I arrived on site yesterday morning to find that our beautiful floors had a cupped shape on each board. This was highly noticeable when you look at the glare of the sun on the floors. The glare isn’t smooth or glassy, instead it looks jagged and similar to an ocean ripple. In the previous post I was talking about how the installers were complaining the glue they were using was setting up too fast and very difficult to work with. Because of this, they returned all of the Urethane based glue and exchanged it for (a much cheaper) acrylic urethane latex adhesive, A.K.A. :: WATER BASED GLUE THAT DESTROYS A WOOD FLOOR UPON APPLICATION!

The floor guys told me that they used this “new” glue a million times on floors in the past and they all turned out beautiful. The geniuses failed to mention that they used the glue on engineered and laminate floors and not solid wood floors. The result of their actions is approximately $1,000 of beautiful wood floor ruined due to excessive moisture absorption!

Trusting the floor installers, I never researched the new glue and I never looked twice at the glue cans they brought on site and were using. … BIG MISTAKE! If I had looked a little closer at the glue cans, they are marked clearly on the face of the label “FOR USE ON ENGINEERED FLOORS ONLY” “DO NOT USE ON SOLID WOOD OR BAMBOO FLOORS” This raises so many questions: Did they do this to save big bucks on the glue cost and pocket the difference hoping that we wouldn’t notice? Did they forget to read the label on the front of the cans? Did they wake up that morning and forget their brains at home?

We are now faced with a more delays in completion and our floor is on back order and will take 2 full weeks to have delivered. Tomorrow is a big on site meeting to determine the best action to take on the removal of our newly purchased firewood!

A LITTLE EDUCATION FOR THOSE WHO ARE PLANNING TO HAVE A WOOD FLOOR INSTALLED: Please Read

Our floor installers laid the first 7 rows of wood floor down with the correct urethane adhesive. This floor still remains perfect and not cupped or damaged. The newly laid floor that the installers laid down with the incorrect acrylic urethane latex glue cupped approximately 8 hours after install.

The reason for instant cupping: Solid wood floor and bamboo flooring is not man made and is a natural wood product. This makes it extremely vulnerable to water damage. The garbage water based glue (Roberts 1407) has way too much moisture content to be used with solid wood and the water used to make the glue is instantly transferred to the new floor and the result is expansion of the edges. This results in wood floor cupping.

The moisture cure urethane adhesive (Roberts 1408) originally used has no water in the adhesive. In fact, it acts as a protection to the solid wood floor by detecting moisture (in the concrete slab) and instantly curing to lock the moisture out. This acts as a moisture barrier.

Summary:

When laying a SOLID WOOD FLOOR: Use a moisture cure urethane adhesive. Roberts 1408

When laying an ENGINEERED WOOD FLOOR: Use a moisture cure urethane adhesive. Roberts 1408

What to do with acrylic urethane latex adhesive (Roberts 1407): Shove it up the salesman’s ass at your local home improvement store if he recommends it to you for your floor. I care about the environment so I wouldn’t even recommend it as a boat anchor!

Solid wood floor cupped due to incorrect adhesive application

Solid wood floor cupped due to incorrect adhesive application

Solid wood floor cupped due to incorrect adhesive application

Solid wood floor cupped due to incorrect adhesive application

Solid wood floor cupped due to incorrect adhesive application

Solid wood floor cupped due to incorrect adhesive application

1407 Roberts Acrylic Urethane Latex WATER BASED adhesive

1408 Roberts Solid Wood Floor Adhesive URETHANE

Wood floor cupping and crowning