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Due to severe damage in my house, I recently had new oak floors installed on the second floor of my home I live in a hi-ranch in NY. My problem is since the installation 5 months ago I have had many large sections or areas of the second floor that have cupped. I put the contractor on notice and he came to the house and he admitted there is a problem but could not determine what would cause the cupping. He had his moisture meter and found everything dry. PS as a side note the wood did acclimate to the house for 3-5 days inside prior to installation. The floors are a #1 oak and were finished with 3 coats of satin poly. The installation was very tight board to board, no gaps. Now knowing that the only thing that has caused the cupping is expansion due to absorbing moisture. And it did not absorb moisture from the surface because it’s sealed.

We just moved in our house 8 weeks ago and have already had 2 plumbing leaks which have resulted in buckling our brand new solid hardwood floors. I have talked to my installer of the floors and he said it would take 3 to 4 months to completely dry out and with time they would go down. They aren’t coming completely up yet but are very wavy. Do you think that it is truly possible that they may go down? I am hoping that the worse case scenario would be that they can just be sanded and refinished. What are your thoughts?

I am building a new house and I am interested in wider boards of about 5 inches but I have heard these can have problems with cupping? Is this true and if it is, is there a way to avoid the problem?

What is the recommended relative humidity for a house in mixed climate (heat & Air condition)? The house is equipped with a humidifier to regulate the RH during the heating season. The house is equipped with forced air heat but, at night, the owners shut down the forced air and heat with wall radiators with hot water circulated from a gas fired boiler. The *** Pine flooring is shrinking, leaving unsightly cracks between the boards (some, but not all).

I laid a oak tongue and groove floor in winter on two layers of plywood. The humidity in the rooms was a bit low but last summer, when the humidity increased the flooring buckled up. Can this be because I didn’t leave enough gaps in-between the plywood sheeting underneath. What can you suggest?