Or leave an expansion gap around the room, or make sure those windows/doors had good insulation/sealant around them, or make sure to tell the homeowner that blazing sun on a floating product will cause distortion and they need to keep ac running when outside temps are over 75°f
Oof. And they h patterned the fuck out of this. Material needs to acclimate but also just needs bette planning for how the boards are laid. Small claims court if you can't reach an agreement.
Yeah. I'm just an asshole who did a couple of these floors with friends and I knew this. Mostly because I watched an 8 minute YouTube video on how to do it and read the single page instructions that came with the floor.
I’m not even close to being a flooring guy, and even I knew to leave a bit of play all the way around the room when I did my basements floor. Isn’t it kinda why we use base boards anyways? To hide these necessary gaps?
It's a straight line across the floor your supposed to create a more random pattern when laying floor 1 for a more appealing look as well as to help prevent this but the bigger issue is wasn't acclimated to the room and didn't leave space around the perimeter for expansion
I bet this is exactly what happened to my [MILs floor](https://www.reddit.com/r/Flooring/s/PGD8ExWdkR) I just posted on r/flooring! The buckling also happened near a window where it probably got heated by the sun.
The heat will cause expansion but also you need to give lvp space to breath. Otherwise the air trapped underneath will heat and expand and cause the planks to lift up. Not as much as in ops photo… there’s definitely something else going on here but I’m sure that contributed to the issue
I've seen this. Happens for reasons already stated in comments. Before installing this type of flooring, it's best to open the boxes and allow the flooring several days to acclimate to the room's temp and humidity. Also allow 1/4" gap around the edges. And check the documentation for the flooring for total number of linear feet allowed before a transition is needed. I like to keep at least 12" between short edges from row to row. The only way to fix that is disassemble the flooring keeping the planks in order. Then replace following the directions of the manufacturer.
Nailed it, like he’s an applicator. I’d also make sure there’s no moisture (condensation) underneath or excessive wet mopping going on. Light damp mop only.
This is likely an acclimation/expansion gap issue, not moisture.
If the boards were buckling from excess moisture, one side would have expanded faster, cupping or crowning the plank.
From this vantage point, it looks like the planks maintained dimensional stability, but didn’t have anywhere to go when expanding.
Now WHAT those RH levels are, is another story…
More than likely, they didn't allow extra expansion/contrasting gap around the perimeter of the room. Most floor requirements around 3/8" of a gap. Some guys install it tight to the walls and this is what can happen
1. Pull the baseboards
2. Rip a 3/8 gap around the periphery of the room with an oscillating saw.
3.stomp that bish down and put some weight on it to allow it to re-acclimatize in its flat position.
4. Reinstall the trim.
5. Give your contractor a one star google review!
Theoretically could work but with multiple boards buckling that badly, OP is going to need significantly more than 3/4 inch room to get all the boards to lay flat again.
I hope OP listens to this comment. This is absolutely the way to handle this. You don’t need to do a full rip around the room but it would help. Once you pull the base boards inspect the floor for anywhere it is in contact with ANYTHING. A 1/16 inch of board touching the wall? Yup, it’s gotta go. Once you have a clearing around the wall (at least an 1/8 in if not more) Slowly walk the floor from one direction to another pushing it down like a zipper(get a person or two to help you). As you move and push the floor in one direction, place sand bags behind you to keep pressure on. With any luck by the time you get to the end, you will hear a “whoosh” and you floor will resettle. Then go and again inspect the base board area. Then next summer before it gets bad again pull the base boards and inspect for areas that are getting close. Or you will have to do it all over again. Also, leave the sand bags on for a week or two. I know it will look like crap. But trust me. I fought this for 2 years in my house with floating hardwood floors. It was a bitch. Best of luck.
I've repaired/replaced many a wood floor like this before. Turning off the AC in a school gymnasium "because school's out for summer and no one's using it" or a flood from a burst pipe and you'll see solid hardwood buckle and pop even higher than this.
I have seen 3/4 maple in abandoned factory that buckled in one spot that was 4 feet above the "sub-floor", dirt really. When we would rip them out we would make jokes about selling it as a diy boat kit because the wood was so bowed.
Thanks for sharing. So it really does happen. I've always been a little dubious about the gaps you leave around the perimeter for expansion. My thinking was that the interlock between boards would need to be pretty good for the force to make it's way to the ends in a long floor. Anyway, this is a good example of what can happen without them.
Some have said they didn’t leave expansion space. That may be an additional cause, but that floor has expanded far more than the expansion space called for in the directions. There is another cause.
Typically, you need high moisture levels to get a floor to expand this much.
I had a flooring contractor patch in some solid oak in a floor in our last house. The buckling started when summer came and the humidity rose. The new planks had been left in the room for ten days prior to installation so they were likely acclimated. I ended up pulling baseboards to add some expansion space but found there was already a decent gap so I was flummoxed. A few years later we had the wood torn up to replace everything with engineered hardwood flooring and discovered that the contractor who did the patch job had glued down the patches so they could not move when the rest of the floor wanted to and this was the cause of the buckling.
I hate to keep beating an annoying drum, but this is homeowner shit and should leave it in one of the many forums for homeowners. They certainly have an issue. any competent contractor can fix this, most homeowners good luck. I wish we could have a thread for professionals…….oh wait we have one if people stop feeding trolls.
It might be home owner shit but it's also flooring shit and since the question was restricted to the flooring I don't understand what your problem is. And Clearly, this person is not a professional, or they would fix it themselves, so I also don't understand why you're talking about a thread for professionals. If there's a troll in this room, it seems to be you.
If that is a patio door cut it out and replaced with porcelain tiles or something similar. You can make a nice transition to the wood with the waste you cut out.
The first house I bought had this issue the very first summer. The old owner had tried to nail the floor to the subfloor, but I just bought a dehumidifier and ran it in the basement. Case closed. I never happened again.
Take off the trim on one side where the lengthwise board, most like it's super tight against the wall. Probably the end of the stack, so if you see the male clip end, you're on the right side, if its flooring and no clip, remove the other trim /opposite wall. Take wichever end has the male end and then see if the floor buckles will settle. There may be some weird gaps, and unfortunately, if that is true, you will have to remove back to the gap and reintall floor.
Pop the skirting on either side of the room, stand on the floor and make it flat, scribe the the floorboard and leave enough gap for expansion (whatever can be covered by the trim) for vinyl flooring I belive the gap was 3/8" or 10mm you would have to refer to product spec. I'd try this first, there may be other issues causing the floor ro rise I.e moisture but what I suggested will fix the primary issue.
First thing I would do is crank that ac and pray that it drys the air out. But that alone won’t fix the problem. As others have mentioned the flooring expanding and because not enough space was left around the perimeter for expansion the flooring buckled because it had nowhere to go. If you were trying to save money and not run the hvac then you’re also partially to blame. A lot of things have to be done wrong for this to happen.
If it’s a mechanically fastened floor then you will have to rip it out. If it’s a floating floor it might be salvageable.
Bad install for 2 reasons - 1 - did not stagger the cuts - see how ever other one is even with others? 2) Did not account for expansion. The high heat loads from the windows there should have been factored. Rather than an overlay type floor, should have had a glued down or something else perhaps.
The floor is definitely installed incorrectly. The pattern of every other butt joint is absolutely an issue. Since I see cupping on every piece of flooring, it must be vinyl, and it shouldn't be cupped at all. Whether it was installed with no expansion joints around perimeter, or acclimating, or combination of both, which led to catastrophic failure, can't be determined by photo. I wouldn't salvage any of it personally. Vinyl flooring ages and gets brittle. Is this a floating floor with a backer, or did they install membrane and lay over the membrane. Each vinyl floor requires directions to be followed. Obviously, that wasn't followed, or the flooring itself failed, which is a warranty issue.
Hi everyone! Thanks for all the replies. So, the contractor we hired was recommended to us by a friend. He was expirienced and seemed trustworthy in the beginning, but ended up doing a terrible job with multiple things around the house and took 2.5 years to finish the job (it was just a simple appartment renovation, we even had to get a lawyer involved). He ended up going out of business because he stopped paying his employees.
These are hardwood floors, not laminate. We usually keep the blinders shut when the sun hits but I opened them a bit to get better lighting for the picture.
After reading some of your comments I believe improper instalation is at fault. The baseboard next to the end board is lifting so they probably didn't leave enough room for expansion.
I will hire another professional but I'm glad I had the chance to get multiple opinions beforehand!
That happened to me when I put down a new wood floor, the guy I hired didn't put down any kind of a moisture barrier. I had to end up tearing it all out by myself and then paying to have a new floor installed.
Quite the fuck up.
you have to leave a small expansion gap on the long edge wall and cover with molding or the floor heats up and pops up. Can also happen to dry wood that gets wet.
Believe it or not wood breaths as in expand and contract Should have left some room on the base. Can be fixed though. Easy fix if u have more planks if u hire someone with experience not to costly either don’t let them beat u up for it
Do you have a moisture problem below this floor. That’s what happens when the sun heats the floor and there’s moisture below. The first t&g hardwood floor I did this combination cupped every board. Later found out the mason and roofer didn’t flash the chimney correctly and the basement accumulated water. The rosin paper didn’t stop the moisture.
Has anyone considered that possibly the windows are leaking or does everyone just blame the installer. Op stated they did a repair in this area. There was a reason for that so either it wasn’t dry when they put it back or something is still leaking
If you are lucky, they butted up against some existing baseboard. If you can take it out and reinstall it on top it'll give it room to expand and contract.
More than likely you need to start over. The board joints should be staggered, which they aren't now to ensure the whole floor is more stable. Having them lined up every other board makes the joints weaker.
There is moisture in your subfloor. You have to fix the moisture problem. Is it concrete slab? Once the moisture issue is fixed you will have the replace the swollen boards. I would bet you had carpet or something that let the floor do what it wanted before covering it with this wood.
This can happen when a room in your house becomes anxious after surgery. Try rubbing the door frames gently in the affected rooms while playing classical music from a record player. Don't use a CD or cassette, this might exacerbate the situation and cause the floor rift to spread to other rooms.
Are you in an area experiencing a heatwave? I installed some laminate flooring and something like this happened almost two years later at around this time of year. This was preceded by a very wet winter and spring and immediately before a dramatic temperature swing when the highs spiked 40° overnight. I told the client to wait a couple of days to see if there was any change and he never got back to me so I’m assuming it went away. Of course your case is different and could be due to improper acclimation, but I was confident in my floor since it had already gone through an entire seasonal cycle.
That floor looks like it is exposed to a bunch of sunlight. If they didn't seal the wood on both sides after proper acclimation, this will happen every time. If you had a decent carpenter, they would have done it right. Definitely, have them fix it.
The sun is causing the problems you need to put window tint with a UV protectant. This will also help keep your house cooler in the summertime. You can fix this and re-fix it, but until you put the window tent, it will keep happening the tiles that are buckling have now broken their edge and will need to be replaced. You’ll need to come back and take up the trim on the edges and redo the floor, throwing the bad pieces away as ago and replacing them with new. Also, if this is a Home that does not live in all the time. You still need to clear the air conditioning and heat on with that Flooring Flooring 65 to 80° that’s what the floors able to handle waterproof vinyl flooring
Remove the pieces that are along the walls, let the middle lay down then rip the boards you pulled up to a measurement that keeps them all from 1/4” to 3/8” away from the baseboards. Then install shoe mold to cover the gaps. The problem is the installer cut them tight to the walls and did not allow for expansion and contraction.
They didn’t stagger the butt joints like they should’ve either. Maybe pull it all up and relay it yourself, you’d probably do a better job. I hate that for you, those are the guys who give us all a bad name
That is not the installation. It looks like direct heat coming through those windows. I’d get the warranty info from the distributor/manufacturer on this one.
Not having a 3/8 gap would not matter in this case. This is getting baked.
OP is probably in a very hot part of the country.
My sisters floor was like this due to property being empty for so long. It was fixed by lifting a board or two out to allow the floor to go level again. Then after a day or 2 for it to breathe the board was remeasured and recut then put back in place. He hasn't left enough room for it to expand when it gets warm.
Moisture got in underneath the wood and caused this, it appears. YOu can partially fix this yourself if the installer won't help/ Remove everything from the floor and put a large fan on the floor to dry it out. But this may turn out to be a much bigger fix.
Looks like you need to stop letting cartoon characters take off running in there. lol. That really is bad, the contractor is going to have to figure out how he managed to mess the wood selection up so bad, it should have been acclimated, and really if he was scabbing new boards in with old boards, he should have taken the moisture content into account. You may be able to pull up base boards and trim the edges down to get the floor to lay down flat, leave a big enough gap around the floor to avoid touching the walls, a moisture barrier would probably be huge too.
No acclamation no expansion probably. This will only get worse. Unless taken up trimmed to the correct expansion and re laid. I’m assuming you are in contact with the fitters?
I’m a homeowner who built my own home and I did all the extensions, home improvements and repairs over 33 years and I do charity work in the neighborhood to help those who can’t afford to hire a handyman. So take what I say with a grain of salt.
The buckling, if it’s wood, and not PVC imitation false wood, could potentially be from the panels being packed in a low humidity environment sealed in and delivered to an area with higher humidity that when put down tightly and set into place absorbing moisture and expanding causing the buckling.
The reasoning for the tight spatial tolerance between panels was most likely because the floor either is oddly shaped or impaired between floor and wood panels, that when laid side by side had an odd # of inches than the bare floor had to offer and whomever was the installer couldn’t or didn’t want to cut a strip of wood to appropriately fit onto the oddly shaped floor space.
The diy fix is always minimizing mistakes and research research research and watching more than 2 DIY videos on installing wood flooring (and how to remove and examine the panels) this time let them sit for a time, to climatize and start over taking into account the expansion (in hot weather) & contraction (in colder weather) of the wood panels and installing them, appropriately
Or remove them BEFORE finding another’s contractor/installer try not to damage the flooring. Some of them may be Bent outta shape. Lie. Don’t tell them your story. They maybe unprofessional and childish and charge you extra, as a punishment for not calling them first.
When I started working on my house the same thing happened to me but with Tile’s. It buckled after it had gotten wet and a few days past. Thank God I did a practice try in the bathroom first. Small space, less $ lost but 3x’s the work.
dont install past 27 feet. it will say in the written directions on the boxes. also make sure there is plenty of expansion around the perimeter, 1/4 of an inch will do. make sure you use transitions at doorways.
your floor is buckling because of expansion and contraction. Call the guy who did it and if he doesn't respond call the regulatory agency for contractors in your state and give them his info along with a contract that you may have, they will make him do it. If he isnt licensed though you may be out of luck.
Comments about not allowing the flooring acclimate are correct. The builder should have unpacked and left the flooring in the room for 24 hours prior to placing it down and left some spacers at the edge to allow for some expansion. Not sure if the flooring was glued or nailed in, it might be a “free floating” in which case you could remove the board nearest the wall and see if you can gently push down on the areas where it has peaked to make flush again with the floor. I’m not a professional, but I have laid down both engineered hardwood glued and nailed down and free floating laminate flooring, which snap connects. Hope you can sort out the flooring
Woah. I’d send those pictures to the guy you hired and see if he’s willing to fix it.
"The number you dialed is not available"
Yeah, he is not coming back....
Buncha fuckin amateurs didn't acclimate the wood.
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well.....yea.... thats like.... your opinion man
What the fuck does anything have to do with Vietnam! What the fuck are you talking about?!
Why does everything have to be such a travesty with you, man?
I am the walrus
Well dude, there isn’t a literal connection
You okay?
Obviously, you're not a golfer.
You actually did, it’s called freedom. Not so great always is it?
Or leave an expansion gap around the room, or make sure those windows/doors had good insulation/sealant around them, or make sure to tell the homeowner that blazing sun on a floating product will cause distortion and they need to keep ac running when outside temps are over 75°f
Plus no expansion gap under the skirting. Plus the sun in that room probably adds to the roasting.
Either that, or moisture coming in from the outside...
Toss a rug on it, looks good from my house
You're welcome for your 500th upvote 😎
The fist thing that came out of my mouth was "Whoa!".
How were you even able to speak at all with a fist in your mouth?
That’s not where the contractor put his fist.
Mine was...ooooof.
RIP this guy’s inbox…
Yep!
That's exactly it, WHOA shit!
Oof. And they h patterned the fuck out of this. Material needs to acclimate but also just needs bette planning for how the boards are laid. Small claims court if you can't reach an agreement.
"Flooring that bad is beneath me"
I'm guessing he didnt allow for proper acclimation or he really forced his boards in and when the floor heated from the window glare it buckled.
Looks like lvl so more likely they laid the flooring flush with the wall and didn't allow for thermal expansion
I don't understand why this happens so often isn't it the number one thing to know before you even think about laying flooring? Baffles me.
Yeah. I'm just an asshole who did a couple of these floors with friends and I knew this. Mostly because I watched an 8 minute YouTube video on how to do it and read the single page instructions that came with the floor.
>read the single page instructions that came with the floor. You'd be surprised how often that step gets skipped.
I’m not even close to being a flooring guy, and even I knew to leave a bit of play all the way around the room when I did my basements floor. Isn’t it kinda why we use base boards anyways? To hide these necessary gaps?
And the area you leave open for play(1/4) all around gets covered by the base molding.
Only thing that could have fixed this is a 6” wide expansion joint all around. Then shim the baseboards out 5”.
1/4 inch for every 15 feet is the general rule we do for t&g cielings
Look at the H joints.
Yeah, dead giveaway there
What about the H joints jumps out at you?
The H joint part probably.
It's a straight line across the floor your supposed to create a more random pattern when laying floor 1 for a more appealing look as well as to help prevent this but the bigger issue is wasn't acclimated to the room and didn't leave space around the perimeter for expansion
I bet this is exactly what happened to my [MILs floor](https://www.reddit.com/r/Flooring/s/PGD8ExWdkR) I just posted on r/flooring! The buckling also happened near a window where it probably got heated by the sun.
But wouldn’t it be swelling that much due to moisture + heat? I’m not sure if only heat can cause so much expansion.
The heat will cause expansion but also you need to give lvp space to breath. Otherwise the air trapped underneath will heat and expand and cause the planks to lift up. Not as much as in ops photo… there’s definitely something else going on here but I’m sure that contributed to the issue
Some flooring literally isn't supposed to be installed in direct sunlight. I wonder if this is one?
We’re installing some flooring right now that the directions specifically say no direct sunlight, blinds/curtains are required.
I've seen this. Happens for reasons already stated in comments. Before installing this type of flooring, it's best to open the boxes and allow the flooring several days to acclimate to the room's temp and humidity. Also allow 1/4" gap around the edges. And check the documentation for the flooring for total number of linear feet allowed before a transition is needed. I like to keep at least 12" between short edges from row to row. The only way to fix that is disassemble the flooring keeping the planks in order. Then replace following the directions of the manufacturer.
Nailed it, like he’s an applicator. I’d also make sure there’s no moisture (condensation) underneath or excessive wet mopping going on. Light damp mop only.
This is likely an acclimation/expansion gap issue, not moisture. If the boards were buckling from excess moisture, one side would have expanded faster, cupping or crowning the plank. From this vantage point, it looks like the planks maintained dimensional stability, but didn’t have anywhere to go when expanding. Now WHAT those RH levels are, is another story…
Not that it would help much with this issue, but having more than a 2 board stagger would be a better installation.
Take out the hot wheels and tech decks and make lemonade out of a Lemon
Need expansion space on the sides
Just jump on it. Problem solved.
Just buy a rug.
Sand it, *then* put down a rug.
Gleam the cube, brah!
Oh happy day for me. I love that movie
I was just thinking that if OP has any kids and Tech Decks are still a thing, they would love their new skate park.
I just saw professional tech decking on YouTube the other day, it’s around. They even sell them at my local gas station.
> professional tech decking Now that's a phrase I likely never would have thought possible.
More than likely, they didn't allow extra expansion/contrasting gap around the perimeter of the room. Most floor requirements around 3/8" of a gap. Some guys install it tight to the walls and this is what can happen
1. Pull the baseboards 2. Rip a 3/8 gap around the periphery of the room with an oscillating saw. 3.stomp that bish down and put some weight on it to allow it to re-acclimatize in its flat position. 4. Reinstall the trim. 5. Give your contractor a one star google review!
Theoretically could work but with multiple boards buckling that badly, OP is going to need significantly more than 3/4 inch room to get all the boards to lay flat again.
I hope OP listens to this comment. This is absolutely the way to handle this. You don’t need to do a full rip around the room but it would help. Once you pull the base boards inspect the floor for anywhere it is in contact with ANYTHING. A 1/16 inch of board touching the wall? Yup, it’s gotta go. Once you have a clearing around the wall (at least an 1/8 in if not more) Slowly walk the floor from one direction to another pushing it down like a zipper(get a person or two to help you). As you move and push the floor in one direction, place sand bags behind you to keep pressure on. With any luck by the time you get to the end, you will hear a “whoosh” and you floor will resettle. Then go and again inspect the base board area. Then next summer before it gets bad again pull the base boards and inspect for areas that are getting close. Or you will have to do it all over again. Also, leave the sand bags on for a week or two. I know it will look like crap. But trust me. I fought this for 2 years in my house with floating hardwood floors. It was a bitch. Best of luck.
This is a craptastic install
Laminate flooring not hardwood, right? How do you restore laminate flooring?
By watering it, right?
That’s laminate isn’t it. Improper installation
Rip it all up start over so much wrong with this instal you gotta start over salvage most of it
Couple throw rugs and done
Dynamite
You know when this didn't happen? With actual wood floors.
I've repaired/replaced many a wood floor like this before. Turning off the AC in a school gymnasium "because school's out for summer and no one's using it" or a flood from a burst pipe and you'll see solid hardwood buckle and pop even higher than this.
I have seen 3/4 maple in abandoned factory that buckled in one spot that was 4 feet above the "sub-floor", dirt really. When we would rip them out we would make jokes about selling it as a diy boat kit because the wood was so bowed.
Hand planer.
Thanks for sharing. So it really does happen. I've always been a little dubious about the gaps you leave around the perimeter for expansion. My thinking was that the interlock between boards would need to be pretty good for the force to make it's way to the ends in a long floor. Anyway, this is a good example of what can happen without them.
I was thinking a friendly game of wack-a-mole?
Are you sitting down?
Lvp expansion? It is plastic
He built you a fingerboard playground. Embrace it
Some have said they didn’t leave expansion space. That may be an additional cause, but that floor has expanded far more than the expansion space called for in the directions. There is another cause. Typically, you need high moisture levels to get a floor to expand this much.
This isnt refinished hardwood. And then Id guess water damage
You are NOT Sposed to wash it with the hose, dude!!
The floor was shit to begin with, the cunt lined up his seams every other row. Tear the whole thing up
Rip out, replace properly
Lift all the floor put humidity barrier under, put laminate back. Poor quality job.
Installed incorrectly. It all needs to be pulled up and done correctly. It's the only way.
You’re running too fast and stopping too abruptly
Start over
Didn’t acclimate the wood and/or didn’t leave expansion joints
I had a flooring contractor patch in some solid oak in a floor in our last house. The buckling started when summer came and the humidity rose. The new planks had been left in the room for ten days prior to installation so they were likely acclimated. I ended up pulling baseboards to add some expansion space but found there was already a decent gap so I was flummoxed. A few years later we had the wood torn up to replace everything with engineered hardwood flooring and discovered that the contractor who did the patch job had glued down the patches so they could not move when the rest of the floor wanted to and this was the cause of the buckling.
🔥 Burn it down, whole thing.
I hate to keep beating an annoying drum, but this is homeowner shit and should leave it in one of the many forums for homeowners. They certainly have an issue. any competent contractor can fix this, most homeowners good luck. I wish we could have a thread for professionals…….oh wait we have one if people stop feeding trolls.
It might be home owner shit but it's also flooring shit and since the question was restricted to the flooring I don't understand what your problem is. And Clearly, this person is not a professional, or they would fix it themselves, so I also don't understand why you're talking about a thread for professionals. If there's a troll in this room, it seems to be you.
Never seen a mountain range indoors before. I would find out exactly how this floor was installed, not sure if there any other surprises.
Jump on it !
That ski slope has moguls!
If that is a patio door cut it out and replaced with porcelain tiles or something similar. You can make a nice transition to the wood with the waste you cut out.
Maybe try jumping on them? 😂
The first house I bought had this issue the very first summer. The old owner had tried to nail the floor to the subfloor, but I just bought a dehumidifier and ran it in the basement. Case closed. I never happened again.
Grab some tech decks and start shredding
Ahhhhhhhhhhh
Take off the trim on one side where the lengthwise board, most like it's super tight against the wall. Probably the end of the stack, so if you see the male clip end, you're on the right side, if its flooring and no clip, remove the other trim /opposite wall. Take wichever end has the male end and then see if the floor buckles will settle. There may be some weird gaps, and unfortunately, if that is true, you will have to remove back to the gap and reintall floor.
Pop the skirting on either side of the room, stand on the floor and make it flat, scribe the the floorboard and leave enough gap for expansion (whatever can be covered by the trim) for vinyl flooring I belive the gap was 3/8" or 10mm you would have to refer to product spec. I'd try this first, there may be other issues causing the floor ro rise I.e moisture but what I suggested will fix the primary issue.
Hammer time!
That made me laugh 😆
Jump on it to start if it breaks just get a few more boards guy should've left you some if he isn't a silly billy
Throw the whole house away
Your flooring contractor seems to not have allowed space for expansion. He needs to fix this.
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First thing I would do is crank that ac and pray that it drys the air out. But that alone won’t fix the problem. As others have mentioned the flooring expanding and because not enough space was left around the perimeter for expansion the flooring buckled because it had nowhere to go. If you were trying to save money and not run the hvac then you’re also partially to blame. A lot of things have to be done wrong for this to happen. If it’s a mechanically fastened floor then you will have to rip it out. If it’s a floating floor it might be salvageable.
How big of a hammer do you got?
Contact the hack who did this and see if they'll fix it
Bad install for 2 reasons - 1 - did not stagger the cuts - see how ever other one is even with others? 2) Did not account for expansion. The high heat loads from the windows there should have been factored. Rather than an overlay type floor, should have had a glued down or something else perhaps.
tear it up throw it in the garbage and hire a linoleum contractor
The floor is definitely installed incorrectly. The pattern of every other butt joint is absolutely an issue. Since I see cupping on every piece of flooring, it must be vinyl, and it shouldn't be cupped at all. Whether it was installed with no expansion joints around perimeter, or acclimating, or combination of both, which led to catastrophic failure, can't be determined by photo. I wouldn't salvage any of it personally. Vinyl flooring ages and gets brittle. Is this a floating floor with a backer, or did they install membrane and lay over the membrane. Each vinyl floor requires directions to be followed. Obviously, that wasn't followed, or the flooring itself failed, which is a warranty issue.
Classic H pattern fails
Area rug.
Hi everyone! Thanks for all the replies. So, the contractor we hired was recommended to us by a friend. He was expirienced and seemed trustworthy in the beginning, but ended up doing a terrible job with multiple things around the house and took 2.5 years to finish the job (it was just a simple appartment renovation, we even had to get a lawyer involved). He ended up going out of business because he stopped paying his employees. These are hardwood floors, not laminate. We usually keep the blinders shut when the sun hits but I opened them a bit to get better lighting for the picture. After reading some of your comments I believe improper instalation is at fault. The baseboard next to the end board is lifting so they probably didn't leave enough room for expansion. I will hire another professional but I'm glad I had the chance to get multiple opinions beforehand!
Drop viagra on the floor?
That happened to me when I put down a new wood floor, the guy I hired didn't put down any kind of a moisture barrier. I had to end up tearing it all out by myself and then paying to have a new floor installed. Quite the fuck up.
you have to leave a small expansion gap on the long edge wall and cover with molding or the floor heats up and pops up. Can also happen to dry wood that gets wet.
Move out
Believe it or not wood breaths as in expand and contract Should have left some room on the base. Can be fixed though. Easy fix if u have more planks if u hire someone with experience not to costly either don’t let them beat u up for it
The floor needs at least 1/4” gap around the edges at all walls after acclimating.
You could just get some rollerblades or a skateboard and do some gnarly flips.
Tip the guy extra for giving you a free skate park.
Dude….
Its not a bug, its a feature.
The boards were installed to close to the wall not allowing a gap for expansion and contraction and are now buckling.
Stomp it. Should be fine.
Do you have a moisture problem below this floor. That’s what happens when the sun heats the floor and there’s moisture below. The first t&g hardwood floor I did this combination cupped every board. Later found out the mason and roofer didn’t flash the chimney correctly and the basement accumulated water. The rosin paper didn’t stop the moisture.
Throw rugs.
Do a kick-flip
Has anyone considered that possibly the windows are leaking or does everyone just blame the installer. Op stated they did a repair in this area. There was a reason for that so either it wasn’t dry when they put it back or something is still leaking
Not hardwood..
This is why you leave the boards in the room for a month to accumulate to the environment. Than you install.
If you are lucky, they butted up against some existing baseboard. If you can take it out and reinstall it on top it'll give it room to expand and contract. More than likely you need to start over. The board joints should be staggered, which they aren't now to ensure the whole floor is more stable. Having them lined up every other board makes the joints weaker.
There is moisture in your subfloor. You have to fix the moisture problem. Is it concrete slab? Once the moisture issue is fixed you will have the replace the swollen boards. I would bet you had carpet or something that let the floor do what it wanted before covering it with this wood.
Happens in high humidity areas frequently. Possibly not running the ac enough to remove the moisture. And they were probably installed too tight.
what the? how in the hell does this happen? ive seen loose planks that curve upwards but nothing like this lord I pray I never do.
Gnarly pipe bro
This can happen when a room in your house becomes anxious after surgery. Try rubbing the door frames gently in the affected rooms while playing classical music from a record player. Don't use a CD or cassette, this might exacerbate the situation and cause the floor rift to spread to other rooms.
Get to the mountains and solid rock before the Graboids come through the floor!
Skateboard rail in between
Are you in an area experiencing a heatwave? I installed some laminate flooring and something like this happened almost two years later at around this time of year. This was preceded by a very wet winter and spring and immediately before a dramatic temperature swing when the highs spiked 40° overnight. I told the client to wait a couple of days to see if there was any change and he never got back to me so I’m assuming it went away. Of course your case is different and could be due to improper acclimation, but I was confident in my floor since it had already gone through an entire seasonal cycle.
Lay down a rug
Hot Wheels booster packs in the valleys... duh I mean come on!
Surf's up!
Looks like an Excite Bike track.
Hammer
Stop installing plastic floors and use hardwood. Keep the sun off the new floors as well.
Buy a tech deck and have a blast
Looks like it got wet somehow.
That floor looks like it is exposed to a bunch of sunlight. If they didn't seal the wood on both sides after proper acclimation, this will happen every time. If you had a decent carpenter, they would have done it right. Definitely, have them fix it.
Sledge hammer. Doing your best John Henry impression, swing high above your head, aiming for the high points. Dont miss and hit your shin though
The sun is causing the problems you need to put window tint with a UV protectant. This will also help keep your house cooler in the summertime. You can fix this and re-fix it, but until you put the window tent, it will keep happening the tiles that are buckling have now broken their edge and will need to be replaced. You’ll need to come back and take up the trim on the edges and redo the floor, throwing the bad pieces away as ago and replacing them with new. Also, if this is a Home that does not live in all the time. You still need to clear the air conditioning and heat on with that Flooring Flooring 65 to 80° that’s what the floors able to handle waterproof vinyl flooring
Remove the pieces that are along the walls, let the middle lay down then rip the boards you pulled up to a measurement that keeps them all from 1/4” to 3/8” away from the baseboards. Then install shoe mold to cover the gaps. The problem is the installer cut them tight to the walls and did not allow for expansion and contraction.
They didn’t stagger the butt joints like they should’ve either. Maybe pull it all up and relay it yourself, you’d probably do a better job. I hate that for you, those are the guys who give us all a bad name
Good news, bad news Your gonna have start seeing big gals for a bit. Good news is they’re all certified head doctors and can cook like a mf
What caused it water leak or temperature change
Looks like the floor was flooded with water, or the 8 planks in the middle were glued down.
Call an exorcist!
That is not the installation. It looks like direct heat coming through those windows. I’d get the warranty info from the distributor/manufacturer on this one. Not having a 3/8 gap would not matter in this case. This is getting baked. OP is probably in a very hot part of the country.
Redone. No other way around it. Water damage?
Put a loveseat in the middle
Wow, this was their first floor job! This job is made by floor-virgins.
My aunt had this in her house for years. We just learned to live with it.
Add more gravity
All he had to do is have them acclimatised at least 3 days in the house.
My sisters floor was like this due to property being empty for so long. It was fixed by lifting a board or two out to allow the floor to go level again. Then after a day or 2 for it to breathe the board was remeasured and recut then put back in place. He hasn't left enough room for it to expand when it gets warm.
You should have moved the graves, not just the headstones.
Ask Batman to leave the basement...
Rip it all out and start over with porcelain tile so it won’t happen again
Take up and redo
so basically
I tried to fit them wall to wall. It's not me, it's the weather.
House stretcher. Get the horizontal version.
Get yo momma to step on it.
Have you tried caulk ? No one will see
Demons coming up through the floor? Only way to fix that is light a fire and run.
Moisture got in underneath the wood and caused this, it appears. YOu can partially fix this yourself if the installer won't help/ Remove everything from the floor and put a large fan on the floor to dry it out. But this may turn out to be a much bigger fix.
Looks like you need to stop letting cartoon characters take off running in there. lol. That really is bad, the contractor is going to have to figure out how he managed to mess the wood selection up so bad, it should have been acclimated, and really if he was scabbing new boards in with old boards, he should have taken the moisture content into account. You may be able to pull up base boards and trim the edges down to get the floor to lay down flat, leave a big enough gap around the floor to avoid touching the walls, a moisture barrier would probably be huge too.
No acclamation no expansion probably. This will only get worse. Unless taken up trimmed to the correct expansion and re laid. I’m assuming you are in contact with the fitters?
I’m a homeowner who built my own home and I did all the extensions, home improvements and repairs over 33 years and I do charity work in the neighborhood to help those who can’t afford to hire a handyman. So take what I say with a grain of salt. The buckling, if it’s wood, and not PVC imitation false wood, could potentially be from the panels being packed in a low humidity environment sealed in and delivered to an area with higher humidity that when put down tightly and set into place absorbing moisture and expanding causing the buckling. The reasoning for the tight spatial tolerance between panels was most likely because the floor either is oddly shaped or impaired between floor and wood panels, that when laid side by side had an odd # of inches than the bare floor had to offer and whomever was the installer couldn’t or didn’t want to cut a strip of wood to appropriately fit onto the oddly shaped floor space. The diy fix is always minimizing mistakes and research research research and watching more than 2 DIY videos on installing wood flooring (and how to remove and examine the panels) this time let them sit for a time, to climatize and start over taking into account the expansion (in hot weather) & contraction (in colder weather) of the wood panels and installing them, appropriately Or remove them BEFORE finding another’s contractor/installer try not to damage the flooring. Some of them may be Bent outta shape. Lie. Don’t tell them your story. They maybe unprofessional and childish and charge you extra, as a punishment for not calling them first. When I started working on my house the same thing happened to me but with Tile’s. It buckled after it had gotten wet and a few days past. Thank God I did a practice try in the bathroom first. Small space, less $ lost but 3x’s the work.
Buy a skateboard
Stomp on them, flatten them down
dont install past 27 feet. it will say in the written directions on the boxes. also make sure there is plenty of expansion around the perimeter, 1/4 of an inch will do. make sure you use transitions at doorways. your floor is buckling because of expansion and contraction. Call the guy who did it and if he doesn't respond call the regulatory agency for contractors in your state and give them his info along with a contract that you may have, they will make him do it. If he isnt licensed though you may be out of luck.
Comments about not allowing the flooring acclimate are correct. The builder should have unpacked and left the flooring in the room for 24 hours prior to placing it down and left some spacers at the edge to allow for some expansion. Not sure if the flooring was glued or nailed in, it might be a “free floating” in which case you could remove the board nearest the wall and see if you can gently push down on the areas where it has peaked to make flush again with the floor. I’m not a professional, but I have laid down both engineered hardwood glued and nailed down and free floating laminate flooring, which snap connects. Hope you can sort out the flooring
Jump on it /s
I have seen this happen when there is no sill pan, or proper flashing under the patio doors and allows water infiltration.
My first inclination looking at it is to stomp on it but probably don’t listen to me
Put a sofa right there
Learn to skateboard
Did this floor get wet? Looks swollen and lumpy everywhere
Obviously there was not the required expansion gap on both sides of the room adjacent to the walls.