's more likely that a trendy choice would be dated and your "classic" choice would be viewed as retro, vintage and cool again. I just finished my remodel and went with a very untrendy relatively narrow oak floor in a natural stain (or natural un-stain). It's not the trendy wider planks but it was replacing similar flooring that I liked and the flooring is the same style of flooring as that which is in older homes which still have their original wood floors. In terms of moderately priced engineered wood. My engineered wood floors are "moderate" as they were $8.00 per square foot and they are Canadian and use green methods both in terms of forestry and construction. Mine are Mirage but I believe Lauzon is another Canadian company which also has engineered floors in that moderate price point which is similarly green. When I was researching flooring, there also seem to be some American companies but I was fine with Mirage as I didn't have particularly esoteric design needs as I just wanted classic wood floors in a lighter color without excess movement or knots. I opted for their more expensive floors which used higher quality "less busy" oak.