Solid oak floor - lifting!! Enough gaps left.

bluedrop

Hi all,
My flooring was laid in mid July. It was all fine until mid August. It rained heavily for a few days and One fine morning, the flooring began to lift. It's like a speed breaker along the length of the living-dining room.

The fitter came in and looked at the gaps. There was still about 1/2cm gap on all sides. He removed a few planks at the ends, parallel to the speed breaker and asked us to put weights on them. After about 3-4 days of weights, it settled down. We removed the weights and it all seemed okay for a few days. The fitter came back and fitted the planks. this time he left a bit more gap....

after a week, he came back on 13sept to release the floors and put the beading back. Unfortunately, this time too, it has been raining heavily for 3 days The same evening, we noticed that the floor began to lift again! Exactly at the same point !! I put weights on it at the moment...

I have no clue what the problem could be! It's definitely not the expansion gap. Can anyone please help me understand what's going on please?

I_have_spoken

Sounds like you have rising damp.

Leif

Yes, it sounds like damp of some kind. Wooden planks, when wet, warp, and the warp can be quite severe but you need a lot of damp for that to happen. What is beneath the flooring? How long have you lived there, and have you had any damp issues with that floor before? What was the previous flooring?

Jonesya

What is the sub-floor, so what's under the oak flooring and how was the oak flooring secured/attached to the floor below?

When you say speed breaker, do you mean several planks have lifted up from the sub-floor to form something like a speed hump? How high is the hump relative to the rest of the floor?

bluedrop

Thank for the replies. More info:

We bought the property in may. Had it fully refurbished and then moved in July. Living and dining rooms were separate before. The living room had carpets, dining room had bare floor boards. We removed the wall to make it a through lounge. And now have solid wood throughout.

The house has wooden floorboards. The flooring was laid as a floating floor, not sure how it was secured to the floor below. I saw the floor fitter use a strange looking nail machine (????) and glue in the grooves....There are no pipes etc below.

bluedrop

One more important piece of information:

If I draw a line along the speed bump, there are extenernal vents on either ends of the line....not sure if its just coincidence, but both the times, floor lifted only when it rained heavily for days....

Norman_Castle

The change in humidity will make the floor expand, hence the expansion gap. If it has been nailed down it will buckle. If it is solid oak, some planks may be changing shape due to the change in humidity. These will need replacing as it will be an annual problem.

Is there any evidence of rainwater getting in contact with the floor?

bluedrop

Norman_ wrote:

Is there any evidence of rainwater getting in contact with the floor?

Not sure. How can I check?

The floors don't look warped or wet...

cyclonebri1

As per above, you can't have a floating floor and then nail it down, the nailing defeats the object. The idea is to allow your new floor and your original floor to react independently to each other. Your fitter doesn't know what he is doing.

It's not going to move at the edges if nailed down all over, the movement will be concentrated at the centre and it will lift and later probably open up.
It should have been glued to itself and given the expansion gap the fitter was looking at, that would allow it to float.
The only way to fix it will be to relay it methinks.

olias

I agree, it sounds odd. Its either a floating floor, or a nailed floor. It can't be both? Having said that, if the floor is lifting, then it can't be nailed down at that point. Not really sure what the fitter has done.

As for the vents, they do seem to be the problem, letting localised damp air in at that point. What are they for? Are they above the level of the floor or below. If below, then they will have to stay as they are for venting and keeping airflow underfloor to prevent damp. If above, they would usually be in place to aid air circulation, but if you have double glazing with trickle vents, then you may be able to block them up. However, if you have a gas appliance in the room, you should take expert advice from a gas safe registered engineer first. Similarly, if you have a real fire or stove, then take expert advice from a HETAS engineer first.

Olias

Tall_Tone

Hi
The strange nail device would be a Porta Nail gun
http://www.porta-nails.com/
This is a standard way to mechanically fix a wood floor to Ply or Floorboards. The glue is to seal the joints.

If the the wood is swelling evenly across the whole floor this would be a humidity issue, If the problem is localized there is a leak/moisture ingress of some form. Be careful here as sometimes general expansion causes the biggest build up of pressure in the middle of the floor where it can lift, but the problem is else where.

The problem is probably to do with the air vents. Make sure they are are not blocked and that you do not have soil up to them or that something else is breaching the DMP from the outside. Paving laid above the DPM line or something.

You also mentioned that an internal wall was removed. Has this in some way breached the Damp Proof Membrane.

To check internal humidity these can be a good guide.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/GTI-Pro-Digital-LCD-Humidity-Hygrometer-Temperature-Thermometer-Indoor-Outdoor-/300912770922?pt=UK_BOI_Electrical_Test_Measurement_Equipment_ET&hash=item460fcc7f6a
But the official way is to use a box hydrometer.
http://www.f-ball.co.uk/product_detail.asp?product=Digital%20Hygrometer&catID=moisture

Most good wood flooring contractors would also have a moisture meter to measure the moisture content of the wood.
http://safeguardstore.co.uk/protimeter-timbermaster-moisture-meter-for-wood/?gclid=CKD5q8OSzbkCFdTItAodmScATw

Hope this helps.

TT