At Texas Hardwood Flooring, our job is simple. We’re all about installing and repairing hardwood floors, and doing our level best to provide our customers with a beautiful end result. Sometimes, when we do a repair for a customer, we find their floor is bowed. What is that, and how can you keep it from happening?
Simply put, a bowed floor refers to a situation where the floor is either wavy, or it sags at either the middle or the ends. Not only is it unsightly, but it can be dangerous. There are a few reasons why it happens.
- Excessive moisture can cause bowing. In the case of a burst pipe, a flood, extremely high humidity, or a situation with poor ventilation and poor heating, any of these situations can weaken the wood itself.
- You know the old saying, “You get what you pay for?” Sometimes people simply want the cheapest floor installation possible, and sometimes that means a contractor will cut corners. If they fail to allow for an adequate gap for the flooring to expand into, or if they don’t correctly cut the door frames to allow for expansion, bowing will happen.
So if bowing takes place, what should you do? First, try to assess the severity of the problem. If things are obviously bad, get in touch with us and we’ll take a look and give you some options. For smaller bows, you can start with checking the humidity in the room. If there are high humidity levels, buy a dehumidifier and run it in the room for a few days to see if that solves the issue. Another possibility for a small bow is to gently get the area damp, then place a heavy object on top to level things out. But if things get bad, call the professionals.
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