I have laid a solid wood floor (Maple)the wood keeps expanding and lifting quite dramatically ...?

Question

The wood was given time to acclimatise on each occassion there is one area where warm pipes run underneath...the floor is laid on a wood floor with 3/4in ply on top. The first occassion the floor was glued the second time glue was applied to the sides of the wood only.

Answer 1

Remove the scirting if you ran it underneath and remove 10mm all round the edge of the flooring then replace the scirting to cover the gap. but do this when its on a normal phase of it's expantion and is flat to the floor
A good tool stockist or Hire shop will be able to advise you about the best tool.
Wood is a living thing and will react to its surroundings/enviroment

Answer 2

OK - it depends on which kind of 'solid wood' floor you are talking about.

If it is the shop-bought thin planks that slot together - then follow the advice given above about insulating the pipes, nailing down the sub-floor and making a 10mm gap all around the edges to allow for expansion.

If, however, you are talking about think 1/2 to 1 inch solid wood - then you will probably have to get a professional to lay it as you need to have a very solid base and it needs to be securely glued with industrial glue and then sanded down.

Answer 3

You need to say if it is Parquet (block) flooring or Tongue and groove boards. If the former then ben dovers advice is pretty good, though wood hardly moves lengthways. If the latter then get rid of the ply and forget the glue, give your floor person a slap and secret nail the boards to the existing joists. Oil top and undersides. The warm pipes in the floor space will only serve to keep them dry and should cause no problem whatever to boards in this setting.

Answer 4

Maybe you should have who ever is doing put something strong but not to thick on the floor under the wood the seperate for the warm pipe and the person doing your floor should have know that if you are put glue on the wood and the wood sits on the floor with warm pikes under them that the glue is going to melt and the floor will come back up and seperate from each other.

Answer 5

It is the warmth that is causing this warping. This happened to me in my first apartment. We had to take out the floor and put in one that was not so pretty, but much better to live with. Really, there are some places that wood does not do well as floors. If you can't bear the thought of no wood, try Pergo.

Answer 6

your 3/4 ply & your maple flooring require a 10mm gap to allow for exspansion to every wall, pillar,units,etc.
your 2nd method of glue in the joints is better but i would have also used a nail gun to secret nail it down to the ply .
also ensure your ply is securely fixed in the first place with its 10 mm gap of course. any pipework should be insulated as to keep any heat away.
any flooring over 6mt long should have an additional exspansion joint .
if this is not possible at least double your 10mm joint to the walls & cover with deeper skirtings or a bead

Answer 7

In addition to leaving room for expansion around the perimeter, the floor should be toe nailed to the underlayment. You can rent a tool that helps you set the tongue and groove properly and then nail through. The reason there is molding around the bottom of walls is to hide the expansion gap.

Answer 8

If you want to start a woodworking project, you need all the necessary information, including schematics, blueprints, materials lists, dimensions etc. That is where Teds Woodworking comes in. The plans are clearly drawn and there're step-by-step explainations of how the plan should be done and put together. Go here https://tr.im/8Flkz

There are several other sites whose collection of plans have the dimensions totally wrong without any indication of parts lists, material lists or the tools needed. If you're one of those people who have bought plans like this in the past, Teds Woodworking will change your perception.

Answer 9

Insulate the pipes. They are causing the problem. If you did the flooring yourself, did you allow for the expansion or did you have to fight to get the last run in? Allowing about 1/16th of an inch for expansion would cure the problem.

Answer 10

All the hard wood floors in my house were secret nailed very successfully, I have seen flooring like yours lift put it was stuck on underfloor heating , why did your contractor not nail the flooring in the grooves.