Why Is Some Hardwood Flooring Rippled

All the hardwood floors in my 1927 bungalow were refinished with 3 coats of oil based polyurethane this week.

Why is some hardwood flooring rippled.

Read about troubleshooting the causes of rippled floors. Rippling after sanding is normally caused by a drum sander that doesn t work properly. Reclaimed hardwood flooring refers to the use of planks that have already served another purpose. Floor buckling happens most often after a floor has been flooded for an extended period of time.

We recently refinished a wood floor. If the floors were installed with improper nailing schedules or the incorrect adhesive they will be loose and cause noise. It sounds like it is caused by humidity but allowed to happen because of a poor finish and a lack of sealant. Hardwood floors with significant movement or noises could be the result of several factors.

Floor buckling is the most extreme reaction to moisture in a hardwood floor. Hardwood floor is designed to stand all sorts of moisture from high humidity to low humidity. Otherwise the floor machine will simply follow the contour ripples and probably make them even more pronounced. The light reflected by the.

While i m sure it got a bit damp as it does in the summer in indiana i don t think that s the cause of the problem. My hickory 4 inch board floors were installed in december 2005 in a brand new home the boards are not laying completely flat. I noticed the waves on hardwood floor probably a month or so after installation. The floor is completely smooth but visually there appear to be ribbons in the finish.

The ripples are often not noticeable until the first coat of finish is applied. Buckling occurs when the wood flooring actually pulls up from the subfloor lifting several inches in one or more places. It re appeared the second time probably because once these ripples are in the floor you would have to initially sand on a bit of an angle to flatten the floor and remove them. They have a wavy like appearance and you can feel the waves with your hands.

After work completed we noticed areas of visual rippling i e. They re beautiful and smooth to the touch but there are many ripples cutting perpendicular to the boards that can be seen when light skips off the floor at a low angle. I think that there is some issue with the.