Cupping in solid wood floors.
Timber floor cupping.
You can observe this dramatically in an interior wood floor that has been flooded then dried.
They bow inward resembling the bowl of a spoon or the inside of a cup.
The center of the board dips below the edges.
Wet maintenance can cause cupping.
Cupping dry or wet wood floors can be caused by humidity lack of humidity temp water.
Site related causes of wood floor cupping.
Cupping is a common problem found in hardwood floors.
Leaks in pluming systems and fixtures sink dishwasher icemaker and toilet overflows.
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 means that the wood that is raised on the edges of each individual floor board.
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.
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 imbalance could either be moisture from the concrete environmental conditions in the space being to dry and drying out the top of the wood and or a wood floor that wasn t properly acclimated to the environment prior to installation.
Wood is hygroscopic so it gains or loses moisture in your home seasonally.
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.
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.
Wood is hygroscopic in nature and thereby tends to absorb moisture from its surroundings causing problems in hardwood floors.
This makes the wood appear to be in a u shape.
The cupping is due to some type of moisture imbalance in the wood flooring itself.
It is not hard to see the effect in wood flooring either.
Any wood floor can suffer from cupping.
The general effect is easy to demonstrate by putting a small strip of paper onto a small drop of water.
Cupping is a result of the changes in moisture in the room.
Moisture from below can.
There are a number of potential causes of site related wood floor cupping.
As the name implies the surfaces of boards that suffer from cuppinghave a concave shape.
As you can see moisture and wood don t go well together.
Water vapor emissions from concrete.
The sides of each board are higher than the middle sections.
Cupping can also occur in rooms with dry humidity.
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.
Wet crawlspaces and basements will cup a floor as moisture moves upward.
