If you have installed solid wood flooring and you’re finding that it’s bulging and lifting in the middle of your room, you’re not alone. Solid wood flooring which bulges and lifts in the middle of rooms is, unfortunately, a relatively common problem. More often than not, the root of the problem lies with the initial installation of the solid wood flooring.
Wood, as you are aware, is a completely natural product and as such expands and contracts with changes in atmospheric conditions. It is for this reason that solid wood floors need an expansion gap. If solid wood floors are fitted without an expansion gap, problems, which can sometimes be severe, are likely to arise.
Solid wood flooring takes in moisture when there is a high level of humidity in the air and then the flooring lets that moisture go when the humidity in the atmosphere reduces again. When humidity is high, the wood expands. Low, or reducing humidity causes the wood to contract again. This expansion and contraction process is entirely normal with solid wood flooring.
In a domestic setting, particularly in centrally heated homes, floors expand and contract with the seasons. During winter months, when you switch the central heating on, wooden floors lose moisture and will contract. The result is often slight gaps between the boards. In the warmer months, when the heating is switched off, the wood will expand again. The rising moisture in the air, which is absorbed by the floor, causes this.
When this happens, if any gaps have appeared over the winter months, they will more than likely disappear. This natural process of expansion and contraction is unlikely to pose any sort of damage or distortion to your solid wood floor as long as it has been well fitted, with the requisite expansion gap.
If you are having problems with your floor bulging and lifting in the middle of your room, the chances are that the required expansion gap has not been allowed for during your flooring installation. In order to illustrate, when a floor expands and touches a wall or door frame (known in the trade as a “pinch point”), the boards come under pressure, causing them to rise. This is more than likely the cause of bulging and lifting of your floorboards in the middle of your room.