How long for damp to affect a new wood floor

hughm

If you put a new solid wood floor down on a new concrete floor and IF the concrete was still a bit on the damp side, how long would it take for that to affect the wooden floor?

Are you talking a few weeks, months or longer?

wyndham

I would say 6-12 months, depending on other conditions like how warm the room is and whether it's on the basement,etc. Very hard to say without knowing the level of dampness, type of flooring, coverage,etc

hughm

put down 79SqM of Furlongs 150mm Solid Oak.

About 29SqM of it is in a new Sun Room at rear of house with the remaining 50SqM put down on existing Original T&G floor.

Sun Room has concrete floor, then a layer of leveling compound and they then put down a 10mm Marine Ply on top of that to raise the level to the same as the T&G as this Wooden floor is uninterrupted throughout 4 rooms, Hall, Living Room, Dining Room and Sunroom. EVerywhere else the floor is 100% but in the sunroom it is very very wavy. You can feel it underfoot. ridges where the boards meet along their length as if it is buckling. It is ony down about 1 month.

My guess is that it is too soon for damp to be an issue.
The Sunroom is open to the rest of the house in two large openings so air travels freely throughout the house. It is a south facingroom and there is a bank of windows so it is exposed to direct sunlight but the room has a solid roof albeit with 3 velux.

I had my builder who also fitter the floor out today to examine it and he suggested leaving it for a while to see if it settles. If not then he suggested maybe to remove the skirtings. He did say that if it needs to come up and be redone that he will do that without any fuss. I am therefore happy to wait a bit and see.

What do you reckon is the issue?

mad m

A friend of ours had same problem,it ended up being a small leak from their dishwasher,when it was inserted it kinked the pipe and hence a very slow leak which spread over a time then buckling the floor like you suggested.....

They ended up fixing pipe and leaving floor the way it was,you would only see it though at one angle and feel it under your feet if walked over....

ircoha

is there no dpc or similiar between the concrete and the timber floor?

I would have expected some shrinkage in the sun room, so perhaps it is a leak somewhere

hughm

No no dpc used under marine ply.

Don't suspect leak as kitchen is in an adjoinng room but it has not been tiled yet so I can see that there are no leaks.

This feels more like expansion and not shrinkage. We are not seeing gaps but ridges appearing.

I suspect that the floor may not be 100% level and that is either causing the ply sections that are nailed in to teh concrete floor to separate at the joins or the like.

Will_H

Hugh,

Basically, as you're rightly pointed out - the floor is expanding.

It's not just dampness that will affect the floor. The air temperature also does this. During the day, with the sun on the floor (and even without it), the wood heats up, and at night it cools down. The boards will contract & expand until they completly dry out themselves. Remember, wood is a living, breathing compound! With solid wood, this can take upto 2 years!

Firstly, the oak should not have been put down unless the floor had <5% of moisture in the concrete. Do you know what the level was? If the other rooms are ok, it sounds like this isn't the problem. Regardless, you can, as you have mentioned, take off the skirting and cut away the excess (it will most likely be pushing into the plasterboard, and could damage the wall). Doing this will allow the wood to expand, therby allowing the 'mounds' to fall.

Do note though, that you will always have some slight bumps, you'll never get rid of them completely!

BTW, I'm speaking from experience...we have American White Oak in sitting room, back room, hallway & main bedroom (it's a bungalow!!). The floors were all concrete, with ply glued and the boards secretly nailed to the ply. We had the exact same issue, simply where the sun was on the wood during most of the day. The installer came back and cut the skirting away which has more or less eradicated the problem.

Hope this helps!
Will

hughm

Hi Will_H,

thanks for that. I have no idea what the moisture reading was on the floor. The other rooms that have the same floor are all layed on T&G AND they do not get direct sunlight.

I will get rid of the skirting and see if the gap that was there is gone.

Thanks again.

pencil

Will_H wrote:

Hugh,

........ and could damage the wall

Dead right here!!!

My da, put down wooden floors for donkeys untill his back gave.

He recounts a story where a swelling wooden floor cracks a gable wall of a house!

If I was you I consider taking up the skirting & see how much pressure was on the wall.

hughm

Our builder siad he would do it so I will let him. He build the wall, put the floor down and fitted the skirting. If there is any damage I will let him sort it.

Thanks. I feel better that it mayt be heat swell as opposed to uneven floor surface. If the wood has not completely filled the gap that was under the skirting then I guess it is a different problem. I will let you know.