Hardwood Floor Separating In Winter

Yes it can still have gaps.

Hardwood floor separating in winter.

Often it s a floor owner concerned with new hardwood floors separating or gapping. When to be concerned about the gaps in your hardwood floor. And then you could refinish over top of that. Floor buckling is the most extreme reaction to moisture in a hardwood floor.

I have a new home with oak hardwood floors. But to answer a common question. During winter months complaints usually start trickling in. If the gaps are particularly large you can also fill them with jute j u t e jute type of rope.

So a humidifier can help with a hardwood floor separating in winter. Buckling occurs when the wood flooring actually pulls up from the subfloor lifting several inches in one or more places. Gapping in engineered hardwood can be due to many factors including but not limited to the material s manufacturing changes in humidity and the type and quality of the installation. How to fix separating hardwood floors.

Thankfully for most hardwood floors the answer is no. Dear martin summer time installation in hot. Scratches from snow melting materials and flooring gaps are some of the biggest problems that people with hardwood floors have to worry about. The floor behaves that way because of wood s relationship with moisture in the air there s no accounting for how the customers behave although educating them about gaps.

During the winter even the most carefully installed wood floors tend to dry out and shrink. We can hear nails pop. This is especially noticeable with site finished floors whose final appearance after. They weren t there in the summer solid 3 4 hardwoods will expand and contract with seasonal changes in moisture.

Engineered hardwood flooring is designed to minimize gaps due to expansion and contraction of the wood. The winter months bring holiday cheer. Almost every wood floor will show some separation between boards particularly in the winter months when homes are heated and the air is dry. Rob robillard rob robillard globe correspondent february 26 2017 12 00 am q.

Ask the expert home improvement. Gapping and associated noises in hardwood flooring usually occurs when the flooring dries significantly from its summertime higher moisture levels. But in most areas winter also means cold weather snow and damage to wood floors. Customers begin to notice gaps between boards and the phone calls begin.

Wood is a natural product that reacts to the environment it s in. Many times a seasonal gap one in which you can fit a dime will close back up in higher humidity. So to reduce winter gapping reduce the annual range of moisture levels. The floor was put down in august and started to separate in december.

Is this normal or was the installation defective.