Hi there! Having a bit of a night mare with a hallway floor and looking for a bit of advice and guidance on the remedy and best next steps. For a bit of background, we had a engineered wood tongue & groove parquet floor fitted back in September and since then it's just felt weird to walk over, it creaks and pops, has some bounce in parts of it and has got worse month on month to the point now where we're seeking if a repair is possible, or more likely rip it out and have it done again. With regards to installation steps; this was installed on a ground floor floating floor (floorboards) and they went over the top of the floorboards with a 9mm plywood and used a nailgun (with special threaded nails they said) to fix the plywood directly to the floorboards, the parquet flooring was then glued directly atop the 9mm plywood. The original company have disappeared so can't get them back to take a look at this but given that its continued to worsen I have had 2 other companies come take a look, both felt it's a very poor fitting job, the flooring is largely out of level, and both think it needs ripping back to floorboards and starting again. Which is a shame but i've come to terms with, that said given what happened last time with such a poor fit i'm naturally super sensitive about it being done correctly this time and this not happening again, my issue is each of the companies that have come have give me different information on their approach and im wondering which is right? :-Company A said there should be a layer of foam/glue between the plywood and the floorboards oppose to only being nailed/screwed in. They said this prevents the plywood from following the undulations of the floorboards and helps keep the plywood solid. :-Company B said they'd absolutely never do that when I asked about that step in particular, and said only screwing plywood to floorboards is the correct approach. :-Company A said screed to level is better for concrete floors and less useful when going over the plywood and said it adds alot of stress and weight to the floor and would need 7 days for it to cure before laying flooring on it, :-Company B said you'd definitely want to screed ontop of the plywood to get rid of the dips and troughs and only need to wait 24hrs before laying flooring on it. Does any of the above sound off? and is there anything else that sounds alarming? I'm probably just being hyper sensitive but as its a few grand for re-work i want to absolutely make sure im picking the right method here. thanks so much, Geddy
When you say floating floor..do you mean a chipboard or caber floor floated on insulation? If so they are often poor and lacking a dpm. It sounds like you will need to rip out your floor and your subfloor and start from there. putting foam under the ply is not something ive ever seen or heard of so that sounds a bit odd. A thicker ply like 12mm or 18mm screwed down can help with a bad floated subfloor
Hey thanks for the reply, hh yes sorry i should've been clearer, a suspended timber floor as in floorboards attached to floor joists, which are suspended above the sub-floor of the foundation. Property is originally 1955 built. Yeah the foam thing i can't find any information on so likely going to swerve that. We dont have the door clearance to go with 18mm ply, 9mm is the limit before we'd need to change all the entrance to the property etc which is a step too far for me and budget. That said the company said they'd remove the 9mm ply and go for a 5.5mm ply and 5mm screed to get it level. Does that sound about right? If just screwing the plywood to the floorboards, however not flat the floorboards are the plywood will follow suit right? Or have I totally misunderstood the process?
Ok haha, Does 5.5mm plywood plus 4mm of screed sound sensible? given 9-10mm is the max we can do without changing doors etc.
It sounds like it should of been ok. I wonder if the subfloor is in poor condition. A glue down floor over ring shanked 9mm ply shouldnt bounce and feel weird to walk on. Either the subfloor needs work or they have not fixed the ply correctly
It seems the problems could be due to either the subfloor condition or the plywood installation. Using 5.5mm plywood should be okay, but make sure it’s properly secured. The 4mm screed on top can help with leveling, but it will need to cure completely before you lay down the new flooring. As for the foam underlay, it's not typical to use it between the plywood and the floorboards; usually, screws alone are sufficient if the subfloor is stable. If the subfloor itself is in poor condition, addressing that before laying new plywood is crucial. Consulting with a structural expert might be a good step to ensure everything is solid before moving forward.
