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More on buckling floating floor

nkhandyman | Posted in General Discussion on September 7, 2015 09:46am

I posted earlier about a floating floor that was buckling due to expansion.  I removed the baseboard on the width side of the floor and found the floor up against the wall.  I cut away  the floor, to give it proper room to expand.  I left the floor to “relax” back to flat

The floor is still buckled.  I am wondering if the floor, by itself, will flatten out; or will it have to be forced back into a flat floor.

 My thinking is the force of expansion will push it out of flat.  Now with room to expand, will any baseboard still applying a downward force , keep it from sliding  back into the desired position.

I hope this makes sense to the reader.  Thank you

 

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  1. User avater
    deadnuts | Sep 07, 2015 10:33am | #1

    Did you try distributing some weight on the buckled area to help it relax back to flat? Pehaps a sheet of 3/4 plywood followed with boxes of ceramic tile, 5 gallon buckets of drywall mud, bricks, or whatever easily moveable unit weight you have on hand. I would apply the weight incrementally and perhaps over time. That way you will have less chance of damaging the fiber structure of the material as it changes  shape. You may have to actually temporarily increase the moisture content of the material a bit (temp. raising room R.H. is one way) to help it become more pliable. There is a chance that you have already damaged the fiber stucture of the floor and it will never lay perfectly flat.

    I recommend leaving the baseboard off until your floor (hopefully) returns to flat. this way you can see if you need to remove more material from the wall. Removing the buckel will probably increase the width a bit. When the floor is flat and the moisture content is stable (at median relative humidity) make sure you maintain the manufacturers recommended gap at wall(s). Your final baseboard installation should not affect movement of your floor if you install it correctly.

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