Timber Floor Cupping

You can observe this dramatically in an interior wood floor that has been flooded then dried.

Timber floor cupping.

If you imagine a picture of a child drawing a boat in the water then the water will give you a good idea of what a cupped floor looks like. The paper will curl up away from the water. Wet crawlspaces and basements will cup a floor as moisture moves upward. Cupping means that the wood that is raised on the edges of each individual floor board.

Wood cupping develops a set in boards ultimately boards that have cupped due to these moisture differences develop a set and remain cupped even when the boards have dried. Cupping in solid wood floors. Cupping dry or wet wood floors can be caused by humidity lack of humidity temp water. Cupping is a result of the changes in moisture in the room.

As you can see moisture and wood don t go well together. There are a number of potential causes of site related wood floor cupping. Cupping occurs in solid wood flooring as a result of an elevated mc in the bottom of the flooring compared with the mc of the face. Wood is hygroscopic in nature and thereby tends to absorb moisture from its surroundings causing problems in hardwood floors.

Wood is hygroscopic so it gains or loses moisture in your home seasonally. Wet maintenance can cause cupping. The general effect is easy to demonstrate by putting a small strip of paper onto a small drop of water. It ends up looking a little like an accordion.

Increase the relative humidity in the room with cupped floors to 20 percent to prevent cupping from the air being too dry. The cupping is due to some type of moisture imbalance in the wood flooring itself. Water vapor emissions from concrete. The simplest way to think of wood floor cupping is to imagine the edges of each plank sticking up higher than the centers.

Boards will remain cupped. This makes the wood appear to be in a u shape. Cupping is a common problem found in hardwood floors. Cupping can also occur in rooms with dry humidity.

Moisture from below can. How our 950 moisture meter works is it has a hygrometer built in to read temp humidity and calculates your the emc equilibrium moisture content of what your wood floor should be. See the picture at the top of this post for an example of a cupped floor. When the moisture increases the wood swells and then when it decreases the wood shrinks.

The center of the board dips below the edges. Any wood floor can suffer from cupping. It is not hard to see the effect in wood flooring either. Site related causes of wood floor cupping.

As the name implies the surfaces of boards that suffer from cuppinghave a concave shape. The sides of each board are higher than the middle sections.