Kerfing Engineered Hardwood

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Ernesto

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Jun 25, 2011
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, AZ
I posted this over in the Linkedin Floor inspectors forum and got nothing but crickets. lol And really this is pissing me off the more I install engineered so I'm spreading the word. Even my friend in LV who is a veteran hardwood installer says the same thing and is sick of having to kerf his own.

I guess no one else is having bowing issues.

Kerfing Engineered Hardwood
Ever notice that kerfing the back of engineered planks is becoming non-existant?
I see fewer and fewer manufactures cutting this method of stabilizing planks from bowing more and more off the line. I guess it costs too much.
Problem is if you try and dry down an engineered product even a couple points half the wood bows. The longer the plank the worse it is.
Try gluing that down to a slab or floating uou get a bouncy floor!

Even worse are extra thick lamella of 3mm or more seem to be even worse off as the thick veneer pulls the core off balance.

I found that extremely thick veneers made up of a 3ply plank ( even 3/4 inch 3 ply) with the same wood in the base plys are not as affected as much as multiply baltic birch. This is especially prevalent in arid zones.

So if we could require manufacturers to get back to kerfing backs that would be a blessing. Or at least get back to the basics of using the same specie for all the plys!

Signed, sick of kerfing my own.
 
I'm all for that Ern.
I have to kerf a few sometimes or they will lift out of the glue.
Even then I weight down gluedown.
I kerf with my table saw. Just set the blade so it cross cuts a third of the way.

Peace Nick. Miss ya bro. Oh yeah. Used the stair wizard the other day. Thanks again for that.
 

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