Shock! Horror! Laminate floor cracked!

[Mike Mitchell]

In my final push to moving, I had been packing boxes all day today for taking them to the self-storage place tomorrow. In one of the rooms I cleared some stuff and yikes! The new laminate flooring, which I laid only three weeks ago, had two boards which were cracked at the join. Right in the middle of the room.

Did I leave the panels long enough to acclimatize? Was this brand crap quality? Panic!

Anyway, I had several unused planks left over from the three rooms, and so set about removing the panels to half-way across the room in order to get to the damaged pair. This of course meant first prising off the beading around the skirting board. All in all, a right royal

*uc* up, I thought. Oh, why didn't I choose carpet instead!

But actually, after the beading was away on three sides, the panels came up easily. I didn't actually have to lift them away altogether - only the first row. The others I just slid over a few inches keeping them flat on the floorboards underneath in order to get to the damaged area. I reached this and lifted the damaged boards. The laminate and roughly top two or three millimetres on these had torn away from the base. Then I noticed that the adjacent, undamaged panel stood a little proud. Carefully, I lifted it slightly so that I could slide a tool underneath. What came out? Why a little piece of an offcut...

Yep, for three weeks I have been walking across the floor and standing fairly heavy packing cartons on it all the while there was a gap right in the middle where the one plank was "resting" on this little offcut. The two boards adjacent basically gave up the ghost, something had to give, and they cracked. I was CERTAIN I had checked and rechecked the floor as I was laying the panels to make sure all bits had been removed. This offending piece was really tiny - about 6 mm by 8 mm - but massive, of course, when left in the position it was.

Replacing the two boards and the original boards took all of 10 minutes, so the whole nightmare (as I thought I was faced with) only took about an hour tops.

Moral of this story: Check and check and check again! I will Hoover even more vigorously next time if I do a similar job elsewhere.

MM

[Mary Fisher]

That's a very telling story, Mike, I hope I'm not the only one to have read it.

Mary

[Sparks]

Thanks for posting that, I will be laying Laminate v.soon, so will make absolutely sure there is nor cr*p leaf on the floor!

Sparks...

[Ballistic]

Sheesh! Good one matey. I will be laying laminate in few rooms myself...I will now watch extra carefully!

Thanks for that!

Gordan 'Ballistic' Bijelic

[Mary Fisher]

We laid ours on 'underlay' boards which were swept clean and in their turn laid on the original floorboards. They had to have all nails hammered flush, all carpet nails removed, humps and bumps planed or sanded, the whole area sanded, swept and wiped a couple of times with a damp cloth. It was hard work, took time and was very messy but it was worth it.

Mary

[Mike Mitchell]

At least this has shown just how easy it is to lay or, if necessary, remove this laminate flooring. After half the floor having been removed, then replaced, it looks as good as it did the first time round. There are no gaps where might assume the panels/planks would have been somewhat looser the second time around. I reckon, with care, one could remove/replace the panels two or three more times before the tongues and grooves would start to become sloppy. Note also that this flooring was cheap (Smartclick Beech from Floors-2-Go), though not the cheapest available.

MM

[Mary Fisher]

Yes, I forgot to say how easy it seemed to be. That's comforting. It looks so permanent ...

Mary

[Philip Wagstaff]

Well worth the read. My wife's v keen on this stuff but I'm not so sure. Is not it easily damaged by grit carried in on shoes and surely it's a nightmare if you need to get at underfloor cabling, pipes?

[Mary Fisher]

Ours hasn't been - admittedly to my surprise! It's harder wearing than floorboards.

Well, the OP described how easy it was to take up and replace. We haven't had any problems - but - come on - how often do you have to do that? It can be a pain taking up carpet to do it ...

Read the whole thread.

Mary

[Mike Mitchell]

Well, continuously dragging grit across could I suppose damage it eventually, but the actual laminate surface is amazingly resilient. For example, I laid glued laminate in the "dining" end of the kitchen about 9 months ago. Due to the fact that I am crap at project planning, I then spent the next nine months traipsing across it to go to the shed and the garden...

But in this time no damage has occurred! I sweep, Hoover, and occasionally wipe down the laminate and it still looks as good as new. Once or twice I have even dropped a hammer on it accidentally.

As for removing it to gain access, I think I have proved that it is not nearly so much of a pain as I might have imagined. The laminate in the bedrooms is the click variety, not glued. I chose glueless, because although you have to use the glued sort where moisture might be a problem (e.g. dining end of my kitchen), glueing is a messy job and it's unnecessary in any of the living rooms. Thus the click type is very easily unclicked! I can't speak for all brands of flooring, but mine is certainly very easy to lay and very easy to unlay!

MM