Fixing Buckled Hardwood Floors

[Soi224]

Hi All,

I'm curious if anyone here has any knowledge of hardwood floors as I have some that are buckled I want to fix. I am wondering how practical it would be to inject new glue - something dam_n, dam_n strong - under the floors and putting them back flat with some super heavy weights and just leaving it there for a while so they could bond and 'hopefully' stay permanently fixed to the sub-flooring. I have some time free soon for this as the wife and kids will be in America, so that section of that room could be worked on and left to dry and bond without intruding on our lives.

I am assuming, no doubt wrongly, that this buckling happened because of expansion and they had not left enough room between the floor and the wall's edge. When the wood found it couldn't expand into the wall, it buckled. To be safe, I would be pulling off the baseboard and checking this. If that appears to be the case, I would also have that area shaved down and then some flexible material used as filler to allow for any more future expansion that might happen.

This buckling is pretty bad though, so am I just dreaming you reckon? Might it be more likely a case of having the cut that area out completely and replacing it. This is what I am hoping to avoid as it is so, so hard to get the new finish to match the rest of the finish in the room.

Any advice and thoughts are appreciated, whether it is what I want to hear or not.

Thanks,

Soi224

[BEENTHEREDONETHAT]

Our condo floor had some buckling. It appeared to be caused from getting wet, the glue quit holding.

When we had it remodeled they drilled it full of holes, where ever it sounded hollow. Then they pumped glue into the hollow space, about 100 litres of glue and pounded wooden plugs in to fill the holes. Then they drove nails into the floor to keep it from settling. I thought it was really screwed up as it looked terrible with all the wooden plugs from plugging the holes and the indents from the nails. I was truly upset.

When they got done and let it sit for a couple of weeks they cut off the wooden plugs and sanded until everything was smooth. They gave it a total of 10 coats of finish and sanding after each coat, after the eight coat they went around and touched up all the plugs with stain so you could not see them.

It is one of the nicest features of the house now, really looks good. Very labor intensive though, took 4-5 guys a couple of months to complete. Some time was lost to waiting for the glue to dry, but usually they worked in another room while waiting.

Not sure I would want to do it alone though. Labors cheap.

Good luck with yours.

End results OUTSTANDING.

Edited January 29, 2009 by BEENTHEREDONETHAT