The whole “it looks bone dry” is completely amateur. Without a moisture test of a old concrete floor there’s no way of knowing the moisture that’s there. You will hardly see damp under ceramic tiles or carpet and even old vinyl tiles but new LvT, water based levelling compounds and wood flooring can suffer with high moisture subfloors. Wunda will tell you how to install their product. What’s under it and what’s going on top they won’t give any instructions on. Your best bet is to keep the heating low then rip out and repair areas that are coming up. I would use moisture tolerant repair compounds and moisture tolerant adhesives to re glue just to be sure from now on. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
https://www.wundagroup.com/wp-conte...therm-premium-Factsheet-UKAS-04-2-2020-V2.pdf Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Looking at this a bit closer to be fair to wunda they have given a fool proof guide to installing this stuff and for most floor coverings after too. It’s pretty impressive. As it’s a try with pipes the heating doesn’t need to be run as long but still needs to be fully commissioned and I would not like to fit lvt over 5-10mm latex without the heating going through it for a day or two. Has the expansion strip been used? Doesn’t look like the glue has taken to the levelling compound in one of the pics. Mapie Renovation screed is ok with primgrip and level it 2 so I can’t see why ultra Reno wouldn’t be? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Also if it was all installed in the winter without any heating that’s a big no no. Turning the heating on after can cause condensation
We spend hundreds of pounds on testing equipment because moisture in floors is rarely a visible thing, it's rare that there is any evidence of moisture anywhere else, which is why we test as standard, we don't expect the customer to know, because it's not their job,the problem now is we have plumbers working with floors and flooring isn't their job
Thanks. Yes I’ve seen those instructions from wunda and that’s what I sent to the fitter when he started questioning the screed going on top. To be fair to the plumber though, it does say to ensure there is a dpm and only fit a liquid dpm in the absence of one. As others have said though, how can you be sure the dpm is still effective nearly 50 yrs later. The expansion strip - if that is the foam perimeter yes it was applied, although the fitter trimmed it off between coat 1 and coat 2 of latex, which in hindsight has also seemed a another potential strange thing to do. The glue is a very strange case. In some areas it’s bonded well to the levelling compound and not well to the amtico, in other areas the reverse, and in some areas neither! I’m also surprised now I’ve read so much about all of this that neither plumber nor fitter requested that the ufh system be run for some time before the flooring fitted. In my simple brain - you mix levelling compound with a shedload of water, you let that compound “set” for a day but surely there will still be moisture in in, and then you cover it with a load of glue and plastic. all quite painful and expensive.
I had another conversation with wunda. They state for their product there’s no need to bring the system up to temperature prior to applying levelling compound and flooring. They say it’s fine to lay, fit flooring on top and bring up to temp after that. That’s quite different from what a few of you here are telling me. As a consumer it’s very difficult to make sense of all this. My thinking would be do exactly what wunda tell you to do with their product and you should be fine, but that does not seem to be the case, according to everything I’m reading here. Their (wunda) technical advice seems to hit a brick wall when I state the fitter used level it renovate rather than level it 2 as they specify. they then simply state if the levelling compound was different to their stated products you need to discuss issues with the compound with the manufacturer.
Thanks. Yes this sounds concerning. I’m working here with both a plumber and fitter who do not test for moisture in the floors they lay over, from what they’ve both said to me they only approach this by eye and thus any invisible issues would go undetected.
Thanks. That makes sense… the more I ask and the more I read about all of this I’m very concerned about the quality of the installation I’ve paid £££s for.
Thanks. I’ll request that moisture tolerant repair compounds and adhesives are used in the repair of the dodgy areas
It's OK wunda telling you what they've already stated but we're the ones (most of us) who have been in this game a long time to know that every floor should be tested 'just incase' and we have the experience. Good luck with it all and hope you get away with it. As for 'it looks bone dry'...well you obviously have a poor fitter who should know better
thanks. Appreciate the advice, I’m just frustrated I’m stuck between a supplier, a plumber and a fitter who all are slightly to blame for this situation. my wife is pushing for a full rip up and reinstall, more so because the sections that have been relaid, restuck or gaps filled look a bit shite up close, and not what you’d expect from a £9k flooring installation. Let’s see where we go from here. Thanks for all the advice to all.
Have you got pics of the patch ups?? It'll be a tough one to get a full rip up and start again unless you pay again which obviously you're not going to do and shouldn't be expected to either but I can't see this getting sorted easily. One blaming the other etc is never a great start because they'll just refer back to Wunda and wunda will just stick to what they've already been saying. Looks like it's going to be a 'patch n prey'
Thanks. Patch n prey This is a section that was relaid due to glue-gate. You can see some bits of adhesive coming through and the tiles obvs don’t knit together quite as perfectly as they did the first time so some minor gapping, I’m told they can use a grout of sorts to finish this, but it won’t look quite as good as the “first lay”. Larger sections like this sorry me, but they’ll have to just get down on their hands and knees and clean it up properly. agreed it’s a three way circle with me in the middle. Each party claims they are right, and according to your experience each party is a bit flawed in their advice and approach.
And now I’ve spent too long staring at this floor. The latex under this section isn’t as flat as I would like, it definitely looks worse in the spring light vs the winter light when it was laid. but is this being a bit picky? I’ve parked this aspect of the install in my head for a while while we’ve been going through glue-gate and now crack-gate.
...that could where its starting to bulge then eventually pop Are you using the ufh at the moment? Have you noticed areas getting worse?
No heating on for a while since things warmed up. I don’t think it’s getting worse, just the levels of daylight are increasing and it’s less forgiving. It’s not as bad as others I’ve seen posted here, but I’m becoming less tolerant of some details.
