I closed on my brand new home back in March. This is my very first home. I spent a lot of money on hardwood floors. Usually my house is rather dark inside because I often have the shudders closed. Well today the owner of a house cleaning franchise came inside my home so I opened some of the shudders. She mentioned to me that many of my hardwood floor planks did not lie flush with the adjacent planks. In other words, the ends of many adjacent planks meet but one plank end may be ever so slightly higher than the adjacent plank's end. So, if you run your hand across my hardwood floor you can feel many very small "ridges". Shortly after I closed on the house I knew that these small ridges existed, but I just assumed that this was normal for a hardwood floor. However, this veteran house cleaning lady made me feel that this is not normal. She seemed to imply that all the planks should be PERFECTLY flat with no ridges. Is she right? If so, what should I do?

AZEd...first of all, WELCOME to AnswerPool! We have many VERY savvy people here, and as a new home-owner, it's a good place to be!

I've had hardwood floors in the past, and yes, I can see where she would be concerned with un-level areas...moisture can seep in, minute bits of sand and dirt can get in the cracks, widening them further until the problem is really bad.

If I had purchased a brand new home and the floor was suspect of not being installed correctly, I would definitely be contacting the builder.

When I purchased a new home (many years ago), I had a year to point out imperfections that occurred in that time in the home that would be corrected at no cost to me. Certain problems are caused in new homes by settling, etc., and the contractor is prepared for this.

Good luck, and again, welcome!

Old floors would definately suffer from uneven laying, wood wants to be one thing and one thing only, a tree. Thus through the years the wood would warp, uneven wear would take place since the bands of grain are composed of different densities. This issue is usually fixed with full room floor sanding, refinishing and sealing.

New Hardwood floors should match pefectly - well as perfectly to where the human eye wouldn't notice. Today's laminated wood products would meet perfectly when first laid as well.

A few things comes to mind that may have happened.

1. The wood did not sit in the room for at least a week (2 weeks or a fortnight is best), thus it was laid and now is warping as it meets the rooms humidity.

2. The wood was improperly prepared at the mill, I believe that now days they kiln dry woods and have to meet a certain specific moisture content before final milling, finishing, boxing and shipping. It is rare, but it some times happens that a "batch" comes out with the wrong mositure contents. Unfortunately the way hard wood floors are laid (in the correct way) is that all of the boxes of flooring are opened and as the floor is laid individual planks are taken from a series of boxes, thus making certain that the natural unevenness of staining in batches is not noticable throughout the room. If this is not done you get darker and lighter patches of wood.

2b. is that your flooring came from two different batches at either end of a cutting processe - blades (planners, cutters, Jointers, etc) and sanders used on the factory floor do wear out, thus one box of planking at the begining of the blade live would be a tiny bit thicker than that at the end of the blade life (Or sander, or planner, etc). With the process of laying the floor by mis matching individual planks from different boxes the over all thickness or height of each piece next to the other would reveal that minor thickness change.

3. The subfloor is damaged, has warped with additional weight.

4. The floor was not installed correctly.

I would assume your flooring and its installation is under warrantee - All of the factors above except Number 3 should be covered by that warrentee.

Unless the style of flooring you got is specifically designed for that "aged" floor look - I have seen "aged" or "distressed" floorings on the market which are specifically designed with unevenness to get that authentic "older than dirt" look.

I would at least get in contact with the company and ask them.

Cheers

It is a problem if the boards are out of level with each other. My guess is that the boards were not installed correctly due to a lack of end grooving.

You can test this theory by pushing on the end of the board. If it moves then you have a defective floor and should discuss with whomever you purchased the home from. You have every right to pursue this with them as it is a case of a defect rather than just a complaint or damage.

Thank you for the response. I will be contacting the builder.

If you get a bid for repairs, and the bid is in the thousands, you may want to consider a Pergo floor. I did it in my home, and I can't imagine why in God's great name I never did it before.

(I have maple hardwood and just covered it up. The hardwood flooring is covered over with a green padding, and the Pergo is laid right over the top, no glues, and the padding will even out some tiny inconsistencies but not large ones. You can always go back to the original flooring in the future. If you're brave and have the time, you can lay the floor yourself, but you need a very expensive saw blade designed for the job to cut the flooring. I used a cheapo and it half cut and half burned the edges. I don't care, it was a hidden area, and I'll do it again when I finish my stairs.)