Squeaky laminate flooring

10/27/2015 at 6:33:54 PM

First of all, do you have any kind of subfloor installed or did you have the laminate flooring installed directly on the cement?

Also, did you put any kind of insulation under the laminate?

The floor could be squeaking for various reasons, one of them is the unleveled floor like you mentioned but levelling the cement won't solve it, cement is too rough to get the perfect level you need something thinner and softer such as foam.

10/27/2015 at 7:02:40 PM

From the sounds of it I would bet on the spacing is not adequate. These and any floating floors require a 1/4 ". Gap between all fixes objects. If it's touching anywhere then you will get that squeezing caused by having no room to expand or contract. Also I would never use the cheap style of foam underlay. The better acoustical underlay not only reduce noise to levels below you and for general foot steps. They also reduce that floating feeling making the floor feel like it's nailed down. Other than that sometimes time is all that is needed to allow everything to settle.

10/27/2015 at 8:52:27 PM

The squeaks come from not securing the base floor down properly first before laying the laminate.

10/28/2015 at 4:01:46 AM

Wow - thanks all for the immediate response. What a great community.

We did install Stealth underlay - a superior sound dampening underlay under the laminate over the concrete floor. The gaps by the walls were also well within acceptable limits before putting on the baseboards. I feel that the levelling wasn't evenly done as there are bubbled areas and dips still in the kitchen. Will be asking the contractor to redo this area again. I don't remember his checking the entire floor area with a leveller. Perhaps he missed spots by not doing so.

Any thoughts about how the heavy appliances may be playing a role? I did have one contractor say that he would never install laminate in the kitchen because of the appliances.

Thanks!

10/28/2015 at 6:06:11 PM

Tom;

Definitely the floor is not level. It sounds like all the other product you used were fine. I would think heavy appliances would keep the floor from "Floating" as it should. I would keep the floor out from under the appliances or leave a gap between the main area and what is under appliances. As well, I would add a heavier underlay to cut down on the up and down flexing caused y humps in the floor.

Kindest Regards,

Don Engler

Project Manager