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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 bought an older house and decided to have wood flooring installed in the sunken living room (on concrete slab). Before installing the flooring my contractor said there was a spot that was not level, he charged me $400.00 to level the spot before he would install the wood flooring (not laminate). I paid him to level the spot and he installed all but the last two feet wide and twenty feet long section. Within the first week the floor buckled up over that spot. He came back and removed the flooring over the supposed leveled spot and said I must have a water leak. He now wants $500.00 more to replace the flooring over that spot, nothing about even finishing the job (the 2′x20′ section). From everything I’ve read in researching probable causes for this problem, it seems that he didn’t install properly. The spot was NOT leveled and there are uneven levels of concrete where he “leveled” the spot. When he removed the few planks of buckled flooring, the pieces left are cracking if you step on them, where the concrete is unleveled and there is nothing under to support it. I can find no signs of a water leak. What can I do to make the contractor fix and complete the job right? How do I prove it was installers error and not the supposed water leak?

A few weeks after being installed, entire floor is cupping. These are Pre-finished, 3/4 inch thick, solid oak strip floors. What’s best way to resolve the problem? Can they be sanded down smooth and re-stained & re-finished? What is a normal price point for this sort of job? Also, flooring was purchased at ********, which sells discount flooring materials (which I found out later are often “seconds” or slightly damaged). I’ve seen other installations where the same flooring has been used & they exhibited similar problems with different degrees of cupping. Sometimes just a small patch was cupped & others when larger or separate areas cupped. I’m assuming the flooring to be the same because of the large number of visible “flaws” in the wood such as knots and dark streaks. (Although the flaws are what I found most beautiful about the floors!) Could it be that the wood was still too green when they were pre-finished but the problems not occur until after installation due to trapped moisture? Would the manufacturer be responsible for this? Any info would be greatly appreciated!

Hi, we are placing a used 3/4″ clear southern yellow pine tongue and groove floor down. It was actually used on a wall and we are putting it on our floor. It has been impossible to line all the previous nail holes with the joists or even with each other – I finally gave up on that. There are several widths from 5 1/4″ to 14″. It is in great shape except there is a little cupping here and there. We have a couple of questions – what is the best way to tighten the cupped boards.

We just had oak floors put into our kitchen. When you look at the floor from an angle, they appear to be wavy. Is this normal? If not, what can be done to correct the appearance?