How To Flatten Laminate Flooring

When nailing down a wood floor the subfloor should be flat to within 1 4 in 10 or 3 16 in 6.

How to flatten laminate flooring.

Is your laminate floor rising up. Rather than fasten laminate to the subfloor installers connect the laminate planks together and float. Because fiberboard swells when it gets wet a wet laminate board pushes against the one next to it. If the laminate flooring.

It is the responsibility of the flooring installer to assess and address substrate flatness before installation. Don t panic we ll show you how to fix it. Unfortunately if it is difficult to pull up the laminate you may need to remove the sub floor in order to ensure a flat surface to work with when installing the new floor. Shorten the first piece of laminate flooring so the joints in this row will be offset staggered in relationship to the first row.

Laminate flooring provides an affordable and eco friendly alternative to standard hardwood. My laminate floor is not laying flat by chris deziel the subfloor under a laminate floor has to be level. If it s uneven it may be because the. Buckling occurs when laminate flooring does not have enough space to contract and expand with temperature changes.

Installation of a wood floor over the subfloor insinuates acceptance by the flooring installer. Use a wooden block to tap the next row of boards into the first. Therefore it is crucial to take precautions to prevent buckling. The boards fit together like pieces in a puzzle and when the entire floor is assembled it floats over the subfloor like a film coating.

Since it is a floating floor the planks tend to contract when it is cool and expand when it is warm. If the floor was installed properly there is an expansion gap around the perimeter than can absorb some of the movement but if the gap isn t there or if the baseboards are nailed to the floor instead of the wall the floor can t expand and swollen edges have no place to go but up.