Located in Fort Lauderdale, Florida where we experienced what the city called a "1000 year flood event" back in April 2023, we had 26 inches of rain in about six hours time. The streets were flooded and water came up to the exterior walls, car stalled everywhere, the airport runways were flooded. In one of the rooms, the flooring is T&G bamboo planks. It is monolithic concrete slab and a glue down installation done in 1999. We were high enough so no living areas was flooded, but a few days after the event the bamboo flood began to warp and formed a bump. See pictures below you can see the floor is no longer flat. Clearly this means there is moisture intrusion to this floor from below. Strange things are (1) This area is not anywhere close to the exterior wall, it's at least 10' from any exterior wall, I would expect if the flood water got high enough to seep into the living space the perimeter areas will be the most affected, but the exterior perimeter of the room is fine. (2) that the flooding would affect the lower areas, and I have a patio and a garage that's six inches lower, and they stay dry. I could make sense of it. Good news is this is a guest room that is rarely used. I had too much going on at the time so I opted to wait and see if the floor settles. Well over time it did subside a bit, but not 100%, may be the bump went back down 50%. Bad news is it needs to be repaired, if possible. So last week I decided to remove the warped planks. Being T&G the flooring was glued down and still interlocked I had to use an oscillating tool to cut along the grooves in some areas, and in other areas I was able to tease out with the tongue still preserved. I removed ten planks, individually they are not warped, but there is a seam where the T&G popped out when the bump was high and they are not going to fit back down. The rest of the floors are fine although some of the planks around the edge of the cut out are "floating" in a sense that whatever adhesive that was used to glue them down is no longer holding. I can fit a putty knife under it and pry them up a bit. I have two boxes of the original bamboo flooring 24 pieces I can use to make the repair. I assume the first thing to do is to glue the planks around the edges back down? Any recommendation of what kind of adhesive to use for this? I seem to remember when they did the original install they used a brand called "Franklin" that they said it's an adhesive that is also working as a vapor barrier since I have a concrete slab. To put the new pieces down I assume I will need to use a table saw and cut all the tongues off them so they can be inserted into the cut out? Thanks in advance for your guidance!
