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Yous've had a cute hardwood floor installed in your home. Merely subsequently a while, something doesn't await right—or experience right. Mayhap the floor seems "wavy" or fifty-fifty rippled. You may detect small, raised ridges along the edges of some of the planks in the floor.

What's happening to your previously gorgeous flooring? And can it exist stopped?

Cupping is one of the unfortunately common issues that can plague hardwood floors. Information technology tin happen to most types of woods, and it'southward often the start observable sign your floor is existence affected by wet.

Since woods reacts to moisture so easily, floorboards can warp as they react to the change in their internal wet content (MC) after the flooring's installation. But if yous catch it early and can address the moisture issue, there is hope in getting your floor back to normal.

Hither's what you demand to know.

How to fix hardwood floor cupping

1. Make sure you have a reliable wood wet meter so you know how much the forest moisture content has risen or can identify wet problem areas. While several types of meters are available, few allow for multiple tests in multiple areas over and over without damaging the woods. The Wagner Meters Orion® moisture meter line uses electromagnetic wave frequency (EMF) to measure large areas.
2. Determine where the moisture is coming from. Every bit referenced higher up, is the cupping compatible and seasonal? Is it confined to ane area? Has the floor been installed recently, or could in that location be more than moisture in your crawlspace or basement than in the living infinite?
3. Go a dehumidifier, especially if you accept a basement or an surface area of the house that tends to exist more boiling than other areas. If y'all alive in a identify with humid summers, yous may only demand to run it seasonally to keep your wood floors in meridian shape twelvemonth-circular. The fundamental is decision-making the climate in your home, keeping it equally consequent as possible.
4. Maintain your floor properly, using the right cleaning methods and products made specifically for wood floors. Ever dry out spills thoroughly, and routinely bank check wood floor areas effectually sinks, dishwashers, bathtubs, and other areas more likely to have leaks or spills.
5. After a meaning leak or spill, especially if water or other liquids have had time to blot into the floor and subfloor, y'all may need to contact the professionals for loftier-powered drying equipment. A dehumidifier is great for humidity in the air, just wet warped floors demand a more straight and aggressive approach to avert lasting harm.

What does cupping expect similar on a hardwood floor?

When moisture interacts with a hardwood floor, the side of the boards closest to the wet expands. This expansion tin can exist in the form of cupping (the center of the board is lower than the edges) or crowning (the center of the board is college than the edges). Both situations, although unlike, are both due to a wet imbalance in the boards caused past either the addition of moisture or the extraction of moisture from the flooring.

Sometimes the early on stages of cupping can be noticed when light comes in from a window and reflects onto a wood floor. You tin can meet small shadows where the edges of each floorboard are slightly higher than the middle.

Why does cupping happen?

In curt, wet. Wood, fifty-fifty when it's treated and sealed, is even so a porous, fibrous material. It can still react with the moisture content (MC) in the air effectually information technology. Materials like woods will balance (equilibrate) its MC with its surroundings, similar to the principle of osmosis.

Then if the air is boiling, the wood will absorb more than moisture from the air and it volition swell. If the air is dry, wood fibers will release some of its moisture back into the air and it tin can shrink dorsum downwards.

It's about common for moisture to enter the floorboards from below, through the subfloor. This is why the bottom of the board swells and makes the edges curve upwards into an almost wave-similar pattern.

Cupping can happen fifty-fifty to a flawlessly-installed wood floor, depending on the weather condition of the building and the surround. Yet, several common situations that are known to cause cupping can be addressed, and can even exist reversed.

Avert cupping related moisture issues with an accurate wood moisture meter to exam hardwood floor.

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What are the common causes of cupping in floor?

• Change in the corporeality of moisture in the air (relative humidity). If you live in an area with humid summers and dry out winters, or even vice versa, your wood floor can react to the irresolute amount of humidity in the air. It expands during one season and contracts in the other.
  If cupping is happening in a relatively uniform manner throughout your house, and the caste of cupping is not drastic, this is likely the cause.
• Subfloor wet. If there is backlog moisture in the physical slab, clamber space, or basement beneath your wood floor, this can cause cupping. This is peculiarly common with new structure if the floor is installed before any type of HVAC is running within your home. It tin also happen later if your basement or crawl infinite harbors more humidity in general.
• Leaks or spills. Cupping due to leakage will normally be confined to areas effectually sinks, dishwashers, etc. If a leak is wearisome or small, the cupping tin can occur gradually and yous may not observe it until it has gotten worse. Sudden leaks or spills can crusade cupping if they aren't cleaned up quickly or thoroughly, or some moisture is left behind.
• Improper care/cleaning. On a similar notation, peculiarly when cleaning up larger leaks and spills, cupping can come most if any moisture is left behind after cleanup. What's more, unless proper cleaning techniques and supplies are used, further impairment could result as well.
• Improper installation. If a hardwood floor is installed before a subfloor is properly dried, or before the floorboards accomplish an equilibrium wet content (EMC), such as before the inside of a building's air is conditioned, at that place is a chance for cupping later on. Equally article of furniture and people begin to inhabit the expanse, it will bring about a new level of moisture and temperature to the air. You want to ensure that wet levels between the subfloor and the finished flooring take reached proper EMC for the long-term. And to make admittedly sure the moisture readings are optimal for beginning the installation, yous want the well-nigh accurate wet measurement tools possible.

If cupping is discovered in an already-installed hardwood flooring, can information technology be fixed? Does information technology need to be replaced?

In many cases, if cupping isn't severe, the issue can exist fixed one time the moisture issue is fixed. Since the process of cupping is the wood reacting to moisture, if the wood'southward wet level returns to the proper equilibrium, the cupping tin can resolve.

Depending on the type of moisture issue, however, will decide how easily it can exist fixed or how much effort it will take.

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What happens if cupping doesn't go stock-still?

Besides the visible warping of your hardwood floorboards, the floor could fail. The cupping could go along to worsen and create gaps between the boards. If/when the relative humidity drops, the boards may non become back to their original shape and can buckle away from the subfloor, or even splinter and cleft.

The big issue, however, is still moisture. If the cupping in the floorboards doesn't go away, it could hateful that the underlying moisture issue was non properly addressed and still needs some attention. While cupping tin remain after a severe event similar flooding, persistent cupping is worth investigating. Prolonged moisture issues tin lead to many types of flooring failures, and so it pays to exist safe.

What Not to do when you notice cupping in your floor.

One rookie mistake is to just sand the floor down until it's level over again. But one time once more, the moisture problem that caused the cupping has not been dealt with. For instance, if the cupping happened due to humidity from an especially wet summer and you lot sanded down the cupped areas, when the air dries out the forest tin can warp the other style, causing crowning.

You also don't want to assume your flooring has already failed. At that place is still hope! Many wet issues tin can be stock-still through household climate control, taking wet readings throughout the house, or seeking out undetected leaks or spots where moisture could pitter-patter in from other areas.

To avert these mistakes, there is a way to exam for a alter in your home'southward ambience atmospheric condition over time. Relative humidity information loggers tin tell y'all what has inverse in ambience moisture levels when it inverse and for how long. This information can aid you determine what actions to accept with your flooring.

The FIRST affair to practise when cupping is discovered.

If nothing else, the appearance of cupping tips you lot off that your hardwood floor is susceptible to wet bug. Fifty-fifty before you phone call a professional, if you lot accept a reliable forest moisture meter you can utilise to accept multiple readings throughout your home, yous'll accept a much better idea of what kind of situation you have on your hands.

You might exist able to figure out how to remedy the state of affairs yourself if you notice it's due to humidity in the air or a leak or spill. And if you do notice it'southward a serious event, you'll have much more precise information to give the professionals and so they don't have to spend as much time (and your money) doing detective piece of work.

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Safeguard your beautiful hardwood floors with moisture measurement you can trust. Acquire more near how Wagner Meters' Orion® wet meter line is easy to use while providing the most accurate readings available on the market.

Avoid moisture related problems with an accurate wood moisture meter to exam your hardwood floor.

Buy an Orion Meter

Jason has 20+ years' experience in sales and sales management in a spectrum of industries and has successfully launched a variety of products to the market, including the original Rapid RH® physical wet tests. He currently works with Wagner Meters equally our Rapid RH® product sales manager.

Concluding updated on August 31st, 2021

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Source: https://www.wagnermeters.com/moisture-meters/wood-info/can-wood-floor-cupping-be-fixed/

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