Credit: Forte Flooring, Emma and Red Deer
Living in the UK, wooden flooring is the best choice to re-decorate the home due to its natural texture and comfort. Although, this type of flooring comes with some problems like creaking noises made when walking on the wooden floor.
But have you seen or heard of this phenomenon, where parts of the wooden floor would be slightly tilting and bulging up? Today we will use composite wood flooring to analyse the causes behind this. And we will also be providing some solutions to solve this problem.
Credit: Julia Filirovska on Pexels
The two main explanations for the wooden floor to slightly bulge up are:
1. UK Climate
The UK is in the west of Europe and the east coast of the Atlantic Ocean. So, London is affected by the warm North Atlantic current and westerly winds. And this causes to have a temperate maritime climate with minor temperature differences between the four seasons.
When it is summer, the weather is cool. As for the winter, it is warm because the air is humid. So the weather is either rainy or foggy, and these continuous weather conditions cause the humidity to be relatively high. The moisture in the air is absorbed by the wood floor and expand after absorbing moisture.
2. The resistance between the planks
From the perspective of mechanics, there must be resistance on both sides of the wooden planks. Because of this resistance, it causes the wooden floor to bulge in the middle.
An example of the wooden floor slightly bulging in one of our projects
Although, there are other reasons that would cause the exact same phenomenon to the wooden floor. And they are some factors that you would not even think of.
Mopping the surface of the wooden floor with a very damp cloth. After being soaked in water, it will absorb moisture and expand.
An unoccupied and poorly ventilated house for a long time, where the middle of the stucco layer would evaporate. And the moisture would no longer be absorbed, which causes the wooden floor to take in the moisture and expand after absorbing.
Not reserving enough space for the expansion joints between adjacent planks when fitting the wooden floor. So, after it is exposed to humid air, the wooden floor will absorb moisture and expand and arch. And this can even possibly cause the paint surface to crack.
The paving area of the wooden floor is large or wide. And this situation, no segmentation measures have been done, leading the wooden floor to bulge.
Credit: from Pixabay on Pexel
Here are some simple solutions to resolve this problem:
Remove the skirting line and use a slicer to loosen the part of the floor against the wall. While leaving a certain gap, the bulging part will naturally calm down.
For large-area paving, it is recommended to disconnect the wooden floor to leave a gap at the suitable middle section. And then connect it with a metal gusset.
Choosing an appropriate golden flooring threshold strip to connect the wooden and stone floor. But, there is something that you need to keep in mind is that don’t choose strips that are too narrow.
Here are the factors that cause the wooden floor to tilt or bulge, and we have given you some easy solutions to fix it. Then are there any ways to avoid these problems that were mentioned here? Yes, there is, and we will explain them in our upcoming article.
Want to replace the wooden floor for your renovation project? T Interiors | 天潤一始 can help with this since we have an experienced interior design team to select the most suitable wood floor material for you. Cooperating with the experienced construction team to do the installation. Please feel free to contact us.