gaps apearing in laminate flooring

Discussion in 'Carpenters' Talk' started by fobos, Jul 23, 2014.

  1. fobos

    fobos Member

    Hi all

    I've fitted loads of laminate flooring and there's never been a problem. Recently though I installed some at our house and after about 2 weeks gaps up to about a millimetre in size started appearing between the ends of the "planks". see photo

    [​IMG]

    The flooring is quickstep and uses a quickloc tongue and groove system which according to the instructions doesn't need gluing. The boxes were left in the room where they were to be fitted for 2 weeks prior to install. The floor was very flat. I can't work out why this happened.

    In our living room which is 5m x 6m there were 6 gaps. In the end I took the whole lot up and put it back down again glueing all the short ends together.

    Has anyone else had problems like this. Do others glue laminate flooring?

    Regards, Andrew
     
  2. snezza30

    snezza30 Member

    Fobos,

    I sincerely hope that you have solved all the problems that you are ever going to have with your Quickstep laminate flooring,............because you have just invalidated any warranty that Quickstep ever offered on your flooring.:eek:

    You ABSOLUTELY cannot glue any joints on a Uniclic type floating floor. It is designed in such a way as to allow the flooring to expand and contract depending on climatic conditions. Once glued, the joints will fail to expand and contract and potentially could ruin the complete floor.

    You should have got in touch with Quickstep's Technical helpline and they would have advised you of the best way to solve your problem.:rolleyes:
     
  3. fobos

    fobos Member

    Snezza30

    Its not true to say that "Once glued, the joints will fail to expand and contract and potentially could ruin the complete floor"

    The joints themselves do not expand and contract, its the boards or the floor as a whole that expands and contracts. Gluing the joints will prevent the boards from expanding or contracting individually and will ensure no gaps open up.

    It was Quickstep who advised me to glue the joints.

    Has anyone else had problems like gaps apearing in the joints in laminate flooring?
     
    Last edited: Jul 24, 2014
  4. Fobos,
    I have also had 2 gaps appear in quickstep flooring laid over 3 medium sized rooms (Luckily they were under furniture and have sold the house since). My own opinion why the gaps appear is that the quickloc tongue and grooves were not pushed together hard enough. This may have been due to some dust or similar stopped the tongue from fully connecting and over time the joint gap has widened. The gaps did not appear to be visible when the floor was first laid.
     
  5. joiner1959

    joiner1959 Active Member

    Did the tech boys not offer a suggestion as to why this happened as well as a solution.
    Over the years I have laid acres of Quickstep flooring lots in conservatories which are subject to extremes of temperature
    and never had a problem. Not done any for a while though, the old knees are playing up.
     
  6. snezza30

    snezza30 Member

    Well, I have been laying Quickstep laminate flooring for many years now and have never had gaps appear anywhere.
    To be honest, I am very, very surprised that Quickstep Technical have advised you to glue the ends of the boards !!!!!!!

    The idea of a Click together floor, as opposed to a glued floor, is to allow the COMPLETE floor to move at will, both in its length and width, unhindered in any direction within manufacturers tolerances. As soon as you start to glue certain parts of the floor and not others, you are going to create problems of un-even expansion/contraction of the COMPLETE floor. The floor is likely to start to "Ramp Up" in certain parts, and "Twist" in others.
     
  7. Mr. Handyandy

    Mr. Handyandy Screwfix Select

    I'm not sure laminate flooring expands and contracts much at all(nothing like wood).

    I would be more inclined to say there was a tad too much movement downwards at those joints, so weakening the joint and allowing lateral movement every time it is stepped on.

    Mr. HandyAndy - Really
     
  8. fobos

    fobos Member

    I have laid loads of quickstep flooring for years in clients houses and have never had any come back. This is not to say that gaps haven't apeared - I just haven't been notified of them. Most customers won't notice a 0.5mm gap or even 1mm gap and so probably don't tell you. This flooring was laid at my home and for me a gap this size is massive and I notice it straight away.

    Hit it with a hammer - I imagine that the reason you experienced gaps around furniture is because the heavy furniture is preventing contraction over the whole width or length of the flooring. The flooring cannot expand contract into the 8mm gap you left under the skirting board as it is weighted down.

    Joiner 1959 - the tech guys said that it can happen in areas where the floor isn't perfectly flat and that the solution is to glue the ends of boards together. I'm not sure about this as I checked the floor before underlaying and it was within tolerances for flatness.

    From googling it apears that gaps between the short ends of boards is not uncommon. Some "experts" say that the cause is weak tongue and groove locking systems and that it normally happens in areas where there is a lot of foot traffic causing the boards to move away from each other. The solution recommended is to glue the flooring along the short ends.
     
  9. snezza30

    snezza30 Member

    Approximately 16 years ago, I laid a glue together laminate floor in a clients lounge (approx. 7mtrs x 4mtrs). At each end of the room was a set of UPVC patio style doors.
    Two weeks after completion of the job, the client phoned to say that there was an issue with the flooring. I went back to have a look and found that the flooring had expanded in both its length and width by more than the 20mm expansion gaps that I had left (10mm around the circumference of the room). It had expanded so much that it had started to push the 2 frames of the patio doors away from their fitted positions and was straining the UPVC frames. The house was dry and the floor nice and flat and the floor manufacturers underlay had been fitted.

    I ended up stripping the lot up and throwing it all away. It was completely replaced with a click together laminate floor of a similar colour, and is still fitted to this day.

    In my experience, glue and laminate floor is a recipe for disaster and I have avoided it ever since.

    Snezza.
     

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