Damp wooden floors

Gavin "shels"

Hey,

At the moment my house is in the final stages of its 6 month renovation. New solid oak floors where layed in two downstair rooms. The floors where layed and left for 3 weeks before the fireplaces were put in the two rooms, they where layed on the Friday and then on Monday morning all the floors had lifted up off the ground due to dampness. The fireplaces were fitted by the shop my parents bought it from and they were told they only used a small amount of concrete to fit it, but when our own bulider took the heart of the fireplace out there was a huge slab of concrete. Could this just be coincidence or can anyone provide me with information so my parents can confront the fireplace firm about this, as all the floors, skirting board, door frames all have to be replaced along with the two rooms being re-painted.

Thanks in advance.

opelmanta

was the swelling just around the fire place or all around the room??
if its all around the room you may have got a serious damp problem??
also how long were the floors in the house before they were fitted as they may have been too dry and then swelled.

also if its only around the chimney you probably have damp coming down the chimney whuch often times is a specialist repair job

ircoha

OP I find it difficult to figure out how much time elapsed between 'the floors where layed' and the fireplaces being fitted.
what was 'where layed on the Friday'?

However it seems that the concrete floor was damp before the timber was layed and/or u have a serious damp problem and or a leaking rad or water pipe

Gavin "shels"

opelmanta wrote: »

was the swelling just around the fire place or all around the room??
if its all around the room you may have got a serious damp problem??
also how long were the floors in the house before they were fitted as they may have been too dry and then swelled.

also if its only around the chimney you probably have damp coming down the chimney whuch often times is a specialist repair job

No was the whole room, but most of it has gone down except in the middle of one of the rooms.
The floors were in the house about a week.

Also the whole downstairs has new foundations which are 100% correctly done.

Gavin "shels"

ircoha wrote: »

OP I find it difficult to figure out how much time elapsed between 'the floors where layed' and the fireplaces being fitted.
what was 'where layed on the Friday'?

However it seems that the concrete floor was damp before the timber was layed and/or u have a serious damp problem and or a leaking rad or water pipe

There was 3 weeks between the floors being layed and the fireplaces being fitted.

The concrete floor had been dried for 2 weeks prior to the floors going down, with also the underfloor heating being on a few times.

ircoha

Gavin shels wrote: »

There was 3 weeks between the floors being layed and the fireplaces being fitted.

The concrete floor had been dried for 2 weeks prior to the floors going down, with also the underfloor heating being on a few times.

thanks: and I assume another 3 weeks passed from then to the FP being fitted.
2 weeks not very long

Is the timber floor floating, with a membrane on concrete or was it glued on to concrete?.

Gavin "shels"

They were in my house for 2 weeks but the floors where specially ordered weathered or something for 3 months.

I don't really get what you mean by the second point. The floor is lying on wooded pieces along the concrete. So there's space underneath most of the floor (it was so the heat of the under-floor heating stays there).

opelmanta

generally your floors should be in for about a month stacked with spacers between them. But if they were dried out before by the supplier then you have a damp problem of some sort. You could try using a dehumidifier for a week or two and see if the swelling stops. Is there any obvious signs of damp around the fireplace or anywhere and how well ventilated is the room??

Mellor

Gavin shels wrote: »

I don't really get what you mean by the second point. The floor is lying on wooded pieces along the concrete. So there's space underneath most of the floor (it was so the heat of the under-floor heating stays there).

He was wondering how the wooden floor was fixed to the concrete floor. It appears to have been fixed to battens, was the floor uneven anywhere?
Just for reference, the space create between the concrete and the flloorboards won't help keep the heat in that space. And to be fair, you don't really want to.


Regrding the floor, try get an RH (reletive humidity) meter and take reading of the RH levels in various parts of the floor. This may help located the problem, just because the floor is bulging in a paticular area it doesn't mean the damp problem is there.

Gavin "shels"

Cheers for anyones advice.

Yes the floorboards are fixed to wooden battens. Not it wasn't uneven anywhere till the dampness.

I think we're now fairly certain that it was the concrete used to fit the fireplace is the problem, my parents have had three family members who are bulilders to look at it, the architect and 2 carpenters.

opelmanta

how did they decide it was the concrete out of interest??
shud the fire place not have been fitted before the floors went down???

2 stroke

I posted a quite good reply then deleted it.