I have a rental property with polished floorboards and the tenants have reported that there are cracks appearing in the floorboards?? Has anyone had any experience with this before? Any ideas?
Floorboards cracking...why is this so??
- Thread starter leitch1967
- Start date
leitch1967 said:
Almost all issues with cracking in wood can be traced to moisture issues.. ie.. the moisture content of the boards has changed since they were put down.. either because there's been an ingress of moisture to the floor or they were just shipped from a tropical climate and laid in a moderate climate..
The forces involved in wood when moisture changes are involved are enormous.. I've laid wooden floors before and always like to ensure the floorboards I am using have been in Adelaide (my local are) for some months before I use them..
Agreed. When laying floor boards, you should cut them, and let them sit there for a month or two were possible, before nailing them down.
Builders dont usually have enough time to do this, so they often get put straight in, or nailed within a week or so.
The longer you can leave them to aclimatize before nailing the better.
Make sure moisture does not get under the house.
Cheers
mono
Builders dont usually have enough time to do this, so they often get put straight in, or nailed within a week or so.
The longer you can leave them to aclimatize before nailing the better.
Make sure moisture does not get under the house.
Cheers
mono
hi leitch1967
yes moisture will be the problem and its some time not because of to much moisture but not enough if you are in a very dry climate that we are seeing in alot of nswthen you may need to add moisture or what happens is they dry out and buckle as part of the plank is moist and part isn't especially if its a very hard wood like black butt etc. the other thing to watch for is if you have layed the floor and your tennant comes and loves the house but its a bit hot decides to air con it or uses the cheapest thing a humidifier you will add moisture into the timbers enviroment.
there is not alot you can do I have 9 coats of lacqure on my floors to stops and chance of adding water if and when water goes on it and my fish tank decided to drop 200 ltrs of salt water across these timber floors and after mopping they were fine no movement and i was expecting it to bow up.
my advice is you need to find out if it because it to much water or no enough.
whats changed and is it going to change again( ie the air con etc).
and if need be re sand and multi coat the floor.
one little bit of advice with timber floor if you are going to lay them.
lay cypress pine the kill termite( once they eat into them.
and if you have cyress pine floor don't rip them up.
cover over with your blackbutt jarrah etc as it protects your new floor as its a termite security policy.
yes moisture will be the problem and its some time not because of to much moisture but not enough if you are in a very dry climate that we are seeing in alot of nswthen you may need to add moisture or what happens is they dry out and buckle as part of the plank is moist and part isn't especially if its a very hard wood like black butt etc. the other thing to watch for is if you have layed the floor and your tennant comes and loves the house but its a bit hot decides to air con it or uses the cheapest thing a humidifier you will add moisture into the timbers enviroment.
there is not alot you can do I have 9 coats of lacqure on my floors to stops and chance of adding water if and when water goes on it and my fish tank decided to drop 200 ltrs of salt water across these timber floors and after mopping they were fine no movement and i was expecting it to bow up.
my advice is you need to find out if it because it to much water or no enough.
whats changed and is it going to change again( ie the air con etc).
and if need be re sand and multi coat the floor.
one little bit of advice with timber floor if you are going to lay them.
lay cypress pine the kill termite( once they eat into them.
and if you have cyress pine floor don't rip them up.
cover over with your blackbutt jarrah etc as it protects your new floor as its a termite security policy.
