Installing Warpped Engineered Floor
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kept us up reading about theirOther subreddits you may like. We are in the process of laying down hardwood flooring. It is 7' wide engineered hardwood by Mohawk and the planks come in 4 different lengths, 2', 3', 4', and 6'. We are nailing.Most of the planks are flat but about half of the 4' planks are bowed. Some just slightly, some more significantly. There are a couple other pieces that are bowed but there really is a disproportionate (seemingly, anyway) number of 4' planks.So, are bowed planks a problem?
Hardwood Floor Warped
Is there something for me to be concerned about? Is there a degree of bowed-ness at which it becomes a problem?
Engineered Floor Joists
Is it a sign of some kind of quality issue that half of one length are bowed?I'm a litte stressed here - I've got 40 boxes of this stuff sitting here and I have no idea if I have a problem on my hands, so any help is appreciated.EDIT - to clarify, the planks are tongue-in-groove. Some planks arch up in the middle, others arch up on the ends. The wood has acclimated for a couple weeks.
Bowed Engineered Wood Flooring
If you are using an air powered hardwood flooring nailer and the substrate you are nailing into is in good shape the bowed planks are only a problem because they will be a PITA to fit together. You should double your nailing schedule in the most bowed planks eg every 6' instead of every foot. It is also helpful to lay tarpaper under the floor to reduce 'bouncing' when nailing. Finally the nail nearest the end of each board s/b held 4' or so away from the end to prevent splitting off the tongue. Either way, I've found that fixing boards that bow up/down is pretty effective with trim screws; assuming you can get them to fit the tongue of the previous row, if you can't get them onto the tongue they're just trash.Drill-and-counter-sink through the tongue at a fairly high angle then use a trim-screw to pull it down. Install cleats/staples.Alternately, I have a 2x4 with a notch in one end and a hole through the middle.
Put the notch end over the board, drive a screw through the 2x4 into the subfloor until tight. Fire cleats and remove 2x4.