Oak floor buckling

House Repair Talk

Help Support House Repair Talk:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Yes, particle board is nailed to concrete and it had a slight bulge which transfered to the oak I beleive. I'm hoping that water from the surface is what found its way down into the subfloor and not a wicking from below.
 
If you ever watch Holmes on Homes, he had one that had a wood floor over concrete that had failed twice. It had vapour barrier and all so they spent a bit of time trying to find water coming from where ever and ended up tileing.
 
Thats what I fear I will have to do, but I'm going to wait and see what happens. The other thing is, I'm renting out the space and I hope it doesn't become an issue while I'm renting it.
 
Well with all the rain we just had, I probably will see what happens next, tile would have been so preferable which is probably what I will end up with.
 
Partical board never ever should have been used as a subfloor. It will wick up moisture like a sponge, swell up and turn to oatmeal.
Your looking at removing everything down to the slab and starting over for flooring to have a chance, including tile.
Real hard wood over a slab is never a good idea. Engineered floor would have been a better choise if someone wanted real wood looking floors.
 
Partical board never ever should have been used as a subfloor. It will wick up moisture like a sponge, swell up and turn to oatmeal.
Your looking at removing everything down to the slab and starting over for flooring to have a chance, including tile.
Real hard wood over a slab is never a good idea. Engineered floor would have been a better choise if someone wanted real wood looking floors.

I agree, real wood is not a good idea below grade over concrete.
 
The slab that its on is not below grade, its a kind of situated on a rocky outcropping, in soil and rock but nothing dug in the dirt, its kinda propped up on maybe 1 to 2 layers of cinder block in front and becoming slab like going towards the back, probably to level it. I wonder, does partical board dry out?
 
If it was removed and left outside it would dry out.
But it would be use less once it does.
 
What you have is slab on grade. In the front the footing is as deep as required to below the deepest frost for your area and the back the foot is at least below the floor by 8". After that work was done the foundation was filled with sand or some other fill. As the whole foundation is below the living space it is not waterproofed and you should have drainage around at or below floor level. If you have a hill behind you, there is nothing stoping water from traveling under the footing and getting into the fill under the floor. Water will wick thru concrete from cold to warm and you have a wet floor. I don't think wood of any kind should be tried here now that you know there is a problem with water.
 
I guess I will have to see what happens, if the floor gets to bad the tenant will have to be inconvenienced while I get it tiled, or the tenant could live with it until he moves out at which time I will tile it. Hopefully it will not get any worse! Thanks for your input!
 
Back
Top