Laminate floor problems (with photos + video)

Semtax

I have a very annoying problem with some new laminate.

Around 2 weeks ago I fitted this to our sitting room. I bought around 15m2 of it from a local furniture shop along with some 5mm thick underlay.

It looks great and I was really happy with it, until this afternoon I noticed some chips at the end of a board right at the joint between another board. When i looked closer I noticed several boards with the same small chipping.



I knew for sure that it hadnt been like that originally as I had been very careful when fitting it. I left at least a 10mm gap between the walls and the floor and I had the boards in the room for around 70 hours before actually laying it so it wasnt expansion of the boards causing it.

Then I noticed that i could push the board down at the joint really easily. I can do this at most of the joints around the room.

Video here (Just watch the first 10 seconds).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVDHM9fIJ0k

So from what it looks like just by walking on the boards its pushing the ends down and then chipping away at it.

The flooring itself is 12mm thick from a company called "Floors-2-Go". Its AC3 rated apparently


Could it be that the underlay is perhaps too thick and spongy? Or perhaps the boards themselves arent great quality and dont fit together tightly at the end like they should? Any help would be much appreciated!

Dr_Colossus

12mm boards are very thick so there shouldn't be that much movement in them but what's the joint like between the end boards, any pics of any offcuts? They should lock together with something like a plastic slot holding them in place.
5mm underlay is also very thick unless a high density fibreboard or similar. If foam or similar this could be your problem as too much give in it even for 12mm laminate. Did the shop recommend the underlay for the particular board you purchased.
Never heard of Floors-2-Go but there are countless variations but AC3 would be on the lower end. Most modern stuff seems to be AC4 or even AC5.

tenbob1

AC3 flooring is half the quality of an AC4. No comment about that particular brand, but for reference we don't sell it. (ahem)

5mm underlay should not be used unless it is the correct density. 99% of them on the market are not, we no longer sell them as they cause the exact problem explained in the OP. So many places sell flooring as an "extra", and would not be familiar with this, really you should buy your flooring from a flooring store, just like you would buy a laptop from an electronics store and not a newsagent doing them in the corner. (~rant, sorry).

Semtax

Thanks for the feedback folks. Ill get a photo of the end joints shortly.

To be fair to the furniture store they actually had a large amount of their shop space dedicated to laminate / wooden and engineered flooring so I thought they would be fairly knowledgeable. They didnt mention anything about this being a possible issue.

Heres an image of the underlay. Its not dense by any means.


I think Ill head back to the shop tomorrow and ask for different underlay.

Would also be interested to see the connecting strips on them if you have any offcuts hanging around at all?

I have an older 7/8mm floor and the connection was effectively a straight piece of chipboard that slotted into a gap in the board beside it. It lasted, in fairness, but about 7-8 years on and a lot of them are broken and worn leaving movement like you have (except even more severe in some parts).

The new floor i put down is 12mm and has a much thicker connecting strip than the previous floor, and is also grooved to hold in place a bit better. I feel i'd really need to batter this one to damage it.


My underlay on both occassions was, I think 3mm (with the new floor getting a foil-back version as it's on bare concrete).

Semtax

Pics of the joints at the end of the boards.

tabby aspreme

That's a very basic end joint, the floor would need to be100% level and the underlay with no flex for that to work.

the_pen_turner

with no v groove . all the flex put all the stress right in that top edge. it has no where to go only break.

very bad design.

Semtax

After showing the shop the issue i was having they acknowledged that it was a very poor design. They hadnt actually noticed this design themselves and said they would bring it up with their supplier.

They gave me a much denser underlay to use. They said that if it didnt solve the problem to go back to them for different flooring which I think was decent of them.