New wood floor caused adjacent tiles to crack and buckle

Basq

Had a new wooden laminate floor put down about 3 weeks ago in sitting room.

Lit fire today and heard an almighty cracking and popping noise an hour or two later from the kitchen.

Went into the kitchen and all the tiles running along the adjacent wall to sitting room in the kitchen looks to have came away from the wall and the whole floor over the course the evening has become completely uneven and loose tiles all over the place, and one cracked too by the corner.

The only thing I can think of is the expansion of the wooden floor pushed and caused the tiles to come away on the opposite side - surely the floor must be related. The tiles are about 12 years old and have not been problematic.

An absolute gutted about this! I do remember a substantial gap being left around as skirting boards were put down after but it feels quite tight by sitting room / kitchen door.

Anyone hear of this happening before?

_Brian

I’ve heard it could happen, but never an instance where it did.

Are you saying it has pushed the internal wall so much that the tiles in the next room were lifted ?? If so then the damaged tiles may be small fry if the wall has been moved. Is it a concrete or wooden stud wall ??

Basq

_Brian wrote: »

Are you saying it has pushed the internal wall so much that the tiles in the next room were lifted ??

Essentially yes.. they've come away from the wall and essentially feel looseish under foot.

If so then the damaged tiles may be small fry if the wall has been moved. Is it a concrete or wooden stud wall ??

Wooden stud wall.

Sleeper12

The laminate floor shouldn't be able to cause this damage. When installed they shouldn't be uptight to the wall. There is always a few mm of a gap left for expansion.

Edit: I'm just thinking about it now. If the laminate floor expanded & there was no room to expand I'd expect the laminate to buckle & bow as it's a floating floor. I could be totally wrong but thinking about a floating floor, a stud partition & floor tiles I would expect the floating floor to give rather than the partition or tiles. As I said I could be totally wrong.

dodzy

With sleeper on this. Have only ever seen this once, and the boards buckled. No chance the could push a studded partition to cause this damage. Hope it’s not pyrite.

_Brian

I suppose if there was enough furniture on the floor it would prevent it buckling up and so push at the stud wall.
Still, it would take enormous force to shift a stud wall, unless the wall had structural issues.

Basq

I actually don't think the wall has moved now..

.. I think it may have been pressure around the door area - as these tiles appeared to be first to go - and as a result, the adjacent tiles were pressured and buckled.

Jaysus, not even thinking about pyrite. I didn't know much about it until this morning. Was a sleepless night thinking about it.

Think wooden floor made sense to blame since it's only down 3 weeks.

With the buckling / unlevelling across tiles though, I'm thinking a cracked floor could be probably.

Not sure where to go next tbh.. probably lift tiles and assess damage.

BrokenArrows

Check the laminate and the way it has been layed.
It shouldnt be touching any of the sides. There should be around a 1cm gap between the end of the laminate and the wall. This gap can be filled with a soft material like cork or sponge, but is usually just covered by the skirting.

If the person has layed the laminate tight to each wall then it will buckle with heat and moisture as it expands and contracts.

However in saying that, the floor will buckle long before it moves a wall. Unless the wall was in a pretty poor state to begin with.

raspberrypi67

The floor needs a healty gap all the way around, shouldent have happened if the floor was laid correctly.

Sleeper12 wrote: »

The laminate floor shouldn't be able to cause this damage. When installed they shouldn't be uptight to the wall. There is always a few mm of a gap left for expansion.

Edit: I'm just thinking about it now. If the laminate floor expanded & there was no room to expand I'd expect the laminate to buckle & bow as it's a floating floor. I could be totally wrong but thinking about a floating floor, a stud partition & floor tiles I would expect the floating floor to give rather than the partition or tiles. As I said I could be totally wrong.

Basq

What about if it was tight around a threshold? The floors are at slightly varying levels (kitchen slightly lower than a floor).

I'm exhausting all possibilities.. wonder if a leak or something underneath the cement floor that may have caused it.

iano.p

First thing I would look for is a leek. Is there a back boiler on the fire? Is the wooden floor touching the tiles anyplace

Basq

iano.p wrote: »

First thing I would look for is a leek. Is there a back boiler on the fire?

No back boiler.

We were away for a few days and gas boiler was off (Nest controls heat which showed no heat was on, and no hot water was on). I did get a service done on gas boiler last week before leaving and 2 leaks were fixed (one at a motorised valve in hotpress and other under pipr in boiler). But have noticed gauge has dropped from say 1.5 Bars last week to under 1. Does seem strange.

iano.p wrote: »

Is the wooden floor touching the tiles anyplace

No, it's not. Am thinking the floor is a red herring for some reason.

iano.p

Basq wrote:

No, it's not. Am thinking the floor is a red herring for some reason.

Wouldn't think it's connected to the new floor. It could be a coincidence. Without having a good look myself. Did you get new skirts fitted also? If so we're they nailed. Is the grout damp under the tile? If the boiler is losing pressure there's a leak someplace.

Basq

iano.p wrote: »

Wouldn't think it's connected to the new floor. It could be a coincidence. Without having a good look myself. Did you get new skirts fitted also? If so we're they nailed. Is the grout damp under the tile? If the boiler is losing pressure there's a leak someplace.

Yes, new skirts/architraves which were nailed.

Haven't checked under tile - only one is actually cracked. Gonna get plumber in to do pressure test tomorrow.

A lot of the tiles sound hollow in places and reckon some have lifted slightly but don't seem to be getting any worse (with stove and rads on today) so I'll figure out tomorrow.

No obvious leaks from rads around kitchen or adjoining back hall or bathroom.

iano.p

Basq wrote:

Yes, new skirts/architraves which were nailed.

I would be looking if a pipe got nicked with a nail and water has gone under the new floor and tiles. If it has got nicked a small leak over a few weeks will do a good bit of damage.

Basq

iano.p wrote: »

I would be looking if a pipe got nicked with a nail and water has gone under the new floor and tiles. If it has got nicked a small leak over a few weeks will do a good bit of damage.

Yeah, they were installed about 3 weeks ago so could be possible I suppose.

I don't *think* there's any water pipes running alongside the wall in the kitchen opposite to where they were nailed though.

I'm a bit worried about freezing temps not if there is a leak that it could get worse.

Basq

Lifted one tile in the corner that cracked yesterday...



Not wet but not looking great in corner there surely.

Basq

Yeah.. outside of a serious leak here.. can't help but think extreme change in temps were at play here. Nest set at 14°C wasn't sufficient while away from home for few days and stove (albeit in separate room) to tiles must have been issue. But honestly didn't expect as serious as this.