My lounge was fitted with high-quality engineered wood flooring. The floor was laid on a 2mm thick foam acoustic underlay and each board is firmly locked side, back and front to adjacent boards by tongue and grooves. After less than a year, one of the boards developed a bulge and crack at its edge, which became raised slightly above the adjacent boord. The fitter’s solution was to cut out the board with the bulge, remove the underlay from underneath it and then lay a new board in the same position after cutting off its tongue and grooving. However, there is now a loud, and I do mean ‘loud’, squeaking whenever walking on or near the new board and there is visible movement between the new and adjacent boards. The boards are in an area that is walked on frequently so the noise cannot be avoided. The fitters solution is now to remove the new board, and then prise up the adjacent boards slightly and squirt or brush glue underneath them as far as possible. He then plans to glue the new boord directly to the floor. My concern is that, although the new board might be bonded firmly to the floor, he will be glueing only the edges of good boards to the underlay and they will still be able to move up and down slightly as the underlay compresses under load. I can’t see how the integrity and strength of the floor can be maintained by his solution and I think that this will create a weak point in the floor and any future problems will emanate from this. After all, what is the point of tongue and grooving, and underlay if it can be dispensed with and have no ill-effect? I contend that the correct way to resolve the problem is to take up all the boards between the faulty one and where the boards meet the wall. Then replace the board that currently has no tongue and grooving with a new one (without any trimming of tongue or groove), locked in on all sides, and then re-lay the remaining boards back to the wall. The floor was expensive cost and is still only 18 months old; I do not think it unreasonable to require it to be brought back to its original condition. I would appreciate expert advice.
T&g needs bonding direct to the sub floor no underlay, if the subfloor is concrete it will need a surface dpm and a screeding if it’s floorboards or chipboard it needs overboarding with ply, if it’s asphalt the wood you chose isn’t suitable and a click system which is made to be floated should have been used, then you’ll want a minimum of 3mm foam or ideally rubber with a vapour barrier underneath as long as there’s no cracks in the asphalt. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Thank you for that advice. My main concern is about the proposed method of replacing a T&G floor board with one that has the T&G cut off and glued to the floor whilst all the other boards are T&G locked together and laid on underlay. Given the newness of the floor, would this be a lasting and serviceable repair?
Floated lots of T&G with no problems. Amazed a high quality wood but they used a 2mm foam underlay which is designed for Amazon packages and laminate. You can’t bond one down as that will restrict the expansion. Is there a 10mm expansion gap on all the edges inc fireplace and doorway ?
I've done that kind of replacement a couple of times with no problems, i used an epoxy adhesive and glued the replacement board to the existing boards, personally, i wouldn't glue just one board to the floor, while the rest is floating
It should be a easy fix doing a board replacement. Sounds like there’s not enough glue on the t&g or the floor is not flat enough.
