Gaps in new engineered wood floors
prady22
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
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Joseph Corlett, LLC
6 years agoRelated Discussions
Gaps in new hard wood floors
Comments (1)Many possible reasons why you are seeing gaps; wood species, moisture differential between subfloor and flooring at time of install, HVAC system in the house, new house or old...lots of variables...even the general climate of the region you live in can have an effect....See MoreNew engineered wood floor has gaps
Comments (1)Rarely any easy fixes can be done here unless you'll settle for some matching filler. Board replacements are possible if there aren't many involved. Without actually seeing it I would probably opt for filler because the installer may not be able to handle board replacements very easily....See Moregaps in new wood floor - what's acceptable?
Comments (8)I had hardwood installed last summer in some pretty hot and humid weather. At the time of install there wasn't a gap to be seen and as the summer progressed it looked like the boards were slightly buckling. I noticed around December or so that gaps started showing up in places where I knew the subfloor wasn't totally level and a couple other spots. I just checked and my very biggest gap can fit a dime (only one gap this big though.) I was seriously considering calling the installer as well so I'll be interested to hear the rest of the responses. I have heard that it can take more than a year for the wood to really acclimatize, but I don't have terribly high hopes and really don't want to have to get a whole new floor. One of my problems (I think) is that I live in an area with very humid summers and very dry winters, and I'm not big on climate control in the house, i.e. I have the windows open at every opportunity i can get and there's no way I'll be regulating humidity, so I may be out of luck :( Don't know if any of that really helped, but that's been my experience so far. I'm interested to hear what others have to say though....See MoreGaps in new hard wood flooring
Comments (12)I'm going to disagree with the other opinions in that this could certainly be caused by humidity and acclimation. Every wood pro knows that solid wood will absorb moisture and expand. It's rather unlikely that the boards would be milled to different widths and especially that it would vary in width along a particular board. In general, 4/4 lumber is cut to uniform widths then sent through a machine that mills and kerfs the bottom, mills the top flat and cuts the tongue and groove on opposite sides, all in one machine. Another machine generally adds the end matching. Unless something in the milling machine is moving, or the unmilled boards were too narrow, all pieces will be the same width as they exit the molder. Look at this video at about 1:30 to see the molder in action. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wc0N6m4RNdY What you're experiencing is probably the effect of moisture soaking in to parts of boards that were more exposed to humid air. Exposed ends will grow more than centers that are less exposed. Look at the your first full row from the top. On the middle board, the end is wider than the one to the left. In the next row down the opposite is true. It's likely that those ends were exposed to more humid air. The problem is exacerbated when the installer doesn't compensate, since the wide ends can kick the next row out of line, leading to more gaps on the edges and ends. The same thing could happen in very dry air with ends shrinking. Exactly how was the wood acclimated? Was it removed from cartons and wrapping? Was it stacked so air could circulate around all sides of every board? What was the temperature and relative humidity in the space during the acclimation period? What is the current indoor temperature and relative humidity? Is the floor nailed down? I had this happen with a very high quality Canadian solid wood floor. Fortunately mine was dark stained Walnut so once the floor was aligned properly and larger gaps were distributed to make two smaller gaps on each edge, the issue didn't show and once the whole floor acclimated in place there was no issue....See Moreprady22
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoprady22
6 years agoprady22
6 years agoEric
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