I laid some 4″ walnut flooring about 3 years ago. I applied a vapor barrier under the floor. The house is on a crawl space and the crawl space is insulated at the joists. Also, the crawl space is vented. Every summer my floors start to buckle. The buckling is bad where you can actually feel it as you walk and you can definately see it. BUT, in the winter it lays down flat as a pancake. What is causing this and what can I do to stop it. The house is located in Nashville, Tennessee.
Discussion Forum
Discussion Forum
Up Next
Video Shorts
Featured Story

In certain scenarios, flat roofs make more sense than pitched roofs (and vice versa).
Featured Video
Video: Build a Fireplace, Brick by BrickHighlights
Fine Homebuilding Magazine
- Home Group
- Antique Trader
- Arts & Crafts Homes
- Bank Note Reporter
- Cabin Life
- Cuisine at Home
- Fine Gardening
- Fine Woodworking
- Green Building Advisor
- Garden Gate
- Horticulture
- Keep Craft Alive
- Log Home Living
- Military Trader/Vehicles
- Numismatic News
- Numismaster
- Old Cars Weekly
- Old House Journal
- Period Homes
- Popular Woodworking
- Script
- ShopNotes
- Sports Collectors Digest
- Threads
- Timber Home Living
- Traditional Building
- Woodsmith
- World Coin News
- Writer's Digest
Replies
James
When did you install the floor-time of year?
What was the moisture content of the flooring?
Is there visqueen over the dirt/gravel in that crawl?
thanks.
If you left a proper expansion gap at the walls and it's still doing this (all else being equal), then I dunno.
Totally out-in-left-field idea: If you didn't leave an expansion gap, you might try removing the baseboard and cut away 3/4" of the flooring at the wall (on the board-width sides, of course, not the long sides). It's an awful lot of work and I doubt any circ or jig saw would get that close to the wall, although a Fein Multimaster should reach (though you might well destroy it trynig to cut that much walnut).
If a larger expansion gap is needed i.e. 1/2" I'd use a toe kick or jamb saw.
Stop venting the crawl space and make it conditioned space.
Assuming all manufactures instructions where followed.
You now need to condition the crawl space.