Fix gap between Allure Ultra planks

midcentury

I just installed the Allure Ultra plank flooring from HD this past weekend. After reading all of the posts here, I was very meticulous about forming a perfect union between the tiles and getting the infamous "click". This morning, I woke and discovered a 6 inch portion that my finger nail slides into (on long side, toward the short side). It is toward the start of my project and imagine I had an installation "weak moment" , so I would have to remove 400 sf to get to it. Has anyone had success or have any ideas on how to re-secure, secure tighter, this loose click mechanism? I feel like there should be a way.. what do they say, where there is a will, there is a way?

Thank you,
Mid Century

tev9999

How far from the wall is it? Is there any way you can get leverage to push away from the wall (towards the gap) to close it?

I'm getting ready to put in the same flooring over about 700 square feet in four rooms and a hallway. To hopefully prevent the issue you ran into (and others), I'm thinking I will:

1. Disable the setback thermostat for the duration of the project. I usually drop the house to 61 when I am gone, which could be bad for normalizing the planks prior to installation.
2. Screw a solid 1/8" spacer along the entire front and left walls to ensure planks can't slip under the drywall as I wrestle with getting everything clicked together.
3. Use a feeler gauge to check gaps as I go to make sure I am not relying on just visual inspection to make sure everything is tight.
4. Since I probably won't be able to finish everything at once, use furring strips screwed to the subfloor to lock in and protect any open edges. I don't want the dogs (or me) sliding into it and torquing the planks out of place.

Any other tips for installation?

joecaption

Here's the trick. Do not just try and set the lock and push it down to the floor.
Work it up and down getting closer each time. Once it's set in place tap a across the whole piece with a piece of 2 X 4 and a dead blow hammer.
If you do not do this it's not going to fully lock and try to rise up.
I never ever try to install a snap lock type floor without the base boards in place. Just makes no since to me to do it any other way.
Trying to use a feeler gauge is just silly. It's easy enough to just look at it and see if there's a gap or not.

tev9999

I'm not a flooring expert, but 20+ years as a quality engineer/manager tell me the opposite. Visual inspection is never 100% effective. Looking for a dark grey gap on dark brown wood patterned flooring is not going to be all that easy after hours of work. Everyone has "weak moments" like the OP did. Running a mechanical check forces a second visual check too, and just might catch something that will take hours to fix later.

joecaption

Sorry if that offended you but the info is coming from some one who has installed hundreds of boxes of differant click lock floors.
Over seen at least a couple hundred remodels.
Done delt with dozens of flooring companys working as subs.
Never once was a feeler gauge used.
If I had of seen one used i would have sent them home.
No gap is exceptable.
Most DIY's think for some reason I'll make it up on the next row.
If there's a gap, Stop. There's a flaw in the tonge or the grove.
Inspect every piece before it goes in!

tev9999

No offence taken. Its actually next to impossible to offend me - especially on the internet

This is the first and possibly last click floor I will ever install. I'm a quality guy and like gauges. It makes it harder to screw up - especially for a novice. I'm going to guess that somewhere in those 100s of floors you missed an error. Not insulting your work - I'm just still waiting to meet the perfect human.

joecaption

Plenty of mistakes along the way. The trick is the longer you do things the better you get at fixing mistakes or making them look like they were suppost to be that way.