laminate moving in one direction

nlmedic · 03-01-2011, 02:42 AM

Hi everyone, This is my first post so bear with me, I think this is going to be really hard to explain lol

I have just moved into a new home where I did all the finish work and the flooring. I laid laminate and followed the directions to a T, I left a 3/8" expansion gap all the way around the room and at T strips. the problem I am having is that my laminate keeps moving or expanding in one direction instead of expanding and contracting equally in both directions..... I tap it back to the right expansion gap and two weeks later it has moved again and I have to tap it back again to put it back in place.... it keeps going in the same direction. I want to install my baseboards but I am hesitant because then I won't be able to move the floor back to the right gap when it moves again.

To clarify the actual place where this is happening I will try and describe the layout of the room. I have a living room that is 12' wide by 24' long going from the front of my house to the back. Then there is a reducer and it goes into vinyl floor in my dinning room and kitchen with which I have no problems with. At the back of my living room or where the reducer is I have a hallway that is perpinducular to the living room and runs towards the bedrooms, that is 3' wide by 25' long. I have a T mouling seperating the living room and the hallway. The laminate keeps moving away from the T moulding that seperates the hallway from the living room. It moves to the extent that the T moulding isn't even covering the laminate. I'll describe it in east and west directions. the laminate in the living room moves east and the laminate in the hallway moves west in opposite directions. I use a laminate tool and tap the living room planks back so the T mouling covers them and do the same for the hallway and in two weeks the laminate has moved east and west again and I move it back to normal and so on.... I have no idea how to rectify this and don't want to install baseboards because then I have no way of moving the floor anymore. I have 1/2" base boards and a 3/8" gap so I only have an 1/8" to play with.

I am very discoraged with the whole laminate thing, I should of just done hardwood, but I wanted the durability of laminate.

Thanks for any help I get.

Fantastic · 03-01-2011, 08:56 AM

I've dealt with the same problems when I put laminate in my old house.

Its on the move because it's floating. Before I put the baseboard on I put a couple screws at the corner it was moving to. Not through the floor but into the subfloor with just enough of the screw above the floor to hold it in place. I put the screws in and walked around on it for a week after I put them down to see if the floor moved a different way or stayed put.

Worked like a charm!!

nlmedic · 03-01-2011, 08:38 PM

Ya, that's what I thought about doing to... the whole floor is not moving it is just two or three rows ( I know this because I have gone around the room with a peice of baseboard and checked) and I keep re-adjusting those rows and they move in the same direction again and again. so I thought about putting a screw at the end of the row so that they can't move in that direction anymore but can still expand but only in one direction.

Has anyone else had this issue? What other solutions have people come up with?

Dave