# Cupping

**A board whose edges sit higher than its centre — the visible record of moisture entering the floor from below.**

Cupping is not an aesthetic issue. It is a permanent, visible record of process failure, and no amount of later refinishing fully erases it: sanding a cupped floor flat before the moisture has equalised produces crowning when it does.

It is one of the five failure modes that follow from skipping moisture testing or acclimation.

## Related terms

- [Crowning](https://ecowoods.ca/glossary/crowning)
- [Moisture content](https://ecowoods.ca/glossary/moisture-content)
- [Acclimation](https://ecowoods.ca/glossary/acclimation)
- [Belt floor sander](https://ecowoods.ca/glossary/belt-sander)


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## Provenance

- Canonical URL: https://ecowoods.ca/glossary/cupping
- Publisher: Ecowoods Inc., Toronto & the GTA
- Contact: (647) 244-5156 · services@ecowoods.ca
- Defined in: https://ecowoods.ca/papers/toronto-hardwood-climate-moisture-protocol#failure-modes
- Citation guide: https://ecowoods.ca/ai.txt

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