Independent Tennessee flooring costs, materials and a cost estimator
Crawl space encapsulation seals the dirt floor and foundation vents under a house with a heavy vapor barrier, then controls the air inside with a dehumidifier or conditioned supply air. For a wood floor overhead, that means the boards stop absorbing humid air from below, which is the direct cause of cupping in most Tennessee … Read more
No. Sanding a cupped floor before the moisture source is fixed almost always backfires. The sander levels the raised edges while the board is still swollen, and once the wood dries back down to normal moisture content, the center of each board — the part that got shaved flat — ends up lower than the … Read more
No. Felt paper under a hardwood floor stops squeaks, minor dust transfer, and some plank-to-subfloor friction — it does nothing to lower the moisture content of the wood. Cupping happens because the underside of the boards is wetter than the top, and 15 lb felt has no ability to change what is happening in the … Read more
The number is 55% relative humidity in the crawl space. Keep it under that line and the wood flooring above it generally stays under 19% moisture content — the point where boards start to cup. Above 55%, a vented crawl space under a conditioned Tennessee home pushes moisture into the subfloor faster than it can … Read more
Hardwood cups when the underside of a board absorbs more moisture than the top, so the edges swell and rise higher than the center. In Tennessee, that moisture almost always comes from below — a vented crawl space running near outdoor dew point, feeding damp air straight into the underside of the subfloor beneath a … Read more