Floating Lino floor problems

Pgale

Hi All,

We needed a new floor for our house and the flooring people recommended floating lino as it would be the only flooring system to put down without us having to replace all the floor underneath as our house is on steel stumps.

We have laid down some of the new Lino floating floor throughout our house, we followed all instructions given to us from the flooring people. We found as soon as the heat hit in our floorboards all buckled up and separated. We had the flooring people back who told us we had laid it wrong and that there were no gaps between floor and wall. (well that wasn't true, we followed ALL instructions, its just that the floorboards had expanded THAT MUCH!))
Anyway we ripped it up and laid it again, making a larger gap between floor and wall. Now it hasn't buckled but it is still separating. I was wondering if anyone else has encountered this problem? It is doing our head in, we aren't feeling enthusiastic about laying it again. Would gluing the joints of the floor boards together be an idea? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!

joecaption

Going to need some more real details.
No clue what steel stumps would be.
What's there now for a subfloor exactly.
Trying to figure out why the house is moving that much.

Pgale

Our house is sitting on steel stumps. Because the house moves slightly with our soil type this is the type of flooring recommended to us as the floating floor is meant to just float around if the house slightly moves. We have the stardard flooring particle underneath.

joecaption

No clue what stardard flooring particle underneath is.
Could be partical board which sort of looks like compressed oatmeal, and is about useless as a subfloor or underlaymant.

Could be OSB which looks like long fibers of compressed wood.

spotco2

Where are you located?

rusty baker

I assume you are actually posting about vinyl. Vinyl and Lino are two entirely different products and require different installation methods and substrates. Need to know for sure what you have, to offer advice.

__________________
"I'm twisted, not sick. Sick implies, I'll get better"
Semi-Retired Installer
Installing since 1973

rusty baker

If you are talking about the IVC type vinyls, the expansion gaps are because the walls expand and contract. They will not work well if the floors are moving, because the moving floor will push them up tight against the walls and cause them to buckle.

__________________
"I'm twisted, not sick. Sick implies, I'll get better"
Semi-Retired Installer
Installing since 1973