I have laminate flooring that is buckling.The guy who installed it sya sits because of humidity from my pool in backyard(large indoor pool) he has cut off more than the recommended 1/4 to allow the floor to lie down flat but it keeps buckling. What can I do(the installer is out of the picture)i

Your problem may be humidity but it is not because you have a pool in the backyard.....unless the flooring is laid in the pool room or around the pool deck.

Otherwise, the problem is more likley caused by the subfloor over which the laminate was installed.

Was it over a concrete slab? Was the slab properly sealed?

Concrete is porous and allows for gorund water and ground water vapor to penetrate upwards into flooring. Typically a vapor barrier needs to be placed over the concrete before the floor goes down or vapor barrier coatings need to be installed on the concrete first before installation.

If this was installed over a wood subfloor but over a crawlspace or basement that has mositure or water problems, you can get severe buckling as the subfloor swells with excess humidty from below.

We need more specific information to diagnose the problem, but look for sources of moisture in the immediate subfloor as the source of water or excess humidity.

Hi Trvl gal

I am a true do-it yourselfer. I did the whole house about 1700 sq ft. I have never done this before. I have a slab fool downstairs and a plywood upstairs.
The down stairs I used a waterproof barrier that the manufacturer insisted on for warranty. I also have a pool in my back yard but that shouldn't be a problem unless there wasn't a barrier put down under your Laminate. The moisture barrier is almost always required even if you don't think you need one it should be placed down. The cost is minimal compared to the cost of pulling it all up and putting it down after.
I'm not a contractor but have commen since when it comes to most constuction stuff. It just come natural. I guess it was from the enginering I took in College.
I'm now installing a wet bar in the family room down stairs. If I can help in some way please E-Mail

Best Regards
Dan
I hope it works out for you. by the way the complete upstairs and down stairs was aprox $3200.00 for every thing. My home is 2500 sq ft. I have tiled the rest of my home.
I have gone through that contractor getting out of the picture.

Thanks Dan,
A moisture barrier was put down and I am running a dehumidifier but nothing seems to be working. I still have the flooring poping up in spots. I am thinking it has to be removed and relaid.

Most laminate flooring has instructions to leave expansion spaces around the perimeter of the room to allow for the product expansion during humid times. Ours required a space 3/8-5/8", which was ultimately covered by shoe mould. Without such spacing, buckling will definately occur.

quote:

Originally posted by H. Ball:
Most laminate flooring has instructions to leave expansion spaces around the perimeter of the room to allow for the product expansion during humid times. Ours required a space 3/8-5/8", which was ultimately covered by shoe mould. Without such spacing, buckling will definately occur.

i I AM A PROFFESSIONAL HARDWOOD ANDTRAINED LAMINATE INSTALLER . YOU ARE CORRECT ON THE EXPANSION ON ALL WOOD AND LAMINATE FLOORING I HAVE FOUND THAT LAMINATE FLOORING IS QUITE ABSORBING OF ALL MOISTURE IN OR AIR AND SUBFLOORS . AS A RULE OF THUMB I NORMALLY LEAVE ONE QUARTER INCH TO ONE HALF INCH AROUND THE ENTIRE PERIMETER OF LAMINATE FLOOR BEING INSTALLED SAME IS TRUE WITH HARDWOOD FLRS. HOPE THIS HELPS P.S. I HAVE BEEN IN THE FLR PROFESSION FOR 20 YRS. TO FIX THE PROBLEM 1. REMOVE ALL BASE 2. RECUT THE ENTIRE PERIMETER AND THE FLOOR WILL DROP WITH A SLIGHT WSOOH. THANK YOU FOR LISTENING GIL THE FLOOR GUY

trvl gal,
Since the installer has already ensured the required 1/4" spacing during installation and has even gone as far as increasing the gap, the only cause I can think of in my experience of coming behind others to repair this type of problem is that either the vapor barrier is compromised, meaning it has holes in it or it wasn't properly over lapped along the seams and taped or the baseboard / shoe moulding is sitting down too tight on the flooring and subsequently the floor cannot expand and contract. Hopefully it is the latter since that is a relatively quick fix. When the trim work is installed, you should be able to easily slide 2 peices of paper between the bottom of the trim and the floor. I hope that this is of some aid to you. Good luck.

trvl gal, I live in Florida. I put down BRUCE FLOORING in my son"s room with hardwood floor glue(yellow in colour) and in our one stroy house it is concrete floor. No problems at all.
However-- in the toy room same process. Floor buckled due to an unnoticed crack in the foundation. After several attempts to fix/stop buckling I ripped up the whole flooring system. Scraped off the yellow cement to an even level, put down 90lb roofing paper and put down DuPont laminate flooring. No problems at all. Everyone on this page has great advice, good luck.

Just wanted to say Thank you guys for all the tips. We have removed the trim and recut the edges it's laying down good right now.thanks a lot again Trvk Gal

Have similar problems, my question is what is the best method of recutting the perimeter??

HELLO jlto . To answer your question about what to recut the perimeter to allow more exspanaion for a buckling floor . home depot rents hand tools such as special saws . the one you will need to cut the exspasdion is called a toe kick saw. this is named after the space all cabinets kit ,bath rms. etc...at the bottom where your toes would hit. this saw is used because the lack of space for any conventional saw . it glides along the wall to cut an even space [ 1 qter. to 1half inch]good luck with this ...gil the floor guy

Gil thanks for the info, much appreciated.

Leveling new concrete sub-floor.
I have read several things on the Internet about installing laminte flooring over concrete. Very few references to needed to fill and grind new construction concrete sub-flooring. Is this becuase the laminte flooring is "forgiving" or becuase this is not usually a problem with new construction. My builder has told me that I will need to fill and grind many areas of my new sub-floor, but I just have not read many instances were others have had this problem. Any experiences that might help me?

Wouldn't it be easier and less messy to add floor leveling compound to the low spots rather than grinding down the concrete? Unless you have ridges that need to be ground down.

Hi All!

We had laminate flooring installed six months ago. We are in Florida. We left for 3 months and did not leave the Air conditioner running and now we have ridges (slight buckling) forming. Installer says it's because we didn't leave air on. Is there any kind of wax, oil, treatment to help laminate "relax" if there is such a thing?

Thanks so much.

No no magic cure for what has happned. What has happend is the underside of the flooring has swelled because of moisture. We typically see this on flooring such as this when its in a bathroom or kitchen that has a lot of water present. The water seeps into the edges and causes the underlayment that the top of the flooring is attached to to swell. Once this happens not much can be done to fix it if it can be done at all.
I do not think not having the AC on caused this as many people do not have ac in thier homes and this does not become an issue for them.
What is the floor installed over? Is it a Slab, crawl space or basement. Also what is the room that its installed in. Bath, kitchen living room? Above grade or below? Is there water issues below the floor such as wet basement or crawl space? This is typically the cause of the problem. Was the laminate installed according to the manufactures directions?
Some of the cupping edges will go down after a while if the humidity is lowered. But do not expect to much. Check with the store that supplied the material to see if the selected flooring is warranted for where it was installed.