# warped engineered plank out of the box



## bobbo (Feb 1, 2009)

I bought brazillian cherry engineered 1/2" thick, 3.5" wide and max 4' length. Some of the planks are not flat against a straight edge. I am trying to sort out and not use the warped planks. However, a salesperson at the store told me that the warped planks will straighten out once installed. I dont believe what he said to be true. 

I am glueing them to concrete.

It is reasonable to expect 5% of the materials to be defective...but I have much more than 5%. I think the place where they warehoused the wood did not have the proper moisture content (possible hurricance Ike outage?).


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## Floorwizard (Dec 5, 2003)

Possibly. If your gluing then you will need to wait for the warpage to go away. Do you have a way of checking moisture content?


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## bobbo (Feb 1, 2009)

Thanks for the reply floorwizzard. How the fishing in Alaska?

I dont have any tools to check for moisture content of the wood. If the planks are engineered, would the moisture of the plywood side will be different than the hardwood side?

Should I use a humidefier to induce the straightening?


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## Mudd (Dec 29, 2008)

Bobbo - 

The salesman may or may not be correct... to know for sure, you'll need to define "warp" a little more precisely.

For example, it isn't uncommon for wood planks to have a bit of a "bow" to them, with either the ends up or the middle up. If you can push the plank flat, either from the middle or the ends, and it's otherwise square, then there shouldn't be an issue. As you tongue and groove the bowed plank to the adjacent row, that should keep it flat, and maybe a little weight on if while the glue sets wouldn't hurt.

If the warp is sideways; the plank lays flat, but the plank has a gentle or pronounced "C" shape, then it's pretty much trash.

Twisted planks are also usually goners.

If you have over 5% of the latter two types of warpage, then I'd take the boxes back to the retailer and say, "I got defective product. I paid for non-defective product."

The retailer should have no problem getting the distributor to send more boxes and getting credit for the defective ones.

I'm a retailer, so I know... 

- Mudd


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## Floorwizard (Dec 5, 2003)

> How the fishing in Alaska?


I don't ice fish.
Hit me up in July....


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## bobbo (Feb 1, 2009)

Thank you for the reply Mudd. Based on your explanation, these planks are bowed and not warped. These are 1/2" thick. If they were 3/8", bending them flat would be alot easier.... I guess I have to buy a lot of weights.....LOL heheehehe

I


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## HardwoodGuy (Jun 7, 2008)

Quite common with practically all manufacturers, including the better ones. They're often called banana boards and should not pose a problem when installing. In fact, weights may not be needed because once the floor is installed tongue and groove the overall weight of the floor and contact with a good adhesive will reduce or eliminate the effect unless you have many short pieces that are bowed.

Choose a quality adhesive and follow the recommened trowel notch size. Important here. On another note, if you're that concerned, I've found DriTac 6200 to work great with boards that may be bowed excessively. DriTac offers a permanent tacky bond. If some boards feel loose or look like they don't lay flat the next day weights can then be applied for about 24 hours.

It's a good alternative to urethane adhesives that do not offer an easy "next day fix."


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## bobbo (Feb 1, 2009)

Thank you hardwood, Floorwizard and mudd for answering my questions. Without you guys, this site may not be worth a darn....

Hardwood, my concern is banana boards may have less than full contact with the concrete. If 1 or 2 "banana boards are installed with the good boards, then the chances that the good boards will assist the straighten of the banana board and increase full contact with the concrete. However, if you lay a bowed board next to several other bowed boards, you may not have good contact with the concrete and weight and glue can only do so much.

I will definitely take your advice and use good glue. BTW, are there bad glue? Are bruce a lower quality adhesive than Bostic? I have tried to research which glue has better adhesive quality but were unsucessful. I heard that Bostic is pretty good. I have not heard about Bruce's adhesive.

I will look into dritac, but I thought it was a repair solution and not an installation solution.

Floorwizzard brought up an interesting idea of straightening the board. It is possible to use a dehumidefier or humidefier to straighen the boards?


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