FLOORING HELP

[FJohnny]

Google 'floor gap fixer tool'. Sold on amazon. Videos on how it works are also online. If your floor is floating ( which many Engineered flooring products will be) it will be an easy fix. Probably one of those plastic suction cup hand grips from home depot and a rubber mallet would work as well.

Good luck. Hope it works.

 

[CobraBob]

Yes, if your flooring is "floating", this tool should work for you. If your flooring is not "floating", this system (or similar) won't work. The planks must be able to move, so if they're glued, the flooring will have to be removed and replaced. I surely hope your flooring is "floating". This produce is effective and very easy to use. Probably easier to use than suction cup products.
Floor Gap Fixer-Fix The Gaps In Your Floating Floors!

 

[CV355]

How much of an expansion joint/gap did you leave? If there was one, did someone nail through the trim into the flooring, because that defeats the purpose of the expansion joint/gap.

Acclimation probably wasn't the issue since the gaps would have shown up much earlier.

 

[98 svt]

I've never seen/installed a real hardwood floor that is only 3/8" thick. 99% sure that is a floating laminate floor. Can you take a pic of one of the extra boxes?
That's another thing, real hardwood flooring doesn't come in boxes, normally.

 

[98slowbra]

Just from what I went through we have 1100 sq ft of Oak flooring on the main floor and it is 3/4 inch thick. When we had a issue with the fridge leaking on that wood floor it had to get replaced, the wood had to sit in the house for 3 weeks to adapt to the house conditions before they installed it.

 

[98 svt]

Just from what I went through we have 1100 sq ft of Oak flooring on the main floor and it is 3/4 inch thick. When we had a issue with the fridge leaking on that wood floor it had to get replaced, the wood had to sit in the house for 3 weeks to adapt to the house conditions before they installed it.

How is the hardwood holding up throughout the kitchen? I just did a hardwood floor in a kitchen, and I tried to talk the homeowner out of it. Their main door is in the kitchen. New England winters + hardwood floor is not gonna be good for them.

 

[08mojo]

How is the hardwood holding up throughout the kitchen? I just did a hardwood floor in a kitchen, and I tried to talk the homeowner out of it. Their main door is in the kitchen. New England winters + hardwood floor is not gonna be good for them.

We have hardwood flooring throughout the main floor of our house--including the kitchen. From what I can tell it's oak and it is original to the house that was built in '86. No issues in the kitchen of our home and it routinely goes through spills/water on the floor.

If there's a big spill, you obviously need to clean up the liquid. But, for the occasional splashes (aka dog making a mess while drinking water) the floor seems to hold up just fine without actively cleaning up the water.

 

[98slowbra]

How is the hardwood holding up throughout the kitchen? I just did a hardwood floor in a kitchen, and I tried to talk the homeowner out of it. Their main door is in the kitchen. New England winters + hardwood floor is not gonna be good for them.

We have no issues in the kitchen with the oak flooring, the only place on that level that does not have hardwood is the great room which is 300 sq ft. so far it is going all well and no issues. We do have a hoover hardwood cleaner(This works very well for hardwood floors to clean them up) for the floor and we do that about once every 2 weeks and keep it nice as possible. The hardwood in the kitchen has been in there for 12 years except the small part that got replaced by the fridge so the oak is very well working with us. I think it was like $15,000 add on for the floor when we built the house as a addon back in 2005, they did put like 3 layers of color and heavy duty traffic stuff on the floor just 2 years ago so I am sure that helps. I was told you are supposed to get the floor shaved and redone every 4 years, we did it at 8 years and they guys said it look better then most of them cause we do take good care of it. I live in Colorado so we get winters here but not as bad as what you would get, but I think you are not going to have any issues with oak or any real wood on the floor.

we use something like this and it works very well

We also have a Kirby that works and cleans hardwood but that can cost you up to like $2000 for that vacuum, and it uses microfiber brush on the hardwood. We have both and use both.

 

[Black2010]

To maybe help the OP as I know he lives across the park from me. We went through 2 years of above average rainfall and hit this summer where it's been dead ass dry in our area. Rain around us but nearly nothing where we live. Humidity has been fluctuating a lot as well.

Some key notes. His house should be on a floating foundation as we live on clay and I believe all the houses in our area are like that. Hopefully it's something simple OP.

 

[RDJ]

After reading the responses I have come to the conclusion that I may be misremembering some details. Floor was installed in 2007 which is why my memory is foggy lol. What we got may very well be something other that real wood and it was probably a compromise between what I didn’t want and what I didn’t want to afford. This shit was not cheap and we didn’t do kitchen, bathrooms, or bedrooms. And it was still 11k. Am going out later today and will stop by the storeroom and get some pics.

All in all it looks like what bob posted may work so will give that a shot first since the video pretty much matches what is going on here

I've never seen/installed a real hardwood floor that is only 3/8" thick. 99% sure that is a floating laminate floor. Can you take a pic of one of the extra boxes?
That's another thing, real hardwood flooring doesn't come in boxes, normally.

 

[RDJ]

ok stopped by the storage unit for some pictures of the box and of the pieces

 

[MG0h3]

Yep, appears to be engineered wood but hard to see for sure on the phone.

What I see is the extra dark layer of real wood on top laminated to a pressboard below. Basically a quality in between real hardwood and real fake laminate floors.

It does have tongue and groove on the ends so when trying to close the gap make sure you start slow and tap lightly. Might need a helper to provide downward pressure on one or both planks.

What’s weird is I didn’t see the tongue and groove in your photos but easy enough to miss.


Sent from my iPhone using svtperformance.com

 

[Four Door SVT]

It’s definitely a floating install and after you reposition it by knocking it back together you can pin nail the end piece at the wall end to where it’s moving to.

 

[98 svt]

It’s definitely a floating install and after you reposition it by knocking it back together you can pin nail the end piece at the wall end to where it’s moving to.

What he said

 

[RDJ]

Thanks guys ... repair is gonna have to wait till I get back from the trip. going to be a pain in the ass but I think we can do this ourselves without screwing the pooch too much LOL

 

[98 svt]

I fixed one once by simply kicking the boards with my feet.

 

[Junior00]

It’s a prefinished engineered floor, the aluminum oxide denoted in an earlier post for the description is for the wear layer. I would suggest using a dab of glue before moving them back together. It’s completely normal for the individual planks to contract and expand, and given enough time and foot traffic the planks can separate. This is especially true for types without interlocking ends. They’ll be fine, as long as excessive moisture isn’t the culprit, but don’t nail them once you get them in place or next time if will be buckling.

 

[svink32]

Installed a bamboo flooring out here in Arizona- about 1,600 square foot worth. Cost was about $9-10k or something like that after taking out old tile floor and installation. My contractor didn't properly ensure the concrete slab was at the correct humidity before installing and the floor started to buckle and come up a few months after install, it was as if tree roots were coming out of the floor. Long story short we replaced it with wood tile and could not be happier- looks like real wood without the headache!