So fed up with my floor i could cry (bodge job)

[Marne]

We moved house just over a month ago into a council house, my dad offered to lay some lamanite flooring for us so we got all the flooring and underlay and he put it down.

At first the floor seemed ok, then we moved the furniture in, the floor is now moving aroung and buckling, my dd's are constantly triping over as its so bumpy and rocks around, it creaks when you walk on it and when you walk at one end of the room it moves/bangs the table at the other end. All the furniture is sat uneavenly and rocks around. Each day it seems to be getting worse.

I have told my dad about it and he said that the floor is uneaven , the house is only a few years old and the floor looked flat to me. I think he has not left enough of a gap around the edge for the floor to expand which is causing it to buckle.

Is there anyway of cutting around the edge to make the gap bigger? I cant afford to get anyone in to sort it out and my dad doesn't seem keen on helping. Is there anything i can do or does the whole floor need replacing?

can you lift it, trim a bit off the ends and then put back? It's meant to have a bit of a gap round the edge I think, which you cover with that moulding edge stuff.
But that is only my guess - tbh best idea is to ring the manufacturer (or shop) and ask them. I would have thought the underlay should make up for any floor uneveness?
Am sure it is fixable!

Dh is going to phone the manufacturer, we used the underlay the shop advised us to use but it was cheep underly. I hope its fixable, we do have some spare left over which we can use if we break any.

hmm no you would need to level the floor. if it's concrete then just using some self-levelling compound should do the trick.

if floor boards then i guess it's a bit trickier, tho i know when they do lino they lay hardboard all over floorboards to give a nice even surface

I'm sure the boards are level, the only bit thats not level is a small section around the fire place which is concrete, mybe the fire place has effected the whole room?

yes i was going to add actually that i think a floor would have to be very, very uneven to cause the problems you are having tbh

i'd say you're probably right and it is bowing because it has been fitted too tightly.

can you afford for someone to come and sort it out?
or woudl your dad be able to take it up and re-lay it?

it shouldn't be too hard to take off the skirtings and take a board out along the wall. it will leave a gap, but you can go and get the extra boards cut in the meantime, then back down, skirtings on, job's a good un.

yes the gap left round the edges would stop the blucking i imagine. the wood needs to be able to breathe and it also expands when it is hot.

we have had laminate laid in lots of different flat and never had a problem with uneven floors once you put down the underlay.

shame your dad wont come and sort it out. hope he changes his mind.

the gap is why a proper company puts a bead along the bottom of the skirting (if it hasn't taken the skirting off altogehter).

this is no big deal, i promise. happens all the time with people who don't know what they're doing...

i guess the ease at which it can be repaired depends if it has been glued down or whether it's the stuff that just clicks together

lol yes, that is true. i am assuming no glue or nails if it is buckling up.

Its not glued (thank god). My dad has layed many laminite floors before (he did our old house and it was fine), i think he's getting to old (and blind) and he's loosing his touch. .