Warped - Solid maple floor on underlay

[JamesBlonde]

Help / advice needed!!!

We have a solid maple floor on adhesive foam underlay which has been down for approaching 2 years without any problems at all. Its a long room, and these were (logically) laid widthways across the room.

We came home yesterday to find that the floor has warped in the middle of the living room, across half its width, next to the fireplace.

Obviously expansion gaps were left round the edges of the room, but these are now under skirting so I can't see whether these have closed or been effective or not - however the expansion gap round the hearth is still visible, although to be fair, its on the long wall in the room, meaning the planks would have to expand lengthways.

I can't see any evidence of damp, there has been no spillage and as I said, its been fine for 2 years. The only explanation I can think of is that, due to the weather, the temperature and humidity in the room has shot up in a very short space of time causing the wood to expand, and the floor to buckle.

When the temperature and humidity return to normal, should the floor do the same? Or do I have a wider problem??

 

[big-all]

is it a floating floor if so did you put anything in the gap?? all expansion gaps must be empty to be effective

 

[JamesBlonde]

It is effectively a floating floor, yes, and nothing has been placed into the gaps

 

[big-all]

you say the expansion gap around the hearth is visible is it not covered can to place a pencil in the gap all the way round?

 

[JamesBlonde]

Yup, still loads of space all around the hearth - enough to get a fair few pencils in! Well, 2 anyway...

you can see the gap here (and around the rest of the room in fact) when the floor was laid 2 years ago. The gap round the hearth is probably the same as in this pic!:

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• JamesBlonde
• 30 Sep 2011
• 1

Here is another image to give an idea of scale:

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• JamesBlonde
• 30 Sep 2011
• 1

The room is probably 6m long, you can see the chimney breast on the left in both pics, and the bulge is approximately 8 boards wide, and extends out to the right of the TV unit in that second pic.

 

[big-all]

have you had plastering done??

is the expansion problem in the area where the boards are stacked ??

you do realise that any weight will pinch the floor and stop expansion

 

[JamesBlonde]

No plastering done, no.

Those photos are 2 years old - not recent, so there is nothing stacked, and only the furniture remains. I just posted them to give an idea on layout, fitting, and size of expansion gaps.

However the floor has bulged upwards / lifted literally in front of the fireplace, across 8 planks, bot not across the full width of the room - I would imagine the architrave at the doorstep is keeping the floor down at the patio doors to the right.

 

[big-all]

a floor will not tent if it has free expansion room
in the area where the problem is check the flooring hasn't come out the groove and clipped onto the trim /skirting
how is the the expansion gap covered if its a moulding how is it fixed and to what

 

[JamesBlonde]

I'll have a look round the top and bottom edges of the room - width wise there isn't a problem, its only length wise. The expansion gap is covered by skirting board, fixed with (I think) glue, and maybe the occasional nail.

I guess the question is, should it return to normal once its had time to settle, and when the temp / humidity drop next week?

 

[crazydaze]

Your floor should'nt do this if it has been fitted with enough expansion gap and there are no moisture issues under the floor.

I think the guy's here are saying that the floor is very likely pinching somewhere as a result of over expansion, heavy furniture or possibly moisturein the subfloor/under the flooring affecting the floor in some way.

 

[JamesBlonde]

I do appreciate what everyone is saying, really! and I'm really not in denial about it Can I just sanity check what I've done / what I'm doing?

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• JamesBlonde
• 2 Oct 2011
• 1

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• JamesBlonde
• 2 Oct 2011
• 1

This is a plan of the rooms with the floor. It transitions between the main room and the study through the door.

There are no signs of damp, and no history or accidents / recent decorating to suggest it. However we are having a new fireplace fitted next week, and will be getting some plastering done, so obviously this couldn't have happened at a worse time.

The warped area is marked in pink around the fireplace - and it probably extends in that kind of pattern. The fireplace is the only part of the room without any kind of fixed skirting - there was a loose wood shround covering the expansion gap. Opposite the fireplace is the patio doors, with a step, and the transition has beading glued on, so I can't remove this, however there is no evidence of expansion around it.

We've put slabs (the new hearth) on the bulge to flatten it and push the floor back down to see if we can find where its stressed.

I've removed the skirting at each end of the room (and on any small walls, such as around the fireplace, etc) to check the expansion gap. Where the lines are green, the expansion gap was clear, and at least 15mm wide.

Where the expansion gap is red, it had closed up. I've now chiseled out to create approx 10mm expansion gap.

I haven't taken the skirting board off the study wall yet - I'm guessing that as the expansion gap around the door was still clear, it would suggest it hasn't expanded too far into this room, if at all.


I can't picture how a floor pushing into the 2 top corners would create a bulge on the opposite wall in the middle of the floor, so feel like I'm missing something, however the expansion gaps in green are completely clear.

Any thoughts? Have I done the right thing so far? anything else I could do?

Thanks guys!

 

[big-all]

I can't picture how a floor pushing into the 2 top corners would create a bulge on the opposite wall in the middle of the floor, so feel like I'm missing something, however the expansion gaps in green are completely clear.

Any thoughts? Have I done the right thing so far? anything else I could do?

Thanks guys!

it can only cause a problem between 2 or more pinch points
is the flooring glued together ??

 

[JamesBlonde]

Nope, its all dry fitted as far as I know, although the slight step to the patio doors is glued and I *think* the 2 planks into the back door have been glued

 

[JohnD]

Is it laid on a concrete floor, and might there be a pipe under it?

 

[JamesBlonde]

It is on a concrete floor, and there is a DPM underneath the foam underlay.

I don't know about a pipe to be honest, although I wouldn't have thought so if I think about it logically - the radiators are on the outer walls, and all have visible pipework running upwards into the ceiling void. Bathrooms are on the street side of the house, so all waste pipework runs on the outside of the house.