I bought 24 boxes of beautiful Bellawood Santos Mahogoney hardwood flooring. However, the installer we chose says the wood is bowed and cupping. Even I can see visible defects in the wood. The distributor we bought the wood from says that all 3/8" wood has some natural bowing, and that it requires muscle manipulation on the part of the installer, and the use of "straps."
Who out there agrees with this? Or do you think we got a bad batch of Bellawood?
I know that Bob Villa is a spokesman for Bellawood, so maybe there are some other Bellawood customers out there.
(p.s. the concrete passed the dryness test, and the wood was allowed to acclimate inside our air conditioned living room for three weeks prior to installation.)

Ask to talk to a wood pro at Bellawood.

1.800.366.4204

Describe the problem even email them an image.

MINOR bowing that can be taken out with the compaction action of manual or pneumatic fastening systems is normal. After all its a natural product, however, cupping is not normal and may be a factory defect.

Like Handyman said, talk to Bellawood.

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The right way and the wrong way.

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I have the same problem! Bought Bellawood Brazilian Mesquite 3/8" thickness. They are cupping too! A friend of a friend who is a flooring contractor, looked at it and said he has never seen anything like it! Call Bellawood and they said its an installation problem! Well, as per their instruction we put rosin paper underlayerment and used 1.5" staples every 8 inches or so. Its installed over plywood on the first floor. We have a full basement and it passes plastic sheet test as well. What's going on here. Never heard of Bellawood before bought because Bob Vila's name is on it.

Cupping is a problem associated with subfloor moisture content and the material. Regardless of what you may hear, rosin paper does very little to prevent moisture from coming through. The National Wood Flooring Association(NWFA) for years had been advocating standard 15 lb asphalt felt paper as a moisture retarder. Now they don't even include it anymore.

Were there any moisture tests done prior to the actual installation? Ooopps I see that in the initial question. Bellawood exotics have had a number of complaints over the years. In fact I know a LL manager that admitted a few years ago of the problems. Yet their domestic hardwoods are fine.

Weather and dew point can play a role during installation especially on concrete. Was the floor installed during a rainy spell with doors or windows open?