My laminate flooring is separating at several seams, up to 1/4 inch especially in areas that we directly walk on. We had this professionally installed a yr and a half ago. Of course the warranty has expired on the installation. What do you suggest we do to correct this problem?

There must be a lot of moisture present where this floor was installed. Before you correct the floor problem you must correct the over humid atmosphere or your floor repairs will not work. Suggest you get a humidity meter or hygrometer and see what the humidity in that room is before proceeding further. You may need to seal some leaks to the outside before you redo the floor.

You may be out of warranty but I would still be calling the store where I bought, the manufacturer and the installer. One or all of them screwed up something and they will likely work with you to keep their reputation from going down the drain. I don't think this is moisture, more likely movement which means the installer is in the cross hairs. Do 3 simple things: call, call and call again.

Is this floor installed over a concrete slab or wood subfloor?

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Originally Posted by nmmonts

My laminate flooring is separating at several seams, up to 1/4 inch especially in areas that we directly walk on. We had this professionally installed a yr and a half ago. Of course the warranty has expired on the installation. What do you suggest we do to correct this problem?

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If the floor was a "floating floor" that was "snapped in" (i.e. no nails or glue holding it down) then it is probably moving around due to the expansion gap around the room perimeter. The width of this gap is supposed to be about the same as the thickness of the flooring. You can pull up the quarter round or shoe moulding around the sides and look for a gap.

This gap is needed because in winter wood shrinks and in summer it expands. It may be too big of a gap.

If it is too big I would take off all the shoe or quarter round moulding, clean the open joints with a strong vacuum, and tap the wood back together *carefully* (so it does not mushroom up and ruin the wood). I would then add small finishing nails (at least 2 nails for the sides, and one for every end of the wood) and no higher than the top of the wood (as well as to allow the moulding to be put back). *Remember* you needs gaps, so allow a gap between the wood and the nail approx the same thickness as the wood. All this is to reduce (not eliminate) the gap size, and to prevent the wood from coming apart again. Then put the mouldings back. Hope this helps.

"Separating" sounds like a glued joint, not a snap, glueless joint.

The floor needs to float and not slide. I could see this easily happening very easily if the thin foam wasn't put down and it wasn't glued.

1/4" is excessive.

Don't forget the installer did not make the flooring all he did was put the puzzle together sounds like cheap flooring go back to flooring manufacturer . Ask yourself did the floor look good when the installer left no raw edges showing all moldings down good joints not puckered or gapped sounds like a bad locking joint problem. STANDERED INSTALLATION WARRANTY IS 1 YEAR. It's really hard to mess up installation on floating floors most of the time problems happen because of not enough as you call it gapping around the edges and if moisture was the problem you would have the joints trying to over lap themselves or pucker not make 1/4 inch gaps ,if you have a wood sub floor it may have too much movement and cause the locking system to move around too much and break the lock which then you might talk to the estimator who measure you job and ask him why he did not notice this movement and talk to you about new sub floor. Good luck and have a nice day

My installer, appeared to do a great job at the time. My flooring has a 20 or 25 year warranty on it, but, now after 2 1/2 years, the sides are starting to look like they are peeling up, and just looks awful, and this is the hardest stuff I have ever cleaned.
I called the supplier, who in turn got me in touch with the manufacturer, who sent a claims person to check it out. The man crawled all over the place for a couple of hours and then wouldn't tell me anything. Finally 4 weeks later I get a letter in the mail, that the claims person, said it was out of warranty due to the floors weren't level when they were installed and that there was water intrusion ( I had done nothing except Bona on the floor) and that I have pets (who are kenneled all day, until I get home, and don't use the floor as their bathroom). I thought what a cop out. I spend over $5000 to have nice floors, and I should have just kept my carpet. I would never recommend laminate to anybody. Go with pure wood or tile... this has been a very bad experience for me.

I understand what the solution for the gap, is and will get in touch with the manufacturer. My husband was in a wheelchair for about 3 years and it is now starting to separate in the traffic areas. It was a floating floor and we purchased everything they said we needed for the installer. It is also out of warranty, so I guess I will have to pay him to correct the problem.

What do you do if it's doing that and underneath it is a concrete slab. We put the moisture barrier down with the tape it came with.