Please help - we have recently had engineered wood installed in our new house. It’s oiled oak installed with a click system. We had it installed by a friend of a friend who is a joiner, who took off the old skirting boards and replaced with new after laying. The problem is that the floors make a very loud crunch and cracking sound with every step you take - I know that a certain degree of noise is to be expected from a wood floor but this is definitely excessive and difficult to live with (I’ve taken a video but can’t see how to upload it). The floors have been down for nearly 2 months and the wood was left in the house to acclimatise prior to installation. We hoped it might settle down but it doesn’t seem to be. We are first time house owners and very inexperienced with this sort of thing, and worried that there has been a problem with the way it’s been installed (we had a couple of other issues with the joiner) - however, we don’t want to place any blame unfairly. We have spoken to two other tradesmen about It who were in the house doing other jobs - a bathroom fitter and a carpet layer. They had conflicting ideas about what the issue was, with one saying that the underlay used was too thin and cheap and causing the issue, and the other saying that using different underlay wouldn’t have helped. The joiner said he would sort the underlay for us when doing the job - we would have been happy to pay for premium underlay and in hindsight we should have specified this. We are hesitant to ask the person who laid it back to do more in the house. We would be happy to pay for an experienced expert to remedy the problem - if it’s possible that is, and if we could find anyone willing to do the job. I’m concerned (and expecting) that the only fix is to take it all up, including skirting boards, and start again, having to get the skirting boards and decorating done again too. Any advice or insight greatly appreciated and please excuse my ignorance - we are certainly learning a lot throughout this process.
Sorry, should have specified the sub floor is the original wooden floorboards in this 1930s semi-detached property.
Sounds like it’s the wrong professional that done the job, should use a flooring installer, was the sub floor level? Expansion ? Glued, floated ?
Could possibly be a slightly uneven subfloor or no expansion gaps somewhere, it only needs to touch the wall in one tiny spot to make the rest of the expansion gap redundant
Have you had building work going on while the flooring was acclimatised or was it acclimatised in a room with normal living condition? Ie dry and heating running if needed m? How flat were the floorboards? Where did you buy the flooring from? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Thanks everyone. It was acclimatised with normal living conditions, dry and no other building work was happening during that time. Having spoken to someone else as well as looking at the replies, I think the issue is the sub floor - it seems that this wasn't prepared properly and the new floor is floating on the floorboards on top of a thin underlay, but the existing floor wasn't made secure or level. We are going to see if we can find a floor fitter who will take the floor up and prep the sub floor properly, or alternatively we'll have to just start again as it isn't really livable. We now know a lot more about the considerations and questions we need to ask for next time. Appreciate everyone's replies, thanks.
We have the exact same issue. Can I ask if the above action worked and stopped the crunching sound. We had a professional carpet & floor fitter do our job. Plywood was laid on top of old floorboards, existing skirtings and architraves taken off and replaced with new. Noise is awful. A real shame as it looks lovely in our hall but there is no way we can walk on it without…crunch crunch crunch! Had the installer back as well as supplier, but drew a blank. Feeling we made a rather expensive wrong choice with this flooring.
Thank you for your reply. Nothing on plywood, just a thorough brushing from us prior to engineered oak going down! which was not screwed to allow for ‘floating’. One suggestion from supplier has been the skirtings might be slightly tight?? One question we had was how does the floor remain ‘floating’ if heavy solid furniture placed on it? Is it only affected if floor edges touching an obstacle? An ongoing mystery whilst crunching remains. Can see a carpet order looming!!
All depends on the weight, a standard couch isn’t an issue but a full fish tank, marble/granite table or grand piano etc is a different story. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
