What is the best way to create an expansion gap without taking the skirting off or is that inevitable? One of our clients has a tenting floor due to moisture and wants us to widen the expansion gap around the perimeter but doesn't want do any decorating after. Thanks
Presuming the moisture has come from a source other than under the floor and depending on the thickness of the floor you could use an Exakt saw or a Festool plunge saw to cut around the perimeter. You would then have to cover the gap with a trim.
Unfortunately that is the problem. It is a village hall and they only have heating on when someone is in the hall so maybe twice a week otherwise it is off. With the recent rain fall and cold weather the boards haven't been able to dry properly and are now tenting. I will obviously put to them that the whole problem needs to be addressed but for now I just needed to know if it is possible to create an expansion gap without taking the skirting off. So the bit that is cut off and is loose under the skirting won't stop the floor from expanding? Really that loose bit needs to be removed right? Thanks for your help
If you don't take the skirts off you are not going to see the full extent of the expansion issues, using a festool plunge saw is the way to go, you should be able to take out 10mm or so of material and the skirtings should easily cover the new expansion gaps...
I've done this on laminate before with a fein. Was 10mm laminate absolutely destroyed the blade when it hit the concrete. One blade destroyed on 3meter wall. Took along time aswell but it worked a great. Floor went down and heading covered it.
Ideally, yes the loose strip under the skirting needs to be removed, but god knows how you're going to do that. If it's in a village hall, am I right to assume it's an older floor. As in glued or mechanically fixed down? If it was floated, often with tenting you can release the expansion pressure and if you're lucky, the floor/tented area will drop as the pressure is released. If the floor has been fixed down and it's tenting, then it's essentially debonded, which is another problem. Can you clarify what you mean by 'tenting' please Conrad?
