Hi, Recently installed engineered wood flooring, ground floor/concrete base, floated on 3mm silver acoustic foam underlay - tongue and groove Been down just short of a couple of months now, sections of the floor make a crunching sound under foot - some days it’s really bad whereby I want to rip it up but other days it can be fine. would this suggest humidity issues? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. thanks
I used Elka grip adhesive. Subfloor wasn’t screeded but concrete was flat (to my eyes anyway) - previously had laminate down and never had an issue.
That’s why I always say to full bond a t&g, I would personally rip up clean out the glue, surface dpm and screed subfloor then fully glue to the floor Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Strange. We float loads of t and g and as long as it’s glued correctly there’s no sound. Lots of issues with clic systems without glue. How old is the concrete base? Do you have a 10mm gap around all edges? Laminate is more flexible and not effected as bad by moisture Cracking means it’s moving so either the floors not flat or the wood is moving.
Concrete base will be around 16 years old now. I've left min 10mm around the egdes - i have undercut the door frames as the floor spans across a couple of rooms. Just strange if it is movement how some days it absolutely fine and others its a nightmare!
Maybe get a air hygrometer and see if that’s it. Also how many m2 through doorways is it? Anything heavy on top? Any breaks in doorways?
It’s 60m2 in total and covers 3 rooms (living room, hallway and sitting room) - total width is 11 metres with no breaks in the two door ways. Purchased a hygrometer - generally sits around 60% - more on rainy days. as mentioned hallway is the worst which has no heavy furniture in. At the point now whereby I know it has to come up to sort, just thinking of the best approach.
Maximum width is 7m on a floated floor 8m in length, 60% humidity is too high you want to be between 35-55%, like I said earlier pull up, surface dpm and screed, full bond then keep your humidity level within those tolerances, I would also always advise splitting the rooms and using door bars because different areas of the home will have varying humidity levels especially in hallways and cause different expansion and contraction in them. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Thanks for the info, much appreciated. I take it there is no way of salvaging the floor and need to buy new?
If you can clean out the glue from the joints (will be a bugger and take a long while) you could salvage some or even most of it. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Most say 45-60% rh air humidity so it shouldn’t go over 60%. Your gonna need breaks in the doorways for a floated floor that size. We never have any issues with v4 floated but Karhs and other clic systems sound like walking on broken glass. If the planks are bowed from the start they will crack for ages unless they start to settle down. That can take along time and would need some weight on it to help.
Maybe just break out the hallway and install something else. No ways that floors going to be salvageable unless it hasn’t been glued correctly