Hi

I am new to the forums.

I have engineered wood installed by my previous owner (he installed it himself). It is Bruce pre-finished wood glued using Bostik glue over ceramic tiles. I have severe bumps about a foot wide (short side of the planks) and 5 feet long in three rooms in the house. This happend about two weeks after I moved in when the tempratures hit 80's (Boston areas can get quite cold during winter). I have been told that it is because the wood is expanding due to moisture (there was no moisture test done or any barrier used). I have had two contractors look at it and both of them told me that it cannot be repaired and it needs to be done over.

Amateurs, however, tell me a different story. They say that I can pull out the molding from the sides and cut an inch or more from the sides to give it more room to expand. Then I can put a shoe molding after the original molding to cover that extra area. I have never done this kind of thing and I am worried I would ruin it even more. I also found out about the repair kits from this website and I will look into that.

Does anyone here have any advice for me for the short term?

Thanks in advance.

ENGENEERED FLOORS ARE DESIGNED TO BE INSTALLLED IN HIGHER MOISTURE SITUATIONS SO I THINK THERE IS SOMETHING MORE TO IT HERE THAN MOISTURE ALONE. TAKING THE BASE OFF AND CUTTING THE PERIMITER OF THE ROOM MAY BE A WASTE OF TIME, MY GUESS IS THAT IT HAS ROOM TO MOVE ALREADY. JUST TAKE THE BASE OR SHOE OF AND HAVE A LOOK. IF IT IS TIGHT THAN YES IT MIGHT HELP RELIVE SOME PRESSURE. WHAT I WOULD CONSIDER IS PULLING THE PLANKS OUT AND SEE WHAT IS GOING ON UNDERNETH. hAS ANYONE TESTED FOR MOISTURE? THAT OF COURSE WOULD BE STEP ONE. PUTTING WOOD OVER CERAMIC TILES IS A LIITLE SCARY ALLTOGTHER IF YOU ASK ME THE TILE SHOULD HAVE BEEN TAKING OUT PRIOR TO THE WOOD INSTALL.

Sounds like the floor acclimated after installation. Your amateur friends may be right.

If an expansion space was left in the first place, the glue would shear off the floor, if it swelled to take up the expansion gap.

It takes a lot of moisture to cup an engineered.

Is this a wide plank engineered or a 3" wide or smaller strip floor?

I have installed glue down over ceramic 4 times now, without a problem, but I did check moisture vapors. Bruce has it in there approved substrate requirements, as OK.


Moisture is woods only real enemy.

It is 3" wide plank.

No moisture test was done. The owner says he never noticed any moisture problems, however, my experience is that the whole house has more humidity than the previous places I lived in. I have got new gutters installed to keep water away from the foundation (concrete slab). I have also installed a new exhaust fan in the bathroom. It has helped with the humidity levels IMO. I also had a de-humidifier for a few days but that did not make the floor go down. On the other hand it dried up in the cupped position in one place and has become kind of brittle.

Today I will try and take out the molding to see if there is room for expansion. If not, I will think about renting a saw and sawing off from sides.

I took the baseboard molding out and found out that there is about 1/4 inch expansion room available at the edges. So it cannot be fixed by cutting out the edges as my friends told me.

The next option is to get the glue injection kit (aka repair kit) and I was working on that today. However, after I got home, I noticed that not only the popping is worse today (hot and humid) but when I press it down, it starts popping up in another place close by. So, I am pretty sure that glue injection will not fix anything. I need some way to keep the humidity low. Maybe central AC?

Now I feel completely out of ideas (and depressed).

This guy in Home Depot told me rip it all out and install DuPont as a floating install. He showed me how easy it was to snap together some boards and install it myself. And by a rough estimate he said the cost would be about 2 grand for a 1000 sq ft. I am just not sure that I want to bring down the value of my house by ripping out wood and putting in fake pergo flooring.

Is it possible to re-use this wood and add some more (for a few damaged boards) and install it right and do all this on a shoe string budget?

If you have no way to control the humidity, your just waving at a sailing ship!!

Wood should have never been placed in the home, until now. When it has gained the most moisture it will see in the yearly seasons.

It is better to shrink and have gaps during the winter, then to swell in the summer and buckle off the floor, as your floor is.

Thanks floorguy. In fact this idea occurred to me this morning that if I chisel out the planks that are popping and put in new planks in their place, I would not be able to fit in as many. So that *should* fix my problem during the summer (at least). The repair kit is a waste of time as it will only shift the problem to another area.

The only doubt I had was what would happen during winter when the wood contracts. I guess you provided the answer that I would have more gaps and I think I can live with that unless it distorts the wood in some other ways and makes the floor look terrible. I can live with imperfect. I cannot live with ugly deformed floor.

So can others confirm that if I fix it in the hot and humid season by putting less wood than there currently is (and I cannot put as much even if I try) I will not have some weird issue when the wood contracts in winter? Based on your answers, I will probably buy more wood and bring out the chisel and hammer this weekend.

Thanks in advance.

if you plan on tearing out a few swollen planks you will have to shave/rip the new peices to fit. And yes come long dry winter you will see some gaps but that to me iss a lot better than a bukled floor. Get a dehumidifier and run the a/c on 70 for a few weeks first . It is opossible it will heal itself.

I just found out that the wood is actually not engineered wood at all. I just spoke to the manufacturer and they said that the item number and the description all say that the product is actually solid wood.

I guess the bad news never ends.

It is 5/16" x 2-1/4" solid wood and I do not have any Central AC. I will probably still try to repair it myself and will work on getting the central AC in a few weeks.

Is that a good plan?

Solid wood over concrete is always a failure, just waiting to happen.

No matter what you do, you will never completely fix it, unless you tear it all out and do it right.

Maybe right before you sell the house, like the guy did to you!


Let me guess, Bruce: Natural Reflections. Gluedown to concrete.

According to William Mear, Bostiks, will warranty the moisture issue... But only for William, so the rest of us are SOL

Please understand the "moisture warranty". The warranty covers de-bonding due to normal concrete moisture..
Read the warranty.