Creaking engineered floor

[Homeyhouse]

I have a new engineered floor layed but it is creaking and making noises when walked on by the kitchen units. The rest of the room is fine. So maybe 1/3 of it creaks.

It's a tongue and groove floor glued in. It site on rubber underlay on a new central floor that has a screed on. So should be totally level. In some areas you can see the floor dip slightly when walked on.

Is this normal and will it settle down?

Any advice welcome.

If brand new then yes it can take some time to settle. The wood will also expand and contract in hotter and cooler temperature so there is always a risk of some creak. When I laid ours it was noisy at first but now just the odd squeak every now and again.

Interesting. I hope that's the case.

Does anyone else have engineered wood floor?

So the floor hasn't settled and still creaks.

I have two options to try to remedy it:

A. The builder that fit the engineered wood floor has agreed to cut the floor under the island and under the kick boards so that the weight of the kitchen isn't on the wood to see if that helps the creaking. This will cost me £0.

Or I can get a flooring fitter to come and do the same (may do it differently but same principle of taking weight off the wood). He would also look at whether the expansion gaps around the room are wide enough and if not make them bigger. This is his trade and so he has much better expertise. But this option costs £500.

There is a good possibility this won't work to fix the creaking and that it's a different reason. Builder is adamant sub floor was flat but I can't tell now 🤷

A or B Mumsnet DIY'ers??

@pigletjohn any advice

Or @NonmagicMike

Any other Flooring experts or people in the know...

If it is creaking, and is dipping when walked on

then maybe it has lifted, due to damp or a water leak (test it with a long spirit level)

Or the subfloor has sunk or is weak (probable if it was laid on chipboard, improbable if it was laid on concrete).

the weight of an island might push a poor chipboard floor down, but should have no effect on a concrete floor.

Or the subfloor is not flat. This would indicate poor quality building.

If you know an expert flooring contractor, ask him or her to diagnose the cause

It will be to do with the wood expanding and contracting, so you could do all of the above and still end up with creaks. In terms of settling time it can take many months / years even to fully settle. Mine is much better now but has been down about two years. I don’t mind the odd creak either - sort of suits the Victorian home it’s in. I’d be inclined to go with the person who did the job. If you get someone else in and it doesn’t fix it then the builder will wash his hands of it, and be well within his rights to do so.

If you can see it dipping in places, then it isn't level.

Given it's glued together, i think you're just going to have to live with it.

So the engineered floor is layed on a new concrete floor with a screed on top. Then it has a rubber underlay.

At the moment the island is on the floor with no cut-out. The front of the kitchen unit feet are on the wood floor. And the wood floor goes all the way under the washing machine and dishwasher.

@NonmagicMike I guess my worry with getting the builder to take the weight off is that he isn't a flooring expert. And he did the subfloor and layed the engineered wood and now I'm having issues.

He said there is a 10mm expansion gap but skirting boards are nuw on so I can't see to check

It's very frustrating as it's pretty noisy.

@pigletjohn we did look for a leak under the washing machine and is all is fine. Also it creaks in different places around the space.

Sorry to be clear the island and front of the kitchen unit legs are all on the engineered wood floor.

Has the kitchen island been screwed into the concrete floor? The screws could be pulling the island down into the wooden floor and squashing the rubber underlay. That might be causing all the flooring around the island to distort and dip inwards towards the island.

A small ball placed on the floor would roll to show you where the floor is distorting. It would be an easy way to demonstrate to your builder where he's gone wrong.

Is this engineered wood laid on the concrete subfloor?

@ThisOldThang the island isn't screwed down but sits on top of the engineered wood floor.

@PigletJohn the engineered wood floor sits on top of rubber underlay (recommended by flooring specialist) that sits on a new concrete sub floor.

hello homeyhouse, did you ever find a way to fix this? we've just had engineered wood laid and it is so loud and creaky in the kitchen!

@marimos same problem here, floor was fitted a week ago and beginning to creak in various spots. Did yours settle eventually?

If it's on a concrete subfloor that's level and fully dry I don't know why it should squeak.

Wooden floors, and especially chipboard, may add defects of their own.

It is on a concrete floor that has been levelled and moisture checked by the flooring company prior to fitting.