Shocking floor

[qIroS]

I've just had a google for this, and there seem to be a few suggestions but I was wondering if anyone had practical idea or experience of this.

We've just had laminate flooring put down in the hallway, lounge and dining room and now every time we touch something metal, or each other, sparks literally fly.

I realise this is static but what can be done about it? I usually wear wool and cotton and have leather soled slippers so I don't think I can fix it by wearing natural fibers.

Any way to earth the floor other than digging it up and putting earthed metal under it?

[Tim]

anti static spray I reckon. Trouble is it will probably wear off quite quickly, but maybe enough will reside in the texture of the surface to be useful?

Haven't tried this - but that's what I's go for as an experiment.

Cheers

Tim S

[Michael Mcneil]

*%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26newwindow%3D1%26group%3Dsci.physics.*%26safe%3Doff%26selm%3D290b5eaf.0304172153.126333d4%2540posting.google.com%26rnum%3D1http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&newwindow=1&safe=off&threadm=290b5eaf.0304110054.4f31d05b%40posting.google.com&rnum=2&prev=/groups%3Fhl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DISO-8859-1%26newwindow%3D1%26safe%3Doff%26q%3Dstatic%2Bshocks%2Bearthing%26btnG%3DGoogle%2BSearch%26meta%3Dgroup%253Dsci.physics.*(Yes I know about make a short link. I also know about copy and paste.)

[qIroS]

ghItlh "Michael Mcneil"

Thanks for those. When reconstructed (the second one was particularly good with the added blank lines. Nice touch, I thought), these provide no practical information about ways to reduce or eliminate static buildup on laminate flooring.

Anyone who has/had a problem with static after putting in laminate flooring have any bright ideas? I thought I may be able to fit some kind of conductor onto the flooring and attach it via a resistor to a nearby radiator... Might try that anyway unless anyone thinks it's a really bad idea for some reason (or won't work).

[Colin Wilson]

Maplins sell antistatic wrist straps :-}

• if any of you ever go to Las Vegas, I would strongly recommend getting one - you only need to walk 5 paces across the carpet in a casino to get a good jolt as you touch something metal :-}

[Grunff]

Your conductor would have to be a mesh or conductive paint covering the whole floor. If you're just thinking of attaching a wire to the floor at some point, then it won't work.

[Andrew Mawson]

Hook one of those 'humidifiers' on a radiator to increase the moisture content in the air. (I suspect that the problem is probably that the padding layer that they put under the laminate is a good insulator)

Andrew

[Phil]

I know what you mean. I put down laminate flooring in the summer and had exaclty the same thing, but now that you've reminded me of it, it's occurred to me that it hardly happens at all now. Give it a few months and yours may disappear too.

Phil

[qIroS]

ghItlh "Phil"

Thanks. I had read that in other historic posts on the matter. I think I might get a humidifier in the short term also. The air is very dry in here.

[mike ring]

Colin Wilson wrote in news:MPG.1a40382f161b8a7e989f60 @news.individual.net:

One of my colleagues in the beeb's cutprice superstatic studios thought it extremely funny to shuffle across the carpet and touch someone on the ear.

You could hear the crack of the spark across the room just before the scream.

It is hard to see how he was allowed to live.

mike r

[BigWallop]

If you have the click lock type flooring, then it might be possible to lift a couple of rows and slip in some cooking foil and an earth bond to a near-by socket or radiator pipe. Strip back the insulation off a piece of cable and staple it on top of and through the foil, then connect the other end to the socket or radiator.

[N. Thornton]

Hi

static is generated when certain materials rub. Changing the materials can resolve the problem.

Also discharge points can help, if you get discharged thru a resistance at various points in the room then not a lot builds up.

Increasing RH helps a lot too, and is probably the easiest solution.

A conductive bridge across your footwear often solves it.

Finally the last option is to conductify your floow: a pencil mark grid underneath the varnish, wires or carbon fibres glued on, any of these can create a resistive grid that can be earthed.

Regards, NT

[fred]

In article , qIroS writes

LOL

Many threads on this in the past (and much pants spoken), best one I heard was courtesy of Bob Eager:

We used to have this problem in a plastic floored computer room. They cleaned the floor regularly with fabric softener and it helped. Don't ask me why. I can see how it might work on carpet, but...

Nevertheless, worth a go I guess.

-- Bob Eager

S'pose it's that 'reduces static cling' thing, certainly a cheap option if it works, or you could rip it up & fit real wood instead of plastic ;-)

[Christian McArdle]

Yes, some stuff in my last house did this. It goes away after a month or two, after the top insulating layer wears down.

Christian.

[James]

[Andy Dingley]

I had that problem on one site, years ago. PHB wouldn't do a thing about it.

So we had an "accident" with copier toner. Looked a mess, but it discharged the static well enough.

-- Die Gotterspammerung - Junkmail of the Gods