10% 10% 10%

[highup]

..........everywhere I check, I get 10 percent readings on this floor. Friends purchased a home last year and when I came to see it back then, I suggested strongly that there could be a ventilation problem.
Here it is a year later, and I am at the home... cat sitting. Hey, the pay isn't great, but the views are.

While here, I decided to bring along my Listo meter and the floor looks the same as it always has....... no better, no worse. All but one place reads 10%, and we are talking most of this home in this same 3/4" flooring. Roughly 24 by 50 including a kitchen, bedroom, living room, dining room den. All wood construction. Part of the home is late 1800's, part is 1980's, and the issue is consistent throughout.

My guess is that the wood was not acclimated and was too dry when installed and finished. (sanded floor, not prefinished)
When I first saw this floor a year ago, the linoleum at the bathroom doorway was buckled, so I knew the wood had expanded against it. I cut a thin slice of Lino at the doorway transition to relieve the pressure.

Nothing is going to be done to fix the buckling problem, but I'm curious.
If this floor was properly acclimated, could this situation still have occurred?
The home is not heated to "normal" temperatures......... 64 seems to be where the heat is usually set at.
So basically, if the flooring had been acclimated to 10%, where it is right now, then sanded and finished, would this problem still exist?

I'm guessing it was installed during the summer, when it was a lot warmer and dryer. The home is in an area, 15 miles away from the coast and gets into the upper 70's and can be mid to upper 80's later in the summer.

Not sure what kind of wood.....maple, myrtle?

 

[Ernesto]

Whats going on underneath it is always my first question highup. if the beams and other wood down below is 10% or slightly more then what does that mean?

 

[highup]

Whats going on underneath it is always my first question highup. if the beams and other wood down below is 10% or slightly more then what does that mean?

Never checked that. The home sits 130 feet up on a hill side. The end of the house that sets on flat ground has a concrete slab with a different engineered floor glued to it. That end of the home may have been a garage at one time. No issues with that floor.
The ground slopes steeply downward on the other 3 sides of the home. The slope begins immediately at the edges of the home and just 10 feet away from the home on those three sides, the ground level is 8 to 10 feet below the floor level...............and continues sloping even steeper. The house sets on the edge of a grassy ridge.

So I'm just askin, .............if the wood floor in this home 'prefers' to live at 10%, and it had been installed at 10% , would the cupping still exist? ..............or be considerably less prominent?
I'm just askin for a wild guess, since I have no other readings to share.
The home could probably stand to have a couple more vents on the upper most side, but like I said, the ground slope away from the house is way beyond "normal" or necessary.

 

[Ernesto]

So, is there anything under the house on the other side or is the dang thing on stilts? The picture your drawing me is kinda fuzzy still.

Of course if the wood was installed on wetter subfloor it is going to cup and stay cupped unless that which is underneath dries down. Obviously it is not drying down.

So now the rules say the mills can mill at 6% to 10%. I think thats going to help in some areas where higher than usual rh is present.

 

[highup]

So, is there anything under the house on the other side or is the dang thing on stilts? The picture your drawing me is kinda fuzzy still.

Of course if the wood was installed on wetter subfloor it is going to cup and stay cupped unless that which is underneath dries down. Obviously it is not drying down.

So now the rules say the mills can mill at 6% to 10%. I think thats going to help in some areas where higher than usual rh is present.

Just read this........... gimme a few minutes and I'll draw you a crude sketch.

 

[highup]

Ok, two very quick sketches...... but you get the picture. House literally sets on the edges of a knoll..........
Water has to drain down strongly from under this house with a lay of the land.
The little box in image 2 is the deck. Lay of the property gets steep every direction away from the foundation, and the lines I drew are not overly exaggerated. Water cannot "pool" under this place, that's fer sure, fer sure.

 

[highup]

I didn't draw in the concrete foundation, the 3 tab roofing, cedar siding, or the gravel in the driveway............ sorry 'bout that.

 

[Ernesto]

I'm giving you an A- for those drawings, pretty good. So who put quarter round on that base, ugh ugh ugly!

 

[DarisMulkin]

I'm giving you an A- for those drawings, pretty good. So who put quarter round on that base, ugh ugh ugly!

Hey high, did you use an etch-a-sketch to make those drawings?

Daris

 

[Floorist]

Hey high, did you use an etch-a-sketch to make those drawings?

Daris

I think it was a new crayon.

 

[highup]

I'm giving you an A- for those drawings, pretty good. So who put quarter round on that base, ugh ugh ugly!

Are you one of those 'new age' teachers that give everyone in class an 'A' for simply showing up?

Hey high, did you use an etch-a-sketch to make those drawings?

Daris

I do better work with a camera, huh?

I think it was a new crayon.

Do me a "quick" sketch of a car and post it. You have 5 minute deadline starting from the moment you finish reading this.
........... and you have to use a mouse to draw it.

 

[highup]

So, is there anything under the house on the other side or is the dang thing on stilts? The picture your drawing me is kinda fuzzy still.

Of course if the wood was installed on wetter subfloor it is going to cup and stay cupped unless that which is underneath dries down. Obviously it is not drying down.

So now the rules say the mills can mill at 6% to 10%. I think thats going to help in some areas where higher than usual rh is present.

I was helping a friend (a hardwood flooring installer) to apply stain to a freshly sanded oak floor, and I asked him what would cause this situation. I gave him all the info I posted here.
The contractor asked my friend to go take a look at the floor and give him a bid to fix the mess.
He asked where this house was located. I said about 25 miles away in Riverton.
He laughed and told me the owner was a wood flooring contractor that had moved back to Hawaii, where he originally came from. This contractor was renting the house out, waiting for the market to improve so he could sell it.
......long story short, the house had a major water leak caused when a pipe broke and the renter was away.
So this must have happened well over a year ago, and possibly during the winter from a pipe that burst.


New question now.
Why didn't the wood shrink as it dried out? Edges are butted together tight. No gaps anywhere. I can see how the cupping would remain, but why no gaps between the boards?

 

[Ernesto]

I was helping a friend (a hardwood flooring installer) to apply stain to a freshly sanded oak floor, and I asked him what would cause this situation. I gave him all the info I posted here.
The contractor asked my friend to go take a look at the floor and give him a bid to fix the mess.
He asked where this house was located. I said about 25 miles away in Riverton.
He laughed and told me the owner was a wood flooring contractor that had moved back to Hawaii, where he originally came from. This contractor was renting the house out, waiting for the market to improve so he could sell it.
......long story short, the house had a major water leak caused when a pipe broke and the renter was away.
So this must have happened well over a year ago, and possibly during the winter from a pipe that burst.



New question now.
Why didn't the wood shrink as it dried out? Edges are butted together tight. No gaps anywhere. I can see how the cupping would remain, but why no gaps between the boards?

So maybe it was 10% and cupped before the pipe broke......dint you say it was always like that?

 

[highup]

So maybe it was 10% and cupped before the pipe broke......dint you say it was always like that?

It has always been like that since my friend purchased the house................... But it was flat when the previous owner of the home installed the wood floor.
(Wood floor installation is his trade)

So a water leak cause the cupping, and I honestly don't think the owner had the funds to get the floor fixed. He had moved back to Hawaii when the bottom fell out of the housing market a couple years ago. So he put the home for sale......... probably as is.
Living in Hawaii, he would have to paid a local wood floor specialist to redo the entire first floor of the home.