Local client came to me before Christmas and I found out she had an insurance claim , had solid wooden floor down for 16 months and then it just popped up, she then had the insurance company replace it with another solid, before he finished it she stopped it and got me involved, it's always awkward doing these as you never find out the true facts! Can't really blame the last guy as he was laying a wide board that wasn't milled that good, sizes were 2 to 3mm different on headers, he should of either stopped or selected the boards to match, he ended up with 5mm gap on the length joints, It was a half wood , half concrete and he hadn't latexed it very well, had a 10mm gap under the boards. It would have come up as they hadn't done anything about the damp, it only happens when it gets very wet in the garden like the water table rises , or that is what I am surmising from the information I have been given. As I said its one of those that are trouble before you start, so she had to phone me three times to get me to visit,lol I always find out the problem why the product failed in the first place then build the spec, this had to be belt and braces, My gut feeling was that the concrete section which was an extension in the 80s was the problem, typical builder that leaves the brickwork below the outside DPM, so they put a thin plastic DPM under the screed, but not on the bricks, So decided on large section of screed was crumbling and needed replacing, all loose sections taken out, PVC DPM fill with quick drying ardex A35 cement with sand, , cover all with F76 DPM and then prime neat p121 latex with ball300 and 9mm ply to floorboards, next week we will fully adhere wide board Boen with Schonox adhesive , But that's the easy stuff, subfloor prep came out really well, if you have a flat floor its easier to give the client a good job.see pictures Will send the pictures of the boards and also the finished article when it's completed.
no the insurance are so fed up after using their own person that they have told her to do it herself and have paid the full amount these are the pictures of the work done by them.
looks like cheap crap wood and a bad installer, would have been cheaper doing it right in the first place
Well the job I didn't want I wish I didn't do!!! We hadn't put the skirtings on as we were waiting for her to get the kitchen fitted, so we left it for a couple of months, got a phone call from her a couple of weeks ago saying the boards are cupping, went to look at it today with the insurance company, Yes they are cupping, but not just on the concrete its on the wood section, took some readings of the wood and its between 9 to 12% So not excessive, I did everything to stop any movement, new 35 screed, all concrete/ screed DPM with F76 Primed, latexed, water resistant syleyhane adhesive coated on the new 9 mm ply and portanailed So all the floorboards were ply the Boen oak stuck to the floor, adhesive on back of boards and nailed, concrete adhesive on floor and back of board, but it has still cupped I told them all it could have only got bigger by absorbing moisture either from cleaning, moisture in the room, she hasn't had any heating on so I advised her to do that and hopefully that would help it dry out, I then said that it wouldn't make the cupping go completely and would probably need to be sanded and oiled again, she was saying that because it didn't get another coat of oil that was the problem, in the end I said I don't know why it has gone and I couldn't understand why this had gone or the floor previously had gone, they said it was cut in two tight but I said it must of expanded, I didn't see it so I couldn't comment , after 2 hours the insurance guy went! I even offered to walk away and give them £6000 back, I was just about to go after another hour going around in circles, I thought I would just look in the downstairs cupboard under the stairs, put the wood tester on the floorboards and they were 23% the ply was 16% and the oak was 11% She then tells me that they had a flood in the upstairs bathroom and they had a leak behind the shower tiles She couldn't remember when it was or how long it leaked ,but I had asked her about 5 times could she have a pipe leaking under the floor, She said it was only in the cupboard !!! So what I think it is now is the water has got into the earth or slab below, when the wood was laid its sealed it in, changes in temperatures have caused condensation on the underneath of the floorboards and this moisture is gradually transferring into the floorboards, then ply then the solid oak, Have any of you had this before with cupping solid wood on floorboards? After another hour I decide I had to go, 4 hours trying to help a customer , why o why didn't she tell me at the beginning that they had a flood even if it was a year or two years ago, Why do I bother with domestic Had such a great week last week, got two massive jobs the large 18,000 m2 and the next day 3,000 of beech strip wood with 2000 m2 sanding as well on the same job
Did you take a reading of the floorboards before installing the ply/wood flooring? I've seen the opposite....solid oak shrink big time when nailed over floor boards.
No I took a reading of the concrete 75 rh and put the DPM on this , didn't think that the floorboards would be damp and I don't think they would have been high as when we laid it in July it was very hot, I think the problem has been caused by no heating in the house and different temperatures between the area above the wood and temperature below the floorboard, creating condensation on the underneath of the floorboard, Which then is gradually transferring into the wood , normally you would expect it to shrink not expand on the wood areas as you have said merit,
Nasty mate, especially when you do o much to prevent anything like that happening. I suppose the only consolation is if you do lose money on it, you have picked up some nice jobs to swallow it.
