Wood responds to changes in temperature or humidity by warping and that can be bad news for your hardwood floor.
What hardwood floor warp.
Warping and cupping are the two main types of floor damage and each cause varying degrees of deterioration.
Picture a typical wooden floor plank.
Dust and sweep your floors daily.
Depending on where the damage is located you should be able to pinpoint likely suspects.
Homeowners will even question the craftsmanship of the wood floor installer when they see warped floorboards.
Inferior sub floor insufficient glue improper nailing do also result in hardwood floor warping.
Typically moisture is the culprit that causes wooden floors to warp.
If when the relative humidity drops the boards may not go back to their original shape and can buckle away from the subfloor or even splinter and crack.
Warped wood floors in your home may feel like an almost unfixable issue but luckily there are ways to straighten out these areas so that they look as good as new.
Hardwood floors don t start warping because of a few spills here and there.
The first called cupping is when the sides of the floorboards curl upward creating gaps between the floorboards.
How to straighten a warped floor.
Besides the visible warping of your hardwood floorboards the floor could fail.
Often when people have moisture in their wood floors they do not know the cause of damage.
Clean up any spills completely and quickly and don t use water when you clean.
What causes warped wooden floors.
It impacts all types of wood floors brand new to very old.
Signs of buckling hardwood floor.
The cupping could continue to worsen and create gaps between the boards.
This occurs when the flooring swells up pushing the sides against each other and forcing them upwards.
This unlike other cause happen within days after installation.
Humidity fluctuations are a big contributor to warped hardwood floors.
It can be a nightmare for a proud and happy homeowner.
How to care for hardwood floors to avoid cupping and buckling.
Hardwood floors with all its allure and style require a certain amount of care and maintenance.
Too much moisture or water accumulation can lead to hardwood warping buckling cupping and crowning.
You re looking for a constant source of moisture creeping into the wood over a long period of time.
The most important thing to remember about caring for your wood floor is to keep moisture away from it.
There are several different types of warping that hardwood floors can face.
Vacuum and mop with a spray hardwood floor cleaner weekly.
Lifting up or actual pull up from the sub floor can be a green light for buckling damage.
Water as with just about any household issue is almost always the cause of hardwood floor warping.
Cupping also known as wash boarding is the milder form of floor damage.