Laminate and Floating Floor Problems

Increased moisture is the cause of a growing floating floor. The effect will range from no noticeable change in appearance to peaking, cupping, buckling (tenting), warping, delamination, blistered edges, finish damage, squeaking and gaps. Engineered wood, laminate and bamboo flooring are hygroscopic. These materials increase and decrease in moisture content with change in the ambient relative humidity (RH). To better understand hygroscopic, think of the kitchen sponge. The wet sponge absorbs moisture and swells, as it dries it shrinks. That’s what wood and bamboo products are constantly doing though usually in a subtler way. Once exposed to a large moisture gain the effect of the growing floating floor becomes the most severe. Also see Shrinking Floating Floor
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Shrinking floating floor has been a common floating floor concerns in recent years. Seen often with strand bamboo flooring, also laminate, engineered wood and even luxury vinyl floating floors. A floor looks beautiful for a while and suddenly develops wide gaps at plank ends, sides along walls or at doorways.

The Panicked homeowner calls the dealer and says, “I have a shrinking floating floor!” After a quick visit to the house, the dealer, installer and perhaps the distributor agree that the floor is shrinking. Now the blame game starts.

• The homeowner blames the dealer for selling them a lousy product.
• The dealer blames the installer for not installing the floor correctly.
• The installer blames the manufacturer for selling a defective product.
• The manufacturer blames the homeowner for not properly caring for their new floor.

The Weinheimer Group or other Certified Inspector, will visit the installation. To end this blame game they will perform testing, identify cause and document cause in a written report. [Read more…]