What Is Hardwood Floor Cupping

Whenever there is too much moisture the wood expands.

What is hardwood floor cupping.

Flooring that is installed before the structure is fully enclosed may cup. Cupping means that the wood that is raised on the edges of each individual floor board. The cupping is due to some type of moisture imbalance in the wood flooring itself. This imbalance could either be moisture from the concrete environmental conditions in the space being to dry and drying out the top of the wood and or a wood floor that wasn t properly acclimated to the environment prior to installation.

When the moisture increases the wood swells and then when it decreases the wood shrinks. The wood flooring subsequently crowned when it dried out and had to be replaced even though it was a new floor. Wood flooring that is installed prior to the hvac system being installed may result in wood floor cupping. Wood is hygroscopic so it gains or loses moisture in your home seasonally.

But what is hardwood floor cupping. It s surprising how quickly some people can point out a hardwood floor that is not flat and if you. Creating cupping below is a solid board that started at a normal moisture content 8. 5 tips to prevent hardwood floor cupping this summer.

The center of the board dips below the edges. How to fix cupped hardwood floors. Homeowners take pride in their wood floors. How our 950 moisture meter works is it has a hygrometer built in to read temp humidity and calculates your the emc equilibrium moisture content of what your wood floor.

Any wood floor can suffer from cupping. How to fix cupped hardwood flooring. It refers to a state when the individual wood planks appear to be higher on the edges as compared to the center of the board forming the shape of a cup. Failure to properly performing testing of concrete or wood substrate prior to installation of the hardwood.

The planks that make up wood flooring expand and contract based on the amount of moisture in the room. This makes the wood appear to be in a u shape. The simplest way to think of wood floor cupping is to imagine the edges of each plank sticking up higher than the centers. Cupping dry or wet wood floors can be caused by humidity lack of humidity temp water.

Cupping is a result of the changes in moisture in the room. If you imagine a picture of a child drawing a boat in the water then the water will give you a good idea of what a cupped floor looks like.