Causes Of Cupping In Hardwood Floors

Unlike solid wood engineered wood floor cupping often occurs when the moisture content of the flooring is lowered.

Causes of cupping in hardwood floors. Cupping in hardwood floors is caused by a change in moisture levels in the. This causes a difference in moisture content between the face and the back of the board with related expansion of the back. It ends up looking a little like an accordion. The first prefinished engineered floor in the home had cupped.

Moisture primarily is the main cause of buckling. If the floor board looks concaved you have cupped hardwood floors. Think of it like placing a small strip of water onto a small drop of water the paper will curl up and away from the water. Yet the same problem happened with the new floor.

The same thing happens to wood flooring. This is referred to as dry cupping wood floor cupping and product quality. Wood floor cupping can occur with any width board though the cupped appearance will often be greater with a wide plank due to its wider width. The simplest way to think of wood floor cupping is to imagine the edges of each plank sticking up higher than the centers.

The first thing you must do when you notice a cupped floor is to identify the source of moisture. The original floor was ripped out and a vapor retarder and new floor were installed. Here are four ways to reverse cupped hardwood floors. 1 the most common cause of cupping is a direct result of job site moisture conditions.

For example we were called to do an inspection in colorado springs colo on a prefinished engineered product. Excessive job site moisture. The cupping is due to some type of moisture imbalance in the wood flooring itself. The good news is that hardwood floor cupping can be reversed setting the planks back to their original condition.

Causes of wood floor cupping. The main reasons for moisture build up include. What causes hardwood floors to cup. 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.

Cupping occurs in solid wood flooring as a result of an elevated mc in the bottom of the flooring compared with the mc of the face. The back or bottom of the flooring expands and is wider than the top. Cupping is the result. 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.

The general effect is easy to demonstrate by putting a small strip of paper onto a small drop of water. Causes of buckled hardwood floors. Any wood floor can suffer from cupping. This can happen after the wood floor suddenly gets flooded with large amounts of water and when moisture content builds up over time.