I had a Bruce Engineered Hardwood Floor installed about 1.5 years ago with the glue down method.

About a year ago, I noticed that one plank was buckling -- it seemed to have become unglued from the concrete subfloor. Since then, that spot has grown to 2 -3 unglued planks and another plank about 6 feet away is also buckling.

The buckling planks are not located near windows or any other obvious sources of moisture. However, when I was preparing the subfloor in another part of my house to install a tile floor a couple weeks ago, I noticed some spots with a small amount of condensation. I live in Las Vegas, which gets about 4 inches of rain per year. The first plank buckled after I was out of the house for a week last July and had the thermostat turned up to 85 degrees.

I'm not sure if moisture is the culprit or if the buckling is due to expanding/contracting of the planks or some other reason. Any thoughts?

Considering the information above, what is the best way to proceed with fixing the floor? Bruce sells a kit that allows you to inject adhesive directly under the plank. Has anyone had success with such a kit? Or is it better to remove the planks and reglue them.

Thanks.

 

You can try the drill and inject method.

Dew point is a bad thing with wood. It makes wood gain moisture.

With your house closed up and the HVAC unit not pulling the moisture from the air, it causes a Greenhouse Effect" It creates a lot of moisture in the atmosphere of the interior.

With wood floors, you need to maintain a pretty constant temperature and humidity.



Are the planks just loose, or are they actually tented off the floor?

 

Thanks for the reply.

I wouldn't say they the planks are tented. You can't see the seperation, but when you walk on them, your foot pushes them against the floor (sometimes they make a 'snap' noise when they go back). You can tell there's a hollow space between the planks and floor -- it's probably about 1 or 2 cm at most.

 

Oh, I see. The installers didn't do enough or any floor prep to flatten your substrate to specifications..

Yes, inject it!! Dri-tac, makes one of the best injection glues and kits made.


This won't help if the boards are actually delaminating in the cross-ply layers.