I finished replacing several pieces of hardwood that were water damaged from a leaking bathroom above it last winter.These strips of flooring were only 1/1/2" wide and the damage only extended one or two feet at most. My repair was fine until this. This summer two more strips adjacent to the replaced new strips buckled up enough that I could feel it when I walked on them. Now that the furnace is on, these strips have recessed back down, but I am thinking that now is the time to do something to keep them there. Do you recommend drilling and putting in wood screws in the old strips, or replacing these strips of wood as well?

 

What would the screws go into? Screwing to a joist should help but just into plywood a subfloor might not be enough. I'd give it a try as that is the easiest fix if it works.

 

This is trick with wood floors, install tight in the winter when its dry and then in humid summer they swell and you can have issues.

Much more pronounced with wide planks but now I only do wood floors in the summer!

Anyway, your wood repairs are simply too tight, they will continue to buckle as the moisture in the house rises. Securing tighter might work but Ive seen floor pull cleats out of the floor, see first paragraph.

Ultimately you should remove some pieces and sand them down and the problem will not return!

 

I COULD screw into a floor Joist at some points, but for the most part the screws would be hitting the sub floor, and I get it about that not being enough. I put the hardwood repair pieces in, I guess I can take them out. Not being a woodworker I was not thinking about it swelling up that much between seasons...oh well live and learn...

 

I took on a repair project in a dining room that had suffered damage to its hardwood floor from a water leak in an upstairs bathroom. Having had no experience with hardwood floors until that happened, I took out the damaged floor "strips" and bought new hardwood cut to the same size and replaced the damaged ones. I did not take into account that it was still winter when i installed the new strips. Summer came and the new strips expanded and buckled the originals next to them. Winter is back and the floor is back to normal. what is the best way to trim the repair strips to make up for the obvious expansion? i thought about removing them and trimming them all, but thought using a multimaster might do it quicker, maybe with a grout removal blade. Any ideas?

 

You need to take some measurements to confirm the widths and suspect there is some very minimal differences. Running them through a table saw and trimming the groove side is best option.

Wont be able to do it with hand tools!

 

One topic, one thread please.

 

Sorry about the duplicate thread, had trouble finding the original. Do not want to remove the new floor strips, but I guess I have to.

 

I would question the makeup of the subfloor and how you fastened the planks. (With what and how often) That's probably part of the reason they came up.

 

please keep in mind that the new planks did not come up, the old ones next to them did. I fastened the new ones down with a brad nailer. The old ones are tongue and groove which I can't get locally around here. The new ones did not move so I could see them, they just swelled up enough to move the planks on the south side of the repair area. The sub floor is probably 3/4" plywood or whatever was code in 1963 when the house was built.

 

Is this the rest of the story?

Water damaged tongue and groove flooring

How did the edges bow up if you previously screwed them down with 3" screws? If you didn't fasten the perimeter of the repair, it's no wonder it bowed up. Flooring is fastened on one side only. The tongue of one board holds down the groove of the next. So if the groove side of an old board is loose, it's likely because it's not held down by anything. Your new pieces have no groove to hold it. And flooring should be fastened every 8-12" or so. Yes, to the subfloor.

 

Let me say more clearly, that the repaired slats are not bowing up. the OLD slats are coming up even though they were nailed down with a hook type nail every 8 to 12 inches. The slats and the hook nails are coming and going back down visibly, while the repair slats are staying in place, but must be swelling up with the summer humidity. I used some 3" wood screws in the new slats where I knew there was a floor joist beneath the sub floor to hold the screws. I cannot get tongue and groove repair slats in this area anyway. so I could not replace them like the originals. I think my only solution now is to remove the new repair slats and trim them with a table saw as suggested previously.

 

How can I be more clear that I am talking about the edges of the OLD boards and any OLD boards that popped up as a result of being wet? If all you did was hammer down the existing nails where it bowed up, it's no wonder it won't stay down. All the existing nails that popped up are worthless.

 

I replaced all the damaged boards. The old boards are moving up and down now on their own, No hammering was necessary at the time the new boards went in for the original undamaged boards. I agree that the old nails in the old boards, (which are NOW damaged) are probably useless. The key now is to re fasten those AFTER I eliminate the swelling issue.