Newly laid wooden floor - need an expert!

[Andrew Wiseman]

We've just had a wooden floor laid at home (by professionals), and now I'm wondering how well the job has been done, and I'm hoping some of the experts here will be able to advise me.

It's a Bruce hardwood, engineered board, floating floor, made up of 5" planks. Most of the planks fit together perfectly (there is no groove), but at the ends of some of the planks there is a gap, wide enough to fit your thumbnail in.

My question is, should I be worried over these gaps, will they let moisture/grit in etc., or is it perfectly normal (and presumably with shrinkage/expansion gaps will change anyway)?

[The Natural Philosopher]

Expect at least .5% longitudinal expansion in summer, and up to 2% lateral. If you don't have gaps, you get buckling anyway.

Real wood floors are mnot laminate. If thats what yiu wanted, yoiu shoudl have got it :-)

[Andrew Wiseman]

"The Natural Philosopher":

Thanks. It seems I shouldn't be worried. (My other half wants the whole floor laid again! It seems they are going to offer to use filler.)

I was perfectly happy with laminate. With some of the products out there, it's difficult to tell the difference between that and real wood. Sadly my partner, bless her, wasn't having any of it. :-)

[Roger Mills]

There should be no gaps - the whole lot should float as one rather than individual boards moving. Having said that, it is actually more difficult when fitting it to get tight end to end joints than it is to get tight side to side joints. There is a slight gap in one of my end to end joints - under the staircase where it was very difficult to apply end pressure when fitting. I don't think it's a disaster - just doesn't look quite as good as a gap-free job. If you're worried about water penetration, you could try forcing some silicon-based furniture polish into the gaps.

Roger

[BillR]

A relative of mine had most of his flat done in real hardwood a couple of years ago. There are no gaps anywhere, it is immaculate and looks very classy ....

[Kev Parkin]

Do you mean the gap is between the boards or around the edges.

I had a Junkers wooden flooring professionally fitted - dont know if it's the same - the boards are fixed with metal clipsand the gap between the boards should be 0.1mm. The gap was more like 1mm hence was incorrect, also, the fitters left a large gap of 25mm at either end and at each side, they said it was for expansion (It's only a hall for pete's sake just over 2m long x 1.5m wide!) Have you tried getting

25mm thick+ skirting!

Well, I got the man from Junkers round and he tested the floor, humidity, etc and recommended that the gaps at the ends and sides could be sinificantly reduced, he also agreed that the gaps between the boards was too big and the floor was refitted. So i would reccommend you get the man from Bruce round to check it out.

Good luck

Kev