Hello! I’m not sure what to really say, because I’ve never posted here before, but I’m hoping anyone can help. I’m renting an old house that was built in the 1930’s give or take, and it has mostly alllll original work. I’m trying to replace our carpet with laminate planks, and I’ve come to an issue in the livingroom. We have floor vents in every room, and in our livingroom the wood floor under the carpet is buckling against the wall by the vent. It’s about 3 feet long of a bump. I know you can’t put hardwood, laminate or anything like that over uneven flooring so I need to fix this issue. My landlord isn’t going to, so nobody please remind me that they should. 😖 The wood thats “buckling” looks like tongue and groove, and I know if you go in our basement and look up you’d be looking directly at floor joists & our “subfloor” which is planks- not solid sheets. I don’t think this is from water damage but I’m not 100%. The kitchen sink is about
11 feet away, and the washing machine is about 11 feet away too (used to be a bathroom, now it’s a small laundry room). We don’t have a fire place, but there’s what looks like a chimney on top of the house, and in the basement there’s what looks like a brick rectangle from the concrete floor through the ceiling, and a bunch of HVAC vents/ducts and plumbing lines around it, which is also right around where this bump is. I know, probably a lot of useless information. I’m just very lost about what to do. Anyway, I’ll try to put some pictures in to show what I’m talking about. The wood floor being shown probably just has to be taken out and replaced. It’s very dry and broken looking. Some of the flooring in the house looks good but some does not (like this spot). If anyone can tell me ANYTHING about this floor please do. Being an older out of date house it’s a little more confusing for me to find proper information. I’d like to know how to even this out for laminate plank flooring, and just any information about this floor in general. What kind it might be, how to safely remove & replace since it’s around a heating/cooling duct. I’m thinking I probably have to take that old wood out, and put down new, then I can proceed with laminate on top. I think it’s tongue and groove but honestly do not know. I don’t even know how it happened. ANYYYYY information is helpful information 😅 Also I read something once about black glue used back around the 1930’s contained asbestos? Under the carpets foam pad is black mucky dry stuff, and parts of the carpet pad stick to it. Pad is pretty dry and brittle. Our duct/vent looks to be nailed to the wood flooring thats in question too. /The wood floor that’s in question is a light color that someone previously painted a purple/maroon color, and it’s chipping away/ I wish they never ever tried to paint the floor because I can see in other areas the original color and it’s a pretty color. I also want to mention in the basement there’s no insulation. It’s concrete walls & floor. There’s a man made hole in the wall that leads to the other half of the house but it’s not accessible right now. That side has pink insulation on the ceiling. The side of the house that IS accessible in the basement is just concrete, wood joists, plank subfloor, and a bunch of wires & copper pipes & HVAC vents. And spiders. 😬TL;DR: Floor is “buckling” by floor heating/cooling vent. Want to replace carpet with laminate but the buckling makes it uneven. Want to know how to fix it and make it even without breaking anything important 😂
