Buckled Bamboo because the home wasn't being occupied.

[highup]

The home has some really expensive lock together bamboo flooring. It's only been installed for a little over a year. The home has been for sale for most of a year, and hasn't been occupied (or heated)
Because of that, it has some serious buckling at both ends of a room/rooms. At one end is an outside wall, and at the opposite side of the house, the flooring is (was) contained by what looks to be a 12 foot wide glued and nailed bull nose molding at a wide step down.
I didn't have time to do anything today, so I told the brand new home owner to turn the heat on and leave it at 68 or so.

Before I left, I measured two spots to see how high the bucked area was. One end of the room, right next to the wall is 1 inch tall, and it's 7/8 of an inch 6 feet away along that same wall.

The home owner will be heading back to South Dakota, and will be back sometime late next week. I figured to go back down then and re-measure the height of those two buckled spots to see how much a weeks worth of heat helps the floor. I can then remove the moldings and trim the floor so it has the appropriate gap along the walls.

My question is, should I just go ahead and remove the moldings and trim the end boards to relieve tension................. or go ahead and wait a week with the heating system on just to see how much they begin to shrink and flatten by itself.
(Yes, I do know that it will need trimming even if it does shrink down enough to lay flat)
It's been buckled for months, so waiting another week won't hurt anything. Or should I go back down tomorrow and remove the base boards anyway? ...........I got nothing else to do.

I'll draw a picture for ya. I didn't measure the span end to end, or side to side. I only stopped at this place for a quick look-see then went on to my restretch. This is place is 30 minutes or so south of town.
It's a pretty wide span. One side of a house to the other I think is around 35, to 40 feet?

I was told by them that they have a couple extra boxes of planks.

 

[highup]

Here's sorta what the layout looks like. Product is named Bamboo with Cork. It's a solid strand woven bamboo construction with a micro bevel. It's a "Select a floor" from the Voyager Collection. 1/2 inch thick and approved on all grades.
The stairnose trim is literally being pushed off of the step and it looks like the plank is actually trying to go under it. Weird. The nose will certainly have to be replaced and so will the row or boards that connect to it.
At the bottom side of the drawing is where the floor has a 1 inch high buckle because there must have been no gap left between the floor and the wall when it was installed.

There are buckles showing all throughout this installation to varying degrees, tho not nearly as much as at each end. The hall and office area look fine.
Re-acclimation is gonna take quite a while me thinks, so the stairnose can't be dealt with until that time. A month maybe more? I don't have a clue. The home's new owner will definitely keep the home's temperature stable from this point forwards. It's a really cool looking floor.

 

[rugaddict]

why would it buckle with the heat off? here in new england wood shrinks in the winter---you can lose a pencil in the cracks in february and its tighter than a frogs ass in june---i know this is a floater but the same concept applies---my guess is when the heat comes on you will have a trampoline---then its on to the usual suspects---expansion gaps on the perimeter and transitions that dont allow the float---i would also check the specs but a 35 foot run without a t-moulding seems to really push the floors limitations

 

[Dan]

why would it buckle with the heat off? here in new england wood shrinks in the winter---you can lose a pencil in the cracks in february and its tighter than a frogs ass in june---i know this is a floater but the same concept applies---my guess is when the heat comes on you will have a trampoline---then its on to the usual suspects---expansion gaps on the perimeter and transitions that dont allow the float---i would also check the specs but a 35 foot run without a t-moulding seems to really push the floors limitations

As temperature rises, relative humidity falls and vice versa.

 

[highup]

As temperature rises, relative humidity falls and vice versa.

I asked the new homeowner to turn oin the heat and leave it at 68 or so for the week untill they come back over here.
They called about 6 hours after I left the home and said it looks like the buckling is even worse with the heat being on.
They have those wall mounted Cadette style wall heaters throughout the home.

If the warping is getting worse so quickly (or they are imagining that it is), could the be from the heaters blowing directly down at the floor and warming the bamboo floor surface? .............this if it's true seems temporary, and as the rest of the floor catches up, it will of course all begin to relax and start slowly shrinking.
Maybe laying a strip of aluminum foul on the floor in front of those heaters for the time being would allow the flooring to acclimate better?

Would a small home type dehumidifier help, or would it be better to just let the normal heating of the house do the work more gradually?

 

[highup]

why would it buckle with the heat off? here in new england wood shrinks in the winter---you can lose a pencil in the cracks in february and its tighter than a frogs ass in june---i know this is a floater but the same concept applies---my guess is when the heat comes on you will have a trampoline---then its on to the usual suspects---expansion gaps on the perimeter and transitions that dont allow the float---i would also check the specs but a 35 foot run without a t-moulding seems to really push the floors limitations

Humidity here in the northwest gets higher in the winter. I'm right on the coast. We don't get cold.......... certainly not like you do. 25 degrees here is rare. 38 to 44 lows and are probably more like normal for us in early February. Right now its 52 degrees and raining............. and will remain this way for the next few days, maybe a week or more.
I'll check on the 35 feet and width limitations. There is no logical place to add a T mold without it looking like crap.

 

[Ernesto]

You need a hygrometer or thermo-hygrometer. You could buy one real quick at Radio Shack that will give you a 24 hour review.

The home has some really expensive lock together bamboo flooring.

Click lock strand is the worst floor you could ever purchase and leave the HVAC off. If its a lock an fold down type install its easy to pop off the last rows. Leaving it like it is may in fact damage the locking mechanism and crush the edges, I'd at least get in there and remove some planks to relieve stress and then after it acclimates....weeks to a month cut to fit.

 

[highup]

You need a hygrometer or thermo-hygrometer. You could buy one real quick at Radio Shack that will give you a 24 hour review.



Click lock strand is the worst floor you could ever purchase and leave the HVAC off. If its a lock an fold down type install its easy to pop off the last rows. Leaving it like it is may in fact damage the locking mechanism and crush the edges, I'd at least get in there and remove some planks to relieve stress and then after it acclimates....weeks to a month cut to fit.

The floor has been buckled for months, another few days or a week won't change that. The heat is on, so it will stop growing. I wished I had time to remove moldings in a few places yesterday. I got done with my other job commitment at 6:30 and couldn't contact these people, so I headed on down the road.
I talked to the owner this morning, and before they leave today or tomorrow I asked if they could remove the trim around the kitchen's island. I asked about the kitchen............ and it was brand new most likely, about the time of the flooring installation. Hmmmmm................ were the cabinets fixed to the new flooring?????? I'll find out.
I may drive back down today to do some serious lookin'. She's gonna call me when they get back over to the house.

Product sample says glueless click. Sample edges look like they just rock into place. they oughta' come apart real easy from what I'm looking at.

 

[Dan]

They have those wall mounted Cadette style wall heaters throughout the home.

Are these propane? If so, are they vented?

 

[highup]

Are these propane? If so, are they vented?

Nope, they are the small electric ones that fit near the floor between the studs.
Measured the room.......... 41 feet by about 24 feet.

The bucking in the dining room and kitchen island had grown a lot since they turned the heaters on yesterday about noon. Wow, I was surprised. 4 rows of planks were tented across the entire 24 foot width of that area.

To relieve the tension, I cut out the sheetrock along the left and right walls at the top of the drawing. The boards were real tight against the wall. I cut 3/8 of an inch off of the plank that was butted to the post by the stairs too. I walked across the tented flooring a few times and it went flat.............. and the floor immediately moved almost 1/4 of an inch under the sheetrock. Now, as it dries out it will be interesting to see how much it recedes as it shrinks.

At the bottom of the drawing, the last 3 rows of boards were tented so bad, I used my Fein Multimaster to saw between the last two boards so I could remove one row. They have 3 1/2 boxes of leftover boards, so all is good. I placed those boxes over the buckled area in the dining room to be sure they start off flat as the heat slowly shrinks the boards over the next couple of weeks.

So the heat did make the floor tent much higher because the heat probably caused the boards to expand much faster than it takes to get the moisture back out of them............... logical, it just surprised me. I'm glad that they called to inform me about the increased tenting. I suggested that I come back down there to take a look at it and relieve the tension. I'm glad I was able to do that.

I also got a new battery for my Data logger this morning. I took it with me and set it for 11 days. It will be interesting to see how things change in that time period.
I recorded measurements from the walls to different points on the floor prior to relieving the tension so I can tell how far it moves as it drys out.
The heat was set at 67 degrees when I left and will remain that way 24/7. Humidity will probably be in the upper 50's when I revisit the place next week. That would be closer to normal. The home is 1000 feet from the pacific ocean, and it's been raining catfish and water dogs this week. 3 inches today....... that's a lot for us and it's going to continue for a couple more days at least. Humidity in the house was near 70% according to the el-cheapo thermometer/hygrometer that I bought today. Partly because we were opening and closing the doors a lot.

Here's a revised picture of the layout showing the two major tented areas and the locations of the three small wall heaters.

 

[highup]

I'll add that I think they allowed 3/8" for expansion.
...I used my Colombo instincts to figure it out.
3/8 isn't enough gap for 41 feet, but 3/8" is enough for 30 feet.
Ernesto knows his stuff when he says don't turn off the heat with this type of flooring. Much appreciated advice. I passed that info on to the new home owners.

 

[rugaddict]

my understanding of floaters is that the larger the slab---the larger an expansion gap is required----thats why there are limitations on size---a 60x60 would need at least a couple of inches---who is gonna allow crazy trim like that in their home?

 

[Ernesto]

Some of the newer strand clic now is on a HDF core so it's a little more stable than the solid strand, we'll see.

 

[highup]

my understanding of floaters is that the larger the slab---the larger an expansion gap is required----thats why there are limitations on size---a 60x60 would need at least a couple of inches---who is gonna allow crazy trim like that in their home?

Most construction by far up here is on wood framing, as is this home. The previous homeowner put a 24 by 14 addition onto the front of this home........... this addition is sort of a sun room and it's on a concrete slab. This area has no issues. This sun room faces south and is located one step down from the room that's having the issues. The sun room is located just beyond the top of drawing I made, and is where the bullnose edge leads to. It may be glued instead of floated.

Some of the newer strand clic now is on a HDF core so it's a little more stable than the solid strand, we'll see.

I was surprised that this stuff would expand at all........ It's so heavy it feels like 75% resin.

 

[highup]

On the lower half of the previous page, there is a room layout. On the upper part of the drawing is a rather wide step......... around 12 feet. I have made a handful of flush mount stair nose edges in the past that will float along with the floor.
In doing those other stair edges, I have glued the stair nose molding to the matching wood or composite floor that I am installing by means of both a spline and some sort of supporting structure that also floats, and bonds the two pieces together. None of this gets glued to the home's underlayment.
The step down here is really wide, so I'm thinking something like what's shown below.
By removing the last plank, and replacing a portion of the Floor Muffler with something thin and sturdy, like a strip of door skin, I can then glue 1/2 of the last plank to the door skin, then adhere the stair nose to it. This makes them one unit and makes the floor entirely floating.
What ya think? Hopefully this cross section of the floor makes sense.

 

[highup]

...............oh, c'mon.
Professional installers use overlapping stair nose on everything?

 

[DarisMulkin]

...............oh, c'mon.
Professional installers use overlapping stair nose on everything?

BRIGHT GOLD????

Daris

 

[highup]

BRIGHT GOLD????

Daris

I need some 4"

 

[DarisMulkin]

I need some 4"

How much do you need?? I may have it.

Daris