We installed engineered bamboo flooring on a long narrow floor laying the flooring lengthwise. It is the ‘click’ style (not sure the right term here). It’s over a thin foam floater/sheet over a radiant floor over a wood framed structure. Fairly soon, we developed significant gaps in the ends of the flooring (between pieces). All our other floors are pretty much OK, but these gaps are bothering us. They are about 3/32inch maybe. Most of the flooring has been tight as a tick. Considering popping it back up and then laying it back down, but without understanding what may have gone wrong, I’m leary about putting forth effort on a whim that simply redoing it will fix it. Any hints or tips?
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Replies
Long narrow room like a hallway? Is there any chance travel along the long axis is physically separating the boards by pushing them under the baseboard little by little?
Just a thought...
k
I'd guess that the boards are
I'd guess that the boards are shrinking, and the foam provides enough friction that the boards don't shrink as one big piece but instead pull apart.
The engineered bamboo I've
The engineered bamboo I've seen (and just installed several hundred feet of) is cross laminated....
Some of the Click type floor I have installed had a limit on how much area you could lay without an expansion joint. The manufacturer had a square foot limit and a limit on the longest distance in any one direction without an expansion joint. Do you know what brand flooring you have?
Steve
I think it is Morningstar. The length is about 28 feet. I haven't put in the baseboard, yet. And I'm supposed to leave large gaps around the edges (for 'floating' or expansion, I guess). I'm tempted to put in some firm rubber blocks on the ends to control the movement.
It is a little weird that it happened on some boards and not others.
Did this flooring have the same interlocking tongue and groove on both the sides and ends? The reason I ask is IIRC some of the wider click flooring sold by Lumber Liquidators has to be glued on the short side. Something about the locking mechanism is different.
Or, along the lines of what DanH suggested is there anything really heavy sitting on the floor inline with the gapped boards.
Just some thoughts.
Steve
The ends are different ... they have to be as the click edge is tilted in place and then the end tapped into place against the previous piece, so the end tongue is straight while the click (long) edge is a special sculpted edge engineered for the click.
It is LL flooring. I don't think I saw any reference to gluing the ends ... but could have easily missed it. But, I'm inclined to think about that as an option that would help keep it in place while not really affecting the expansion/movement of the floor as a whole.