My installer has fitted solid wood up to edges of walls, radiator pipes, archway and French window. I asked about expansion gap. He told me expansion gap was left and wood has expanded since fitting. He laid floor in October this year. Is he right or should there be a gap beween wood and walls?
I have never fitted wood but if he left an expansion gap . Would think you should be able to see it has wood will expand when it's warm. So unless your house was cold when he fitted it and you have cranked your heating right up i would expect to see some sort of gap. Was the skirting boards added after the flooring if so the expansion gap would be hidden. Someone will be on shortly with some better advice.
How's the floor fixed? Is it on self adhesive underlay, stuck to floor or nailed? Concrete or wood underneath?
Wood expands and contracts depending on how much moisture is in the air around it (or what's coming through the floor underneath). The amount of moisture in the air around it should be low this time of year as your heating will be drying the air out. So the wood floor 'should' be shrinking not expanding. This is of course providing that your heating is working and there is no excessive moisture coming into the property from else where like drying washing on a radiator or from under the floor. A soild wood floor normally reacts slowly in expanding / contracting if installed by glue down or nail. If floated (not recommended) then the wood will move a lot faster. Personally i would be worried that it has reacted so fast (if they did leave expansion) and more so that its expanding when really it should be contracting if the installer acclimatised the product correctly and prepared your subfloor correctly. A few questions - What type of subfloor do you have (the base floor) is it wood/floorboards or concrete? How long was the wood flooring left in the property before laying? Do you know what moisture reading was taken? What preparation of the subfloor did the installer do? Is the flooring installed by - floating/nail down/glue down ? Is your heating working? are you living in the house? Are you drying clothes on a radiator maybe? any idea where moisture could be coming from? Who is the installer? a wooden floorlayer? a carpenter? a builder maybe?
Adding to the points mentioned above, the humidity of your house if maintained constant would maximize the chance of getting it righter. Besides, there are also certain other factors that are to be considered as Matt pointed in his response. However, my flooring contractor Twin Flooring was able to fix all of the flooring requirements in my house. I'm quite happier that I haven't experienced any discomfort with my floor
