Hardwood Parquet Floor Buckles Under Humid Conitions

Question:

I HAVE HARDWOOD PARQUET FLOORS THAT ARE INSTALLED OVER A CONCREET SLAB FLOOR IN A HIGHRISE BUILDING. PART OF THE FLOOR WAS HERE WHEN I BOUGHT THIS APARTMENT AND I HAD SOME NEW FLOORING ADDED WHEN THE OLD FLOORS WERE SANDED AND REFINISHED. NOW, ALL OF A SUDDEN THE FLOOR IS POPING UP IN MANY SPOTS. WHAT WOULD CAUSE THIS AND WHAT ACTION SHOULD I TAKE TO CORRECT THIS VERY TROUBLESOME PROBLEM. THE BUILDING IS 35 YEARS OLD. HOPE THAT YOU HAVE POWER AND THAT ALL IS WELL WITH YOU.

Answer:

Dear Maurice

It is the rare case that when this hot and humid weather hits, some floor installed too tightly up to wall or baseboards will expand, meet the immovable object and the wood then will be forced to go up. Hence the bucking. In many cases too long a span of parquet without some expansion spaces will cause this also. Whenever we do repairs on parquet floor we leave little spaces in between the slats spread over the whole repair to prevent this. The spaces are filled during sanding so they are not visible. And you should have at least 1/2″ to 3/4″ of expansion space at the walls, covered by molding.

This is especially important when two previous rooms are being joined for the first time. The installer has to allow for both floors to expand into each other. But in you case, the best thing to do right now is to check for any water leaks (you mentioned none, but make sure) And turn the AC on to about 70F. If you were in the middle of the blackout your neighbors might frown on this but this combined with some big industrial fans blowing on the buckled area, and windows open 2 inches will dry out the floor quite well, and quickly.

You should find that overnight the hump has gone down, but we will still have to talk about repairs (the wood has loosened off the glue) and I have info about easy repair kits and the like, that should prevent you from having to remove any parquet. But let’s see first if you can get the wood to settle down.