Does your basement show any wall or floor seepage? Is the basement wall concrete or concrete block? I had my basement (900 sq.ft.) water proofed last winter and there is no seepage at all. This June we had record rain of plus 10 inches, my basement dehumidifier shows less than 35% humidity, and doesn't extract any water if I run it for 12 hours (just checking). The sump pump moves a fair amount of water (I hear it trickling in the sump pit after heavy or long rain storms). I also run 2 24" box fans in the basement for air circulation.

I never open windows when it's cool (if you check the current conditions, with the cool temperatures I have +80% humidity...I'm in west Illinois). Room ceiling fans keep me comfortable with the a/c set at 74-76 degF (humidity less than 55%).

We don't have any seepage at all and our basement is concrete. We are running 2 dehumidifiers in the basement now. They are emptied every other day. Our floor have settled a little bit.

yiayiacheryl-does your exterior basement waterproofing have a sump pump, if so how much is it running?

As I mentioned I had my basement waterproofed (along the inside footings and drilling weep holes at the base of the bottom concrete blocks). Before this was done (in Jan 2015) my dehumidifier was pulling several gallons of water at least once a week. This was in the winter with no visible seepage. After the water proofing and despite getting 11" of rain in June my dehumidifier never removes any water...humidity shows as less than 35%.

Even if there is no visible water, moisture can seep through the porous concrete wall. It did on mine.

What's your exterior sump pump pit look like?

A 3 year old hardwood that has cupping issues for may not "settle down" more than what you see right now. Hopefully you can get a year or two of drying in (again, you will want to look at a full HVAC install and not just portable dehumidifiers) will help a little bit more.

Once wood gets puffy, it takes a LONG TIME to settle down. And it rarely goes "back" to original. The longer it is left at "puffy" the harder it is to get it "back to normal". You might get a bit more improvement...but don't get too upset if it never gets any better than it is today.

I would invest in a whole house humidistat. If you don't, you will be emptying your dehumidifiers every 2 days for the rest of your home's existance (even if you move out, the new owners will then have to continue on with your work).

I special ordered some oak flooring and it took a month. It arrived and about half way through the first box the wood was warped, all different widths and thickness and some were even chewed up. I told my contractor to do the best he could thinking I would deal with a refund later.

Well after 2 months of ignored email, and not returned voice mail calls, they sent me a copy of the instructions which in few small print says that if any wood is installed that is defective they will not pay for anything. The admitted it was defective but because I installed it, it says that I approved of the flooring. Nothing they can do about it.

Be very aware of these shysters. My contractor had told me that they will find some reason not to pay and he was right. Big companies don't give a d***.

Do a google search for lumber liquidators complaints and you will find at least 800 bad reviews. The only good ones are those that are just installed and they have not had to deal with trying to get it replaced when it starts to shrink and buckle.

Presently there are 103 class action suits against them and they are being investigated by the DOJ. I believe the stock drop not only has to do with the tainted wood from China but with customer satisfaction.

I will be selling my stock at a huge loss. I suggest no one buy wood from them or their stock if you don't want to get ripped off.

BTW you get what you pay for and less.

It sounds to me that a moisture barrier was not installed under the slab when they built your house, You might also want to do a Radon test to make sure that isn't too high. The Radon mitigating system would also pull some of the moisture from the basement.

We are running 2 dehumidifiers down in the basement. Our floors have settled just a little. The humidity level has improved because of the dehumidifiers. We are not going to sand the floors in the near future....We will probably wait till we get ready to sell the house :-(

notamused

We are nearing completion of a new house and recently noticed the wood flooring on the entire first floor is noticeably cupped. The lower level flooring, applied over cement with an appropriate moisture barrier seems to be ok so far. We are scheduled to move in in two weeks but I certainly don't want to do so if the ultimate solution is to replace the floor. I suspect (don't know) that there were several moisture issues. About 5-6 weeks prior to the floor being laid (it was done in mid-February) we had a couple of inches of standing water in the lower level. The Advantech used on the main level had been heavily wetted since its installation and, again, at 5-6 weeks before the wood floors were installed there were still areas of significant moisture - particularly near doors (no doors installed at that time but they were in my the time the flooring was installed) and where the roof leaked in the room. I am not a pro but my guess would be that the AdvanTech was not properly dried before the flooring went in. It probably didn't help that on some of the days the flooring was installed it rained. Also, the HVAC system still isn't up and running so that is of no help. Right now the builder is using a dehumidifier in the basement. Don't know if it will help. I have asked for an AdvanTech rep to come out to meaure the moisture content in the floor. I don't think it was a failure of the Advantech, I suspect it was improper drying and maybe a lack of MC measuremts of both flooring and substrate. I really don't want to rip out all the flooring - it's the entire main floor! But I also don't want to move into a house with a floor that we consider unacceptable. The builder has a certificate of occupancy and though he sounds willing to work with us, it's pretty clear that what he wants is for the basement humifier to help "calm the floor down" so that he can then have the cupped edges sanded down and call it good. Will the humidifier help? Should we go ahead and move in? Who is responsible for this mess?

Notamused, since you are posting on a dilemma that is 1 1/2 years old, you would be better off posting your own, new dilemma. You will get many more suggestions than you will here.

@notamused...I agree that it would be best to cut and paste your post into your own dilemma. You have a complicated issue that will get more complicated by using someone else's thread/story.