What is happening to my hardwood floors?

Question

My new hardwood floors are separating in some areas throughout the house. There are now visible gaps approximately 2 - 3 mm. What is happening? Is there anything I can do?

Answer 1

Sounds like the wood is drying out and shrinking. This could be caused by the houses' heater drying out the air. You could try running a humidifier in the house.

Answer 2

The problem of hardwood floors bowing is a pretty simple thing to understand if you understand that wood is a dynamic substance that absorbs water from the air in a process known as Hygroscopic absorption. It just means that if the humidity rises around the wood a bit the wood absorbs some of the water. As it absorbs water the wood then expands or if it gives up (drys out) it contracts. This is not a uniform expansion or contraction because wood is not the homogeneous (the same) in every part of a board. There are characteristically circular differences with the growth of the tree as well as knots and other differences that react differently than other parts of the board. The sellers of wood make a considerable effort to stabilize or cook the wood with steam ovens or even do Radio Frequency Vacuum drying to try to get wood to be stable. None of these processes are entirely successful. Wood will expand and contract with water moving in and out. It will also expand and contract pretty dynamically with temperature changes. Over time the wood will develop a bow or if it got really wet this may happen very fast. The wood then will tend to remain in the shape it moved into. This process is reversible but is slow and difficult. If a hardwood floor gets flooded it will bow up because the expansion makes the floor too big to fit the space where it is so it will push planks up and bend out of the way in odd shapes. There are companies who specialize in recovery of warped wood but the process is slow and difficult. Often people find it easier to replace the floor rather than recover a warped one. Bowing of a floor can happen from heating or from water. It is all just a case of not fitting the space, or non-uniform changes in size. Things will have to shove out of the way to fit. Sometimes boards will crack. Another cause of bowing can be unstable support under a floor. That is because beams or foundations are not stable or may not be strong enough for some reason.

Answer 3

I'm assuming your using "real" hardwood 3/4" tongue and groove planking. Not the type that clicks together. One person suggested the acclimation to your room temperature and yes that is needed. But during summer and winter months they will expand and contract creating gaps if they are not installed correctly. They should be nailed in the tongue with a flooring nailer. A humidifier will help with the gaps. If however your talking about the click together flooring, they do not come apart once clicked together so if they are gaps then they were installed improperly. Most people do not allow room around the perimeter for the boards to expand therefore buckling the planks.

Answer 4

When hardwood flooring is installed, it must be acclimatized to the location where it will be installed for a minimum of 36 hours. This allows the wood to shrink or expand to the exact level of the structure in which it will be installed.

It sounds like you had moist wood installed in a dry location. The wood dehydrated and that caused the gaps. There is no cure.

Your recourse is with the installer and you will win in court, if it goes that far. Sorry for your experience.

Answer 5

You probably had the floor installed in the summer, and now it is winter.

There was an average moisture content in the flooring, and now it is dried out, causing the gaps to appear.

I wouldn't know what to do besides put in a humidifier or wait for spring.

Answer 6

your house is settleing or they didnt install it right. to much gap at the wall eventully means gaps in the boards. did they tap each piece in to place as the went or just toss it down. takes skill to put them in and theese do it your self kits arent the best bet if you dont know what you are doing. im betting you used the floating type too. those cheap kits arent worth it, i tell people tht all the time but still cause there cheap they buy them and then find out its gonna cost them more money now cause the floor is shifting. i preffer real word planks tht need tack'd in no just slid together and tappd with a mallet. if it happens to be the real deal doing it the instalators didnt tack it down right or your house is about to fall through the earth, one or the other

Answer 7

They are contracting and will eventually expand. It sounds like you didn't let them get acclamated to the rooms temperature before they were installed. You are supposed to leave the flooring in the room for a couple days before installing them. You can try and tap them back together to close the gap but it will probably happen again.

Answer 8

It's possible from the dryness in the air because of the home heat in the winter time. Do you have a room humidifier? What is your climate like? Is it happening to the entire floor? I would check with whomever installed your floors.

Answer 9

There is a moisture content to the wood originally. They are drying out more and are shrinking. You can get products that slow up this process and add natural oils into the woods to prevent them from squeaking. Check out a floor store.

Answer 10

I suspect that the wood is trying out. In the winter when the heat is on wood tends to dry out. The gaps will probably become noticably smaller in the spring and summer