Wooden floors bowing

wexford12

Hi i'm looking after a friends house while they are away they have been away for a few months now and all the heating,elec,water etc has been turned off and system drained. I went over today and the wooden floors are bowing up beside the doors and side of the walls.Not sure what to do should the windows be left on vent to let air in or is it a case the house is to cold. Any ideas would be great

superchip

id say its just too much moisture in the air,there is not a lot you can do without elec or heating unless you want to take off skirtings and cut 5mm clearance all around floor

slowburner

wexford12 wrote: »

Hi i'm looking after a friends house while they are away they have been away for a few months now and all the heating,elec,water etc has been turned off and system drained. I went over today and the wooden floors are bowing up beside the doors and side of the walls.Not sure what to do should the windows be left on vent to let air in or is it a case the house is to cold. Any ideas would be great

Sounds like there is a problem with excessive humidity. Normally the heating would prevent this but because the heating has been off the humidity has been allowed to penetrate the boards causing them to expand - as they expand they have nowhere to go, so they bow. Humidity would be greatest at the walls and doors and it has been an exceptionally humid few weeks.
Best thing is to get the heat on on a medium heat for a couple of days. As they dry, they should settle back if the bowing is not too serious.
I presume they are solid boards?

North West

Hi Wexford
It sounds like there was not an adequate expansion gap left when floor was installed. The floor is expanding due to humidity levels and needs to expand.
Boards will always expand mostly on the width of the board. Take off skirting at one end of room and see if the floor is at wall. If it is measure length of the room on the board width side. What ever your board width is multiply it by 3mm and that is the proper width expansion should be left at both ends of room. You will then have to cut boards at wall to leave expansion allowance.
NW

martin46585

A couple of portable oil filled radiators would restore a more normal level of humidity, some thing more similar to that of a normal house, so the floor will return to it's original state,
best not to do any thing too drastic, like removing skirting or cutting boards, as when normal play resumes, the skirting will no longer cover the gap between floor and wall,
floors especially solid boards, don't react well to excessive changes in humidity such as in this case...........

slowburner

martin46585 wrote: »

A couple of portable oil filled radiators would restore a more normal level of humidity, some thing more similar to that of a normal house, so the floor will return to it's original state,
best not to do any thing too drastic, like removing skirting or cutting boards, as when normal play resumes, the skirting will no longer cover the gap between floor and wall,
floors especially solid boards, don't react well to excessive changes in humidity such as in this case...........

+1

superchip

if you cut a 5mm gap around the floor you will still have 9mm cover on your skirting. thats on both sides..so that makes it 18mm of cover.your floor wont contract this much over an average size room.a heater or dehumidifier obviously would be great if you had electricity