On Wed, 18 Jun 2008 04:23:59 -0600, "Bob"
wrote:

A couple months ago (04/15/08) we replaced the carpet in our family
room with hardwood. The product was engineered wood made by
Capella Hardwood - pecan, if that makes any difference. It is
tongue and groove and glued directly to the concrete slab.

When it was installed, it looked great. Since then, several boards
have edges that are higher than the boards next to it. This
certainly was not that way when it was first installed. The height
of the raised boards varies from .005 to .017 inch, measured with a
feeler gauge.

I called the dealer, who is local and been in business for 30 years,
and who I have known for about 12 years. Fact is, after I retired
in 1990, I went into part time contracting and whenever I had a
customer inquire about flooring, I sent them to him. Probably only
once or twice a year, but I am sure that some of those I referred to
him bought from him.

Anyway, he came out and seemed to be spoiling for an argument from
the time he walked it. He had a brand new feeler gauge, which I
suspect he stopped and bought on the way over. He said that a
variation tolerance of one board over the next was .012, and that
most of the boards were within that tolerance. I said that this was
not explained to me when I bought to floor. Since, I have gone to
the web site of Capella Hardwood, and they make no mention of this
variation.

He asked me what I wanted him to do. I said I wanted it fixed and
he asked me how. I said I wasn't in the floor business and couldn't
tell him how to fix it.

....
If there is anyone in this group that has knowledge and experience
with hardwood floors, I would sure appreciate your comments and
suggestions.

Thanks in advance, Bob-tx (Georgetown)

I just finished installing 3/4" Capella Pecan 4 1/2" planks a few
months ago as a replacement for a lot of carpet, but I did not go the
glue down route on a lower level slab and opted for a floating
subfloor with the hardwood nailed on top of that. However, I did
consider gluing it down at first. If installed properly, the adhesive
is supposed to take the place of a vapor barrier. Even if the floor
was layed properly, I am not surprised by the variation. For one, that
is why they bevel the edges of prefinished hardwood, to "even" out the
changes a bit. Second, wood varies, and I would take that to mean that
even though engineered, the wood in the plys varies a bit from plank
to plank and therefore the plys may respond differently to moisture.
We are talking just a shade over 1/64" here, and I guess I am not
surprised by that amount of variation. However, if I saw 1/16" or
greater, I might tend to start worrying.