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We had hardwood installed throughout our house about eight years ago and have not had any problems at all until about six months ago. At that time, we noticed that the floor boards in the kitchen were starting to separate along the side of the room where the sink, dishwasher, and fridge are. Thinking it might be a dishwasher problem, we stopped using the dishwasher for a few weeks but the separation continued to get worse. We had two plumbers come in to look for leaks and to check out the fridge and dishwasher but both said nothing was wrong. In the meantime, however, the separation kept getting worse and expanding across the room. We then called in a home inspector to see if he could determine the problem. He said he thinks it's just environmental conditions and the natural expansion and contraction of the wood. We have an unfinished basement so we can see that there are no signs of water leakage in the subfloor. It's been a couple of months since the inspector was here, and the floor's condition is still getting progressively worse. I can now feel dips in the floor, it creaks loudly in places, and the separation continues to get wider. None of the floors in the rest of the house are having this problem, so the inspector's conclusion that it's an environmental or installation problem doesn't seem to make sense. Would appreciate any thoughts as to what could be causing this or who to consult for help in figuring it out. Thanks in advance!
We had hardwood installed throughout our house about eight years ago and have not had any problems at all until about six months ago. At that time, we noticed that the floor boards in the kitchen were starting to separate along the side of the room where the sink, dishwasher, and fridge are. Thinking it might be a dishwasher problem, we stopped using the dishwasher for a few weeks but the separation continued to get worse. We had two plumbers come in to look for leaks and to check out the fridge and dishwasher but both said nothing was wrong. In the meantime, however, the separation kept getting worse and expanding across the room. We then called in a home inspector to see if he could determine the problem. He said he thinks it's just environmental conditions and the natural expansion and contraction of the wood. We have an unfinished basement so we can see that there are no signs of water leakage in the subfloor. It's been a couple of months since the inspector was here, and the floor's condition is still getting progressively worse. I can now feel dips in the floor, it creaks loudly in places, and the separation continues to get wider. None of the floors in the rest of the house are having this problem, so the inspector's conclusion that it's an environmental or installation problem doesn't seem to make sense. Would appreciate any thoughts as to what could be causing this or who to consult for help in figuring it out. Thanks in advance!
There are only three things, that I can think of, that would cause gaps to appear between tongue and groove (not engineered/laminate) flooring:
1) the boards are shrinking (drying out) along their width...did anything happen to cause the basement or kitchen to become drier? New or drier heat source? Dehumidifier in basement? Varnish wore down exposing wood to air?
2) the boards are lifting off from the subfloor/floor joists...loose nails? subfloor/floor joists bowing downward/upward?
3) the foundation under the dishwasher, sink, fridge is settling causing a slight arching of the flooring...are these appliances on an exterior wall? are downspouts draining next to foundation? got more rain this year?
If your flooring is engineered/laminate then delamination/warping from moisture absorbtion would be my first guess.
BTW, once you find out why the floor is separating, and fix that, you might be able to close the gaps by reinstalling the flooring or filling the gaps with an appropriate sized twine/rope that has been dipped in a similar coloured varnish.
Last edited by James1202; 09-24-2012 at 05:43 PM..
Reason: add BTW
Hmmm that's an interesting challenging problem. If it's not wet then then the one thing I'd be looking at is settling in just that area. Look at the foundation under that area. Is the sill plate (large 2x8 that lays on the cement block wall or foundation and the joists rest on it) in good condition? Older homes did not use pressure treated anything and by all modern codes, any lumber that comes in contact with cement, blocks or mortar must be pressure treated to prevent rot because cement sweats and that water rots wood that is in contact with it.
I'm thinking that sill plate because if it rots the floor joists will drop and this will cause some buckling in T&G flooring.
You can also get some Termite damage to this sill plate (if it's not pressure treated) and this too can cause the joists to crush into the sill plate, again causing some sinking.
Something is up when this problem is so acute. It has to show it's ugly face.
The sill discussion inspired me. How old is your house? If the sill was replaced at some point in the past, it's passible that it is not attached to the floor. If your appliances are along that wall, they could be putting more pressure on your wood floor than the cabinets. The sink cabinet would make sense because it's heavier when the sink is filled with water. If this is the case, it's an easy fix. Someone just needs to attach the floor to the sill plate to level and support the floor. That might not make your floor go back together, but it will prevent further separating. This problem wouldnt' show up on the second floor because that floor is securely attached to the house. It wouldn't show up on the first floor in other rooms, even rooms that share the same sill plate, because you don't have heavy appliances against the outer wall in those rooms.
Did you have a dehumidifier installed in your house recently? The kitchen is more humid that the rest of the house, aside from bathrooms. Even if you don't have a water leak, dishwashers, refrigerators and sink areas have more humidity. If the wood swelled due to higher humidity and then later it shrunk when you installed a dehumidifier, nails would pop and you'd have spreading. Is your basement damp under the kitchen? Then again, this doesn't need to be due to shrinkage via low humidity. All of this damage could be due to your subfloor swelling due to humidity.
That brings me to another very likely problem. It could be that your kitchen has a different subfloor than the rest of the house. It's very likely since this is an installed hardwood, not one done during construction of the house. Do you know what type of subfloor is under it? Is it OSB? Is the rest of the house's subfloor plywood? This would make sense since your kitchen was probably tile previously. The installers might have needed to tear out the old subfloor and replace it. If they did, chances are they replaced it with OSB because it's cheaper. OSB doesn't hold nails as well as plywood. And it doesn't do well in humid climates either. Plywood swells but shrinks back into shape, OSB swells and stays swelled.
Is this the same house where you are having problems with the brick stoop settling away from the house? If so, then your answer lies in the same realm as the sinking stoop, the foundation.
Is this the same house where you are having problems with the brick stoop settling away from the house? If so, then your answer lies in the same realm as the sinking stoop, the foundation.
Good catch! All hell breaks loose when a foundation becomes severely unstable. If it were a brick exterior, the OP would be able to see how bad it is very quickly. With a frame construction, the house will tell him in other ways like this.
Quote:
Floors
In addition to cracks appearing where the floor and walls meet, floors may display other cracks that could signal a moving foundation. Look for long jagged cracks in your flooring. Also, monitor for signs of buckling or sudden sloping, both of which point to a moving foundation.
I'd also pull off the trim to make sure enough space was provided for swelling and contracting. Since there is separating, it's likely there is enough space horizontal to the direction the planks run. Check the other wall, the wall where the board ends meet the wall. That could be causing the buckling.
And again, it could be a combination of the subfloor and foundation movement. The subfloor could explain why it's only happening in the kitchen. If the foundation problems get worse, it could start happening elsewhere.
OP here. Thank you to everyone for putting your heads together on this. Yes, this is the same house where the brick stoop had started sloping downward on the left side (the side the kitchen's on, as it happens). We had the problem corrected with the hydraulic lift. Another thing I've noticed is that the window immediately to the left of the front door (same side again) is very difficult to open. Could that also be related to a foundation issue, i.e. the frame is no longer square or something like that? Ugh, I'm getting palpitations thinking about the nightmare that could be in store. ((
To answer some of your questions, the house was built in 1984. It has not had any previous foundation work. The original kitchen floor was vinyl, and I'm not sure whether they put in a new subfloor but I don't think so. I'll ask DH when he gets home and also to look at the sill and the foundation. We have not seen any cracks. We haven't made any recent changes to the house, but we do have a longstanding problem with humidity in the summer and I have to run two dehumidifiers 24/7, one in the basement and one on the main level. The bucket can fill up in a matter of hours. Neighbors' houses don't seem to have such a severe problem with humidity, so that's something else I'm wondering about - whether there's some problem that causes the humidity to build up.
You definitely have foundation problems. I'm amazed you had an inspector come and he missed it. I guess he's like a doctor, he gets paid whether he accurately diagnoses or not.
Check your gutters and downspouts when it's raining, You coud have significant water dumping next to the foundation. That could cause it to shift, and it will also increase the humidity in the house. Maybe they just need to be cleaned out and they are overflowing. Or maybe they are in disrepair, gutters pulling away from the roof, or downspouts not connected entirely to the drain in the ground. You may need to redirect downspout water away from your house, via extending the downpout out on the ground if it slopes away from the foundation. If it doesn't slope away from the foundation, you may need to install french drains outside to direct the water away from the house. Speaking of slope, another problem could be surface water coming down a hillside towards your house. If your house sits lower than other areas of your yard, that is very likely. You might need to regrade.
Yes, we were so disappointed with the inspector! We chose him because he had many positive reviews on Angie's List and impressive credentials. But all he did was look under the sink, check the dishwasher and fridge, and conclude that since he saw no evidence of moisture, it had to be caused by natural expansion and contraction of the wood. I had to suggest that he take a look at the subfloor from the basement. He took one look, said no sign of water, everything's fine. We even discussed the stoop but he never mentioned a possible foundation problem.
Should we hire a structural engineer to assess the problem? What type of contractor would we need to hire to fix the problem(s)?
A structural engineer is a good idea. You'll likely get to the root of the problem. The type of contractor would depend on what the structural engineer determines. He'll tell you what you need to do and the type of contractor to hire. This will be a cheaper and more certain route to go than asking a bunch of specialist contractors to come out and give their opinions. Hiire the expert first. A structural engineer will likely save you money in the long term.
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