Hillbilly fix for bowing hard ass hardwoods? will this work?

[horn4life 3762]

First off the wood I put down I love, and have loved for over 5 years,  It's 5.5 inch wide 1/2 solid strand Eucalyptus that I got from Hardwood bargains, and mostly 4 foot lengths.  The spot in question as all 4 foot lengths.and the spot in question is in near the seems of an 8 foot section of the 4 foot lengths.  Unfortunately, I noticed the other night a hollow sound on a board that had never sounded hollow before, I could also hear a whoosh of air when I listened closely on the board that seemed loose.  I used the best adhesive I could find at the time, and it has worked great everywhere.  My brain is saying there must be moisture involved to make the boards expand to make the adhesive fail.  I am guessing the "moisture" has something to do with my daughter's new Labradoodle... argh... 

How I see that I basically have 4 adjoining pieces that are now loose creating a bulge in the flooring.  I think my stepping on the loose board may have weakened more glue lines on the edges that were still adhering making the problem worse.  The problem is that the wood if hard as hell.  That's part of what made me buy it and why I love it. If it was oak or a softer wood I would just cut out the offending pieces and replace them.  But the floors rate 3000 on the Hardness scale and removing them will be incredibly difficult by any method.  Oak is about 1200 hardness on the same scale. True replacement is going to be a nightmare and I think I have a hillbilly engineering fix that I think is gonna perhaps work.

So  I need advice/ feedback on my options-

Here is what I am going to try- Luckily I can get adhesive in a tube that I can use a caulk gun.  I used the tube for some small finish work previously rather than buy a $300+ 4 gallon bucket of glue. so I know it will work. I think that if I drill some small holes at angles and force enough glue into the void created by the current bow.  The flooring has a satin finish but it had tons of irregularities so I think I can disguise where the holes are to a large degree. The rustic look and the ability to hide dirt with imprefections in the wood was why we chose this product to a large degree in the first place. If I drill slowly the holes they have a clean edge and I think they MAY give enough of an opening to get glue in. However I don't think there is any way to know if I will have for the ability to distribute enough glue under the boards without simply trying?  I won't be able to see how the glue is spreading into the void, but my thinking is WTF the nightmare of remving full length boards probably won't be any worse if my hillbilly engineering doesn't work. The other issue (that I think I have soved) as well as putting enough weight on the boards at the point of the bow to make sure they will make a strong bond again. My plan is to go buy 8-10 home depot containers and tops and fill them up with water. Tt approximated 43 pounds per bucket I think I can put enough weight on the boards to get the pressure I need.

This is the option I an thinking of trying simply as the legths are so long it will take hours and hours just to remove a single board in a manner that will leave the edges of the adjoining wood intact.  More importantly if I do nothing I think the adoining boards will loosen.

So what do you think?  Will it work? what am I perhaps not thinking about.  I am just so pissed (pun intended) that after 5 years this shit is coming up and I am having to deal with it.

 

 

 

Edited December 2, 2018 by horn4life

[Whitman 694]

Wood likes to move with seasons and moisture content.  Won't gluing them down lock everything in place causing a build up of stress and eventual splitting? 

[ShaggyBevo RIP 3868]

^^^

What part of the country is the OP's home? What is the subfloor? 

[Onboard 2.0 9083]

3 hours ago, Whitman said:

Wood likes to move with seasons and moisture content.  Won't gluing them down lock everything in place causing a build up of stress and eventual splitting? 

Lots of wood floors are glued down now.

[ShaggyBevo RIP 3868]

3 hours ago, Onboard 2.0 said:

Lots of engineered wood floors are glued down now.

fify

[drt 639]

Could be due to the dog, could be you have a bigger water leak. Pics might help, is it glued to concrete or some other subfloor?

Personally I think you’re going to have a hell of a time getting flooring adhesive or similar to go through small holes even with a syringe, that stuff is fairly thick. This also assumes the unbonded adhesive under the board gives the new glue something to bond to, which may not be the case. 

[drt 639]

Also, do you have extra material left over from the install? If so, just cut the fucker out, prep it properly after you identify the water problem, and glue a new one down. 

[horn4life 3762]

12 hours ago, drt said:

Could be due to the dog, could be you have a bigger water leak. Pics might help, is it glued to concrete or some other subfloor?

Personally I think you’re going to have a hell of a time getting flooring adhesive or similar to go through small holes even with a syringe, that stuff is fairly thick. This also assumes the unbonded adhesive under the board gives the new glue something to bond to, which may not be the case. 

These are my primary concerns of even attempting a fix.  But cutting it out is gonna be a bitch. As far as volume of glue going into the void I won't even start without a trial run through the holes I drilled in my samples.  Once this glue is exposed to air you have about 30-40 minutes of initial set time and 24-48 hour cure time.

Floor is concrete slab, adhesive was Bostik's Best it is both a moisture barrie,r and adhesive that is elastrometric. It can strech slightly to accomdate the differing expansions potentially between slab and wood.  IT was the best adhesive I could find at the time. 

UPDATE: Didn't do anything yesterday.  partially because nobody in home depot could tell me where to find their supply of orange buckets.  It was a fucking joke, over an hour and finally I found some paint I want to see if the spot expands (as much as that scares me) simply because if there is an actual leak in my slab that problem would be far beyond just cutting out some boards and replacing them if it occured 5 years after install. I laid them down so there is always the possibility of operator error but I only had two small hollow spots that I found over the years and this spot is in a high traffic area that would have been noticable long ago.  My : mental "dog pee theory" for moisture is maybe there was a little dip in this area that allowed some moisture to seep in and pool that allowed the spot to swell.  It's plausible, and the only reasonable explanation for the smaller spot that I can come up with (beyond a new leak in my slab).  

OPTION NOT THOUGHT OF:  Since I did not drill holes yesterday and with pressure the floors will again lay down flat I am wondering if I should just put a shit town of weight on the spot and wait for wood to contract?  Because the fit of the tounge and groove or so tight when I stand on the spot  with 225 pounds, the bow slowly flattens as the air under the wood slowly leaks out under my weight.  Might be the best though shittiest looking option that also does not involve me drilling holes and regluing.  The downside is that it will be nearly impossible to push enough glue into a level flat floor to get much degree of adhesion.  Yipee!!!! No good choices!  Thought about laying a heating pad or putting a work light facing onto the spot to slowly remove whatever moisture is causing the issue.

Gonna call the adhesive and hardwood folks today.  Especially since I saw they were coming out with a "new" version of my current floor online last night. 

I know this is a weird one, even for Help, I appreciate you guys looking and thinking about my dilemma.

 

[NeverMarryAStripper 21907]

If there's enough dog piss to cause your wood floor to expand then wouldn't there be a noticeable stench?

[horn4life 3762]

42 minutes ago, NeverMarryAStripper said:

If there's enough dog piss to cause your wood floor to expand then wouldn't there be a noticeable stench?

No my dad asked same thing but no, not that my old nose can smell.  We tend to clean the heck out of the spot and my wife has some magic spray shit she uses. It's her way of having me not euthanize our oldest dog who has accidents but in the yorkie size, not labradoodle 6 month size.  The Puppy hasn't gone in the house in a while except when we were all gone all day and into the evening. My real concern is that I do not recall recent accidents over there, which leaves my brain drifting to worst case scenarios. The weird thing to me is the expansion is more side to side than lengthwise. but that is perhaps do to the hardness and longer lengths.

Could have happened a while back and it took my 200+ stepping on something already loosened white I was working out of town the prior two weeks. 

Probably am gonna drill one hole and see if I can wick any moisture of any kind from the offending area.  if it's wet maybe that will give me a clue. Who knows what dog piss tastes like? 😉

 

 

Edited December 3, 2018 by horn4life

[horn4life 3762]

FYI - decided to weigh down the wood and later figure it out.  Hoping that if the moisture is temporary they will again lay flat.  Guy at Trinity Hardood Distributors had a product that will likely be my eventual fix.  For $37 they had an epoxy tube that went down into a small 1/16 needle so I could drill multiple very tiny holes and squeeze epoxy into them.  Knowing that would be an option if I got them to lay down flat.  The manager there thought perhaps there was a bad coating on the back of the wood that caused the flue to fail.  Still there would still need to be some moisture source the expansion stress either way.

Bostik simple Fix epoxy kit

[Dendox 102]

i've drilled holes and injected glue to further secure wood to the concrete subfloor.  it worked.  

I had an installer I ran into tell me that this is what he would try as a first resort.  He's the only reason I tried it.  Again, it worked.   

[horn4life 3762]

thanks Dedrox- always like to know somebody else survived the leap before I jump off!

[Texaus 377]

Regarding weigh it down, I’ve used pallets of 80# quickcrete as weight when gluing down a custom mosaic that was premounted on 4’x8’ panels. Worked well and returned when done.

[luke duke 6413]

This is what you get for buying a labradoodle.

[Spartan52 151]

12 hours ago, horn4life said:

 Who knows what dog piss tastes like? 😉

PM Derka

 

 

[ShaggyBevo RIP 3868]

21 hours ago, NeverMarryAStripper said:

If there's enough dog piss to cause your wood floor to expand then wouldn't there be a noticeable stench?

Plus discoloration.

[ROFL BOX 6649]

Am I the only one who read the thread title as "hilbilly fix for blowing hard ass hardwoods"?

[Antidean 200]

On 12/3/2018 at 3:50 PM, Dendox said:

i've drilled holes and injected glue to further secure wood to the concrete subfloor.  it worked.  

I had an installer I ran into tell me that this is what he would try as a first resort.  He's the only reason I tried it.  Again, it worked.   

What size of holes did you drill?

Where did you drill the holes, at the joints?

[Dendox 102]

I don't recall the exact size, but it was barely big enough to accommodate a syringe looking tip like that hornforlife's post above.  

 

I did it in the darker places on the floor (light grey) and most were near joints.  Several were in the middle of a plank when that is where it sounded the most hollow.  after time, the holes seemed to blend some.