Does anyone know the name of tool for cutting wood flooring?

I have a serious problem with my wood floors. They are continuously moving/expanding and bulging at various points around the house. For the carpenters/DIY'ers out there does anyone know a good power tool that could be used to go around the edge of the walls and cut a bit off the wood floor? The problems are that a circular saw wont get into the wall close enough. Any help would be much appreciated as I am going nuts with this whole problem!

This may be a deeper problem than you realise.

I suggest you search the AAM forums for posts in relation to the laying of materials on wet or damp concrete floors and screeds.
Also you should read up about the allowance times for drying out and the rate at which heat should be turned on.

In relation to the flooring you will need a flooring carpenter to come in, lift part of it and trim it.
Unless the other issues I noted above are addressed you may be wasting your time.


ONQ.

[broken link removed]

All advice on AAM is remote from the situation and cannot be relied upon as a defence or support - in and of itself - should legal action be taken.
Competent legal and building professionals should be asked to advise in Real Life with rights to inspect and issue reports on the matter at hand.

seems to be more & more issues like this being reported on AAM. As OMQ detailed, have a read through the past forums & if this is a continuous issue for you, there may be a fundamental issue under the boards... when were they put down?

I've been through this issue myself - hammer & chisel .. tough work, but you get through it after a few hours (I've heard of a chainsaw being used, but each to their own). I needed to take radiators off the wall to get at it, used a number of different sized wood chisels to get a "clean edge"... BUT if there is a fundamental issue with what is underneath the floor, then the wood will swell again...

thanks folks. I rang the wood supplier and he said pretty much the same thing. "What moisture readings did they get?" Answer: pretty sure theey didnt take any! I got myself into this situation by believing what my builders were telling me and are still telling me. That is "we have laid these types of floors all over Ireland. We have never seen anythin like this before, it must be the wood". What the floor guy recommended doing was because I dont know how poor/incompatable the moisture readings were I should relieve the stress all around the floor - take out full lenghts and cut where necessary. Then mark on the floor some measusuresment and monitor it for as long as possible. The floor will look like crap for the time being but I think it makes sense. He reckons as bad as the moisture readings might be the floors cant expand forever. Then when I reckon they have stopped, trim the boards and put them back in. Sounds like a sensible approach.
Also, I have a suspended wooden floor under the wood flooring. They put insulation between the joists and sealed with expandable foam. DOnt know if this is as good as vapour layer or if one should have been used on a suspended floor.

I thought the flooring had been had laid on a "wet" slab.

It now seems as though the flooring was laid on an existing suspended timber floor.

What is the build up of this floor - is this an old house with a floor void underneath the lowest floor?


ONQ.

[broken link removed]

All advice on AAM is remote from the situation and cannot be relied upon as a defence or support - in and of itself - should legal action be taken.
Competent legal and building professionals should be asked to advise in Real Life with rights to inspect and issue reports on the matter at hand.

I can understand the frustration & annoyance you are feeling... big money is paid over to "so called experts"... but assuming it's not the wood itself, would you think you have leaks underground? pin hole in a pipe as an example? Is the floor expanding in specific areas?

I wouldn't be into taking out full length boards - assume your floor is glued together? I would cut back where it is flush up against the wall (might be everywhere if there wasn't any gap left around originally when fitted), leave it settle for up to a week (floor should go down within a few hours after cutting back around the edge), then check the floor edges again - see if it's gone / moved flush again, against the wall...

I had to do this a few times in the space of a few months... originally got the floor guys back in to "fix it" - caused more issues that they solved, had it out with their "boss". Got another guy in to go over it again... next couple of times, just did it myself... this was going on for about 8 months... but it's settled now (3 years later), no issues since.. any "extra" gaps that were seen after skirting was put back on needed to be filled in with wood filler. Thankfully not too much was needed.

Good luck with it...

Jazz01 said:

I can understand the frustration & annoyance you are feeling... big money is paid over to "so called experts"

Click to expand...

It seems that there may have been no "experts" involved - that may be part of the problem - a builder and a supplier gave advice.
Regardless of the construction detail and assuming the floor below wasn't "wet" the timbers still needed time to acclimatise.
This has been the subject of comments on many threads on AAM recently and persons laying floors should know this.


ONQ.

[broken link removed]

All advice on AAM is remote from the situation and cannot be relied upon as a defence or support - in and of itself - should legal action be taken.
Competent legal and building professionals should be asked to advise in Real Life with rights to inspect and issue reports on the matter at hand.

It is an old house so there is a floor void then the joists with insulation between, OSB board, underlay then the wood flooring.

It has gradually started to appear all over the house. Seems to concentrate in areas where there is a more complicated structure such as near a door so I think this was where the blokes didnt get the details right so the wood has no where to go when it expands etc.

Thanks for the advice. I will do the cutting around the edges but there are areas such under the kitchen units where I could take a full lenght out and noone would see so still might do that. And then pray!

As others have said, you need to ensure the root cause is addressed. The fitter is responsible for ensuring the conditions are right before laying the flooring. The taking out boards and marking over a long time sounds to me like they're tryig to fob you off and they don't know what they're doing.

To answer the question, you can get specialist trim saws that can be used for this. Take the skirtings off and trim a few mil as required.

For the akward places around doors etc., a [broken link removed] can be used. I love the multi-tools, so many uses from one handy tool.
Leo

FYI - The Jamb Saw seems to be the best thing out there. Unfortunately no-one seems to rent them in Dublin. Followed the Link, Leo, but their Irish branch doesnt have them. Can buy it for €310. Pretty costly.

Hi,

Type oscillating saw into Google and look at the you tube videos I never used one but your job looks what they were made for, you don't have to spend a fortune on one follow this

I expect there are similar available from other stores.