Buckled or cupped wood floors are often caused by ground moisture in the crawlspace under your home.
To reduce humidity and moisture levels under your home, cover all the ground in the crawlspace with thick (6 mil) plastic sheeting. Watch this video to find out more.
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Gary Asks: What’s causing my wood floors to buckle? The crawl space seems to be dry.
Danny Lipford: I think everybody loves the look of a nice wood floor. But it’s not so nice-looking when it starts buckling, and that’s a problem that generally starts outside.
If your house is built up on piers, and many are, you might be surprised at how many problems can be caused by ground moisture. Now, it may look perfectly dry under your house. But the moisture’s there, and it’ll migrate up into your house, causing all kinds of headaches, including buckled floors. Here’s what you need to do.
Make sure you have adequate ventilation at all times throughout the year, and a great tip is to lay a piece of thick plastic. This is six mil plastic, a lot thicker than you might be used to, right on the ground, put a little sand around it. And if you catch this early enough, hopefully your wood floors will dry out and go back down.
