Can I Repair A Wood Floor

You've had a beautiful hardwood floor installed in your home. Merely after a while, something doesn't look right—or feel right. Maybe the floor seems "wavy" or even rippled. You may notice small, raised ridges along the edges of some of the planks in the floor.
hardwood floor cupping problems
What's happening to your previously gorgeous flooring? And can it exist stopped?

Cupping is ane of the unfortunately common issues that can plague hardwood floors. Information technology can happen to most types of wood, and it's oft the first observable sign your floor is existence afflicted by moisture.

Since wood reacts to moisture so easily, floorboards can warp as they react to the alter in their internal moisture content (MC) afterward the floor's installation. But if you lot take hold of it early and tin can address the moisture result, there is hope in getting your flooring back to normal.

Here's what you need to know.

How to fix hardwood floor cupping

Make sure yous have a reliable wood moisture meter and then you know how much the forest moisture content has risen or can identify moisture trouble areas. While several types of meters are bachelor, few allow for multiple tests in multiple areas over and over without damaging the wood. The Wagner Meters Orion® wet meter line uses electromagnetic wave frequency (EMF) to measure large areas.
Decide where the moisture is coming from. As referenced above, is the cupping compatible and seasonal? Is it confined to i surface area? Has the floor been installed recently, or could there be more moisture in your crawlspace or basement than in the living space?
Get a dehumidifier, especially if you have a basement or an area of the house that tends to exist more boiling than other areas. If y'all live in a place with humid summers, you may merely need to run it seasonally to keep your wood floors in top shape year-round. The cardinal is controlling the climate in your home, keeping it every bit consistent as possible.
Maintain your floor properly, using the right cleaning methods and products made specifically for wood floors. Always dry spills thoroughly, and routinely cheque woods floor areas effectually sinks, dishwashers, bathtubs, and other areas more likely to have leaks or spills.
After a pregnant leak or spill, especially if water or other liquids take had fourth dimension to absorb into the floor and subfloor, y'all may need to contact the professionals for high-powered drying equipment. A dehumidifier is great for humidity in the air, only moisture warped floors need a more than directly and aggressive approach to avoid lasting damage.

What does cupping look like on a hardwood floor?

what does hardwood floor cupping look like
When moisture interacts with a hardwood floor, the side of the boards closest to the moisture expands. This expansion can be in the form of cupping (the heart of the lath is lower than the edges) or crowning (the center of the lath is higher than the edges). Both situations, although dissimilar, are both due to a moisture imbalance in the boards caused by either the improver of moisture or the extraction of moisture from the floor.

Sometimes the early stages of cupping tin can be noticed when light comes in from a window and reflects onto a forest flooring. Yous can see small shadows where the edges of each floorboard are slightly higher than the middle.

Why does cupping happen?

In short, moisture. Wood, even when information technology'south treated and sealed, is still a porous, gristly fabric. It can still react with the moisture content (MC) in the air around it. Materials similar wood will balance (equilibrate) its MC with its surroundings, similar to the principle of osmosis.

So if the air is humid, the woods volition absorb more than moisture from the air and information technology will dandy. If the air is dry, forest fibers will release some of its moisture back into the air and it tin can compress back down.

It'southward about mutual for moisture to enter the floorboards from below, through the subfloor. This is why the bottom of the lath swells and makes the edges curve upward into an well-nigh wave-similar pattern.

Cupping can happen even to a flawlessly-installed wood floor, depending on the weather condition of the building and the environment. Still, several mutual situations that are known to cause cupping tin be addressed, and can even be reversed.

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What are the common causes of cupping in flooring?

Change in the amount of moisture in the air (relative humidity). If yous live in an area with boiling summers and dry winters, or even vice versa, your woods floor tin can react to the changing corporeality of humidity in the air. It expands during one season and contracts in the other.
If cupping is happening in a relatively uniform style throughout your house, and the degree of cupping is not drastic, this is probable the cause.

Subfloor wet. If there is excess moisture in the physical slab, crawl space, or basement below your wood floor, this can crusade cupping. This is particularly common with new construction if the floor is installed earlier any type of HVAC is running inside your home. It tin can too happen later if your basement or crawl space harbors more humidity in general.
Leaks or spills. Cupping due to leakage will usually be confined to areas around sinks, dishwashers, etc. If a leak is slow or small, the cupping can occur gradually and you may not observe information technology until it has gotten worse. Sudden leaks or spills can cause cupping if they aren't cleaned upwardly quickly or thoroughly, or some wet is left backside.
Improper care/cleaning. On a similar note, peculiarly when cleaning upwardly larger leaks and spills, cupping can come about if any moisture is left behind after cleanup. What'south more, unless proper cleaning techniques and supplies are used, farther impairment could outcome as well.
Improper installation. If a hardwood flooring is installed before a subfloor is properly dried, or before the floorboards attain an equilibrium moisture content (EMC), such as before the inside of a building's air is conditioned, at that place is a chance for cupping after. Every bit furniture and people begin to inhabit the surface area, it will bring about a new level of moisture and temperature to the air. Y'all want to ensure that moisture levels between the subfloor and the finished floor have reached proper EMC for the long-term. And to make absolutely sure the moisture readings are optimal for offset the installation, yous want the most accurate moisture measurement tools possible.

If cupping is discovered in an already-installed hardwood floor, can it be fixed? Does it need to be replaced?

In many cases, if cupping isn't astringent, the issue can be fixed one time the moisture issue is stock-still. Since the process of cupping is the wood reacting to moisture, if the wood'south moisture level returns to the proper equilibrium, the cupping can resolve.

Depending on the type of moisture consequence, notwithstanding, will determine how easily it tin can exist fixed or how much effort it volition accept.

Gratis Download – 4 Reasons Your Hardwood Floor Failed

What happens if cupping doesn't get fixed?

Besides the visible warping of your hardwood floorboards, the floor could fail. The cupping could continue to worsen and create gaps between the boards. If/when the relative humidity drops, the boards may not go dorsum to their original shape and can buckle away from the subfloor, or even splinter and crevice.

The large event, however, is nonetheless moisture. If the cupping in the floorboards doesn't go away, it could hateful that the underlying wet issue was not properly addressed and still needs some attention. While cupping tin remain afterwards a astringent event similar flooding, persistent cupping is worth investigating. Prolonged moisture bug tin can lead to many types of flooring failures, then information technology pays to be safe.

What Non to exercise when you observe cupping in your flooring.

One rookie mistake is to simply sand the floor down until it's level once again. But once once again, the moisture problem that acquired the cupping has not been dealt with. For example, if the cupping happened due to humidity from an especially wet summer and y'all sanded down the cupped areas, when the air dries out the woods can warp the other way, causing crowning.

Y'all also don't want to presume your floor has already failed. There is nevertheless hope! Many moisture issues can exist stock-still through household climate control, taking moisture readings throughout the house, or seeking out undetected leaks or spots where moisture could pitter-patter in from other areas.

To avoid these mistakes, there is a way to test for a alter in your home'due south ambience conditions over time. Relative humidity data loggers tin can tell you what has inverse in ambient moisture levels when it changed and for how long. This information can help you determine what actions to take with your flooring.

The Beginning affair to exercise when cupping is discovered.

If zero else, the appearance of cupping tips yous off that your hardwood floor is susceptible to moisture problems. Even before you call a professional, if you accept a reliable woods moisture meter you can use to accept multiple readings throughout your home, yous'll accept a much better idea of what kind of state of affairs you lot take on your easily.

You might be able to figure out how to remedy the situation yourself if you detect it'due south due to humidity in the air or a leak or spill. And if y'all do discover it's a serious effect, you'll have much more precise information to give the professionals and then they don't have to spend as much time (and your coin) doing detective work.

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Safeguard your cute hardwood floors with moisture measurement you can trust. Learn more than about how Wagner Meters' Orion® moisture meter line is easy to utilize while providing the nigh accurate readings available on the market.

Avoid wet related issues with an accurate wood moisture meter to examination your hardwood flooring.

Buy an Orion Meter

Jason has 20+ years' experience in sales and sales management in a spectrum of industries and has successfully launched a variety of products to the market, including the original Rapid RH® physical wet tests. He currently works with Wagner Meters as our Rapid RH® production sales manager.

Last updated on August 31st, 2022