Floating floor dynamics.

sgbotsford

How does a floating floor work when you have more than one heavy item in the room. Example: Piano in one corner, stove in the other. Or waterbed on one side, and heavy Armoire on the other. Wouldn't the weight of these pin the floor down at that point?

We're considering redoing our kitchen in laminate, and I want lift all the cabinets, and run the flooring over the entire kitchen. (The cabinets are not attached to the wall or floor. Think euro style.) But a pantry cabinet full of food weighs several hundred pounds. Is this a problem with a floating floor?

JetSwet

When you install laminate you are to install with 1/4" space on each side of the wall because when it expand and contracts it uses those spaces side to side not up nor down.

You are not suppose to install cabinets or fixed fixtures on Lam base trim needs to just rest on the floor.

If your installing a low grade like 6 or 7mm you might get indents over time but not shore.

sgbotsford

I guess I didn't make it clear. Rest a very heavy object on the laminate floor. Assume taht it has enough leg area to not crush the laminate. Now THAT part of the floor isn't going to move on the base. It's like dragging a rug with a football team standing on one edge of it.

Now do the same thing elsewhere.

Or think of it this way. Fridge on one side of the room, chest freezer on the other. Are you saying that the floor expands and contracts moving both units 1/4 inch back and forth? What if they are pianos instead? Stuffed elephants. Gold statues. At some point the floor joints with buckle or separate, because the weight is too much to move. How much is that weight?

JetSwet

It will be fine just don't cheap out on the laminate.
In your case it's either hardwood floor or laminate
The more $$ you spend on laminate better quality.
As per your objects weight and concerned with floor joists?!.... If your subfloor plywood was installed correctly the wait span in any room can with stand massive amount of weigh..... Elephant, car, gold statues maybe not all in one shot though.

rmansfield

The answers given do not help much and this one may not either but I understand your question. And the answer is "it depends!" (Not much help here.)

Idealy there would be no friction between the floor and subfloor so that the weight would not pin down the floor and it would float as designed. In the real world there is friction. If the force of expansion is less that the friction force the floor will be pinned down at multiple points and the floor will most likely buckle. (any help so far?) There are so many variables it impossible to say what would happen.

I would suggest putting plastic down to reduce the friction. The thicker the flooring the more likely it will not buckle. A 3/4" strip floor would be best, followed by engineered flooring and lastly laminates. Lamininated would be most likely to buckle.

sgbotsford

This is pretty much the way I figured it. I was asking because I don't ever see mentioned of this in the instructions for laminate floorings. I've put in two lam floors in my house, and had no problems. But then spot checking the edge cracks says that the floors don't move much.

Because of the shape of the floor (The room has 16 sides, 2 non-door openings, 5 doors, an open stair, a wood stove, and an island, plus counters, appliances...) I think that a floating floor is a mistake. It's only advantage is that it is fast and cheap. At this point, my two options are ceramic or a nail down wood floor


The Allure flooring in the dining room however, even with the edge gaps has had problems. But the temperature changes in that room are greater than the specs -- it has a lot of windows, and we used as our plant room. It gets quite warm in summer, and chilly in winter. Allure's website says that it's supposed to be good only from 65 to 85 F. Frankly, I expect that flooring should be good from freezing (you have to keep the pipes thawed anyway...) to 120 (You turn off the air conditioning when you are away) I'll know better next time.