just how much should a new floor swell and shrink?

[mopinko]

i guess i need to put up some pics of this, but my shiny new maple floor, installed last year right about this time, has opened up quite a bit. over the summer it started swelling and cupping. now there a gaps of probably 1/16" about every third board.
i know a certain amount is to be expected. they did check the moisture content when they delivered, and it matched the existing floor. they let it sit for a few days, but...
i am avoiding contacting the guy who did the floor. i have way less than zero desire to revisit this. keeping the dogs off while the finish cures, all that. blech.
i think the finisher rushed the job, and maybe even shorted me a coat. he told me he was going to be working till 6 or 7, then it started snowing. he lived a pretty long crappy drive away. suddenly he was done at 3:30. i guess i should have bitched. i hate to bitch. i am rarely sorry that i did. but i still always hate to.
anyway- thoughts on the movement of wood floors?

[Hassin Bin Sober]

1. Do you have a whole house humidifier?

I know developers require you to maintain a set humidity or else it voids the warranty.

We learned this the hard way with my SO's place. He tried to make a claim on a similar problem with his new wood floors - The developer walked in, looked at the humidifier turned off and said "sorry"

Your problem sounds like a house moisture/dry problem. Too wet in the summer (cupping) and too dry in the winter (shrinking).

[ret5hd]

2. Heck, my wood floor was installed in 1939 , with gas floor furnaces for heating and no AC...

in the deep south, and it still doesn't have 1/16" gaps anywhere. What kinda floors are they installing nowadays?

[Hassin Bin Sober]

3. That's a good question.

A lot of modern construction problems stem from the use of "new" trees for lumber versus the old-growth stuff.

I've been thinking about replacing my 100 year old oak floor but I would have to pay a premium to get a comparable quality wood. Just by random chance, a good number of the boards in my floor are "quarter sawn" or "rift sawn" really tight straight grain. The new stuff is almost all "flat sawn" arched-grain lumber more susceptible to movement perpendicular to the grain pattern.

You see the same issues with framing lumber. The stuff they use today up here in Illinois, like newer-growth Southern Yellow Pine, isn't worth a shit for anything other than rough framing and you still run in to shrinkage problems. I know a salvager who takes down old homes and sells the old-growth Douglas Fir at a premium. People like to use it to build furniture because it's so stable.

[mopinko]

4. oh, clearly humidity at work.

no, no humidifier. hot water heat.
no developer involved here, either. house is 106 years old.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

6. I was just using the "developer" as an example of how I learned about shrinkage the hard way.

That hot water heat is tough on everything - wood and skin included.


I suspect the "character" we see in our old home floors is partly due to that very issue. I'm sitting here looking at some substantial gaps in my 100 year old floor that, over time, have taken on a patina (aka dirt) that gives them a look people are now paying extra to achieve.

[NNN0LHI]

5. I would check the humidity level in the house

Low relative humidity will do exactly what you are describing.

Don

[mopinko]

7. no doubt, but

there is really nothing that i can do about the humidity that is not a major pain in my butt. big ole house with hot water heat.