Hi-
This is my first post and boy oh boy I'm hoping someone can help me. My house was built in 1951. Its got the original hardwood floors that about 5 years ago were completely refinished (before I purchased the place 4 years ago). Last year I noticed that my floors were starting to get dull. I just thought the finish was wearing off. But now over the last 6 months, I've been noticing the wood getting grooves in it, like the boards butting up to each other were starting to raise in places. Now I'm noticing more and more its like in certain places the boards are separating from each other (the seams) and tiny cracks are developing. I've filled some of the larger ones with wood floor filler, but its getting more and more. In places you can see where the seams that are still touching have raised.

What's happening with my floors? I can't afford right now to have them repaired. Is there something that I can do to keep this from happening?

Help!!!

These kind of changes in wood will occur if humidity is not regulated properly. What you need to consider is not only the space of the house with the wood floors but also the space under it and even how your attic is vented. I am not familiar with humidity conditions in your area but in general in warmer months you will have high humidity and in cold months much lower. The wood will swell during the high humidity time and you'll notice cupping (boards swollen together and sometimes forming little ridges). During low humidity times you will notice gaps appearing between the boards.

In general this will occur in a natural wood floor and to varying degrees. You should not under any circumstance fill the gaps as your fill will pop out when the humidity increases. What you should do is look at your overall situation and see if there are things you can do to regulate humidity better. Leaving windows open and not running the AC will allow floors to pick up a lot of moisture. Not having a humidifier in winter will cause the boards to shrink up.

ami is right on with that answer. Especially the part about filling the cracks. If the boards are shrinking do to low humidity drying out, when the humidity goes back up and the wood will swell. If there is not room for this swelling, then you could pop a board right out of the floor.

Dulling is indicative of moisture caught under the finish. Like a ring left on a wood table.

1950's house, California I would say you have a crawlspace not a cellar/basement - or at least not a full basement space. I would wager that there is excess moisture under the house in the crawlspace.

Last year we in California had a very wet (for us) winter - nearly or around 200% of normal in some areas. That water doesn't just evaporate, a majority of it soaks into the soil and then is gradually evaporated over a long period.

Most likely your crawlspace got wet and the water soaked in (seeps in or wicks in under the foundation and footer), over the course of the long dry season we have had that is evaporating back out into the air under your house. Most likely the moisture got trapped and "soaked" into the subfloor and wicked its way upward into the finished flooring. I know that most of the houses around here (Modesto/Turlock) built post WWII are not adequately ventilated in the crawlspace to handle the rain that we got last year. Many basements (usually half basements, or just deeper crawlspaces) do flood in the winter - this is considered 'normal' around here.

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Aminator: California Valleys are dry in the summer wet in the winter. Central Valley (the big valley) also gets night fog during the winter - lots of moisture.