Help- Real Wood Floor lifting

[Skunk]

After fitting a couple of laminate floors I thought I was pretty good. So when putting in a new kitchen the missus decided she wanted a real wood floor I didn't think it would be a problem.

I fitted it pretty much the same as with the laminate but did not realise just how much these floors can expand. I admit I was a bit lazy with the expansion gap in places such as round the door but generally it is 1/2 inch or more all over. I had never experienced a problem before so was maybe a bit complacent.

So 6 months down the line the floor in lifting in several places. The way I have put the units in means taking the floor up again would be a massive job. I have considered using screws to fix the floor to the concrete base but am worried that if I fix the floor in one area it will just pop up in another (vision of floor full of screw holes)

Anyone got any tips or advice to correct my poor workmanship. Would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[WoodYouLike]

First try 'easing' the floor around the doorposts i.e. lifting beading/scotia/skirtingboards to see if the floor has filled the expansion gap there.
If so, you can remove a bit of the floor there (chissel if you don't have a plunge saw) and see what happens.

 

[2scoops0406]

WYL advice certainly matches my experience, I didn't leave a big enough gap on our solid maple floor, I fixed it by prying off the skirting boards and chiseling out about 1/2 an inch of wood, a real pain, but it sorted the problem.

I don't know if I'm right in saying this but I think real wood floors move a lot more than either laminate or wood engineered floors, WYL, will be able to give you a definitive answer to this.

 

[Skunk]

Thanks for the help guys, I took some skirting up and there is a part of the floor that has filled the gap so i'll try chieseling it. Hopefully that will fix it, although I have this feeling that the part I need to cut is nice and snug under a kitchen unit.

I would be interested to know what you think about screwing the floor down in places. Would this create more problems than it would solve?

Ah the joy of DIY.

 

[2scoops0406]

I would be interested to know what you think about screwing the floor down in places. Would this create more problems than it would solve?

Yes

 

[big-all]

I would be interested to know what you think about screwing the floor down in places. Would this create more problems than it would solve?

Ah the joy of DIY.

don't under any circumstances nail or sccrew the hump will just move and eventualy youll have no where to go

it can be even worse on laminate floors if you try an "nail" out expansion what you may finnish up with is the board still expand but because the boards are nailed tight and cant lift to releive the expansion the edges will lift slightly and the top surface will be worn away causing the board to show through
and sometimes the edge will turn flakey and little chips will be dislodged

 

[WoodYouLike]

Rule of thumb with most solid floors (Oak is most common, but also Maple doesn't differ much from this):

solid Oak can expand 3mm per meter wide (in average conditions during normal season changes, not when there is a flood, leak etc), meaning that you have to allow 3mm expansion gap per meter wide of the room with a minimum of 10mm. That's also the reason why we advice when replacing skirtingboard to install 18 -20mm thick skirtings, this also allows shrinkage without creating a large gap between skirtingboards and shrunken wood floor (wood works both ways )
Solid Beech can expand/shrink 7mm per meter wide!

The way proper wood-engineered is constructed (cross-backing of either two layers pine or multi layers of ply) restricts the natural movement of the solid wood, hence less expansion (or shrinkage for that matter), but once again in normal circumstances. Wood-Engineered board can shrink when the air-humidity is very low (or on top of underfloor heating that is not used properly).

end of lesson 1

 

[Skunk]

don't under any circumstances nail or sccrew the hump will just move and eventualy youll have no where to go

Point taken Actually this was advice I had from a chippy I know (glad I didn't get him in to help now)

Thanks again for the advice. Im going to remove the unit and get the damn expansion done properly. Should only take an afternoon if all goes well (which it never does). And on the bright side it gives me an excuse to buy some better chisels.