HO has a slab floor with pre-finished glued-down hardwood flooring; about 4″ wide planks presumably T&G veneered plywood. There is a small area, about 20″ diameter, where the boards are buckling up as much as 1/4″ and tapping the boards elicits a hollow sound quite different from the firmly glued neighboring areas. When I stepped on the high spot, the boards went back down flat, but popped back up with that distinctive sound of construction adhesive pulling apart as soon as I released pressure. The floor is in perfect condition everywhere else.
I suspect a crack in the slab is allowing moisture to wick up, causing the boards to expand a bit and buckle. Intrusion from the mud sill of the adjacent wall seems unlikely since the ends of those buckled boards, next to the exterior wall, are still solidly glued down.
Has anyone seen such a problem and did you come up with a good solution?
Thanks,
Replies
I don't have any sort of brilliant solution, but I'm wondering about the wisdom of gluing t&g directly to concrete. Is that a suitable method?
Not my call, but apparently it is frequently done that way.
It seems that in this case, at least, it was not a good idea.
I would guess that the only good solution is to pull up the loose pieces and reglue them. I have no solid advice on how to do that, though.
You could try drilling small holes and injecting glue, I suppose, but the likelihood of success would be low.
(I'm guessing that you can't get trim head Tapcons.)
>>>pull up the loose pieces
>>>pull up the loose pieces and reglue them.
But won't the real problem, the suspected crack in the slab, still exist? Seems to me that if there is a source of moisture wicking in, that will need to be dealt with either by circulation or isolation.