Growing gap in strand woven bamboo floating floor.

[milgo]

Hey guys,

I laid most of my flooring down in November last year. The kitchen has been left to do while I saved up enough money to replace it.

After about a month a large gap appeared in the hallway. I left the wood open in boxes for a week before installing. I have used underlay with moisture barrier on a flat boarded sub floor. The glue was supplied by the same retailer.

I could live with the gap, but I am sure it has continued to grow as the floor settles. Does anyone have any ideas? I wondered if increasing humidity might close it up a bit. I thought about trying to nail it down, but apparently that's a big no no with floating floors. At the moment the only option seems to be pulling up and re-laying part of the hall and installing door bars. I would love not to have to do that though, I wanted a seamless look throughout the flat.

Hindsight is obviously a brilliant thing. I wasn't aware quite how much "real wood" moves about.

The gap measures 4.5mm at its widest point and tapers down away from the wall.

 

[AronSearle]

The floor is shrinking, and something is stopping the floating floor from freely moving, and so this joint is appearing as a way for the floor to relieve the stress.

I notice the floor is tight against the door frame and walls (or it looks that way in the picture?).

In the middle picture the split is between two door openings, I suspect the floor is trying to shrink, but is tight to the doors, and so instead is pulling apart. That the split also is lesser the further from the doors the floor is, does again indicate it's the lack of "expansion" gaps that is restricting movement.

 

[milgo]

It does look like that doesn't it. But I undercut the architrave and there is substatial clearance cut around the door frame. I wonder whether the hall is trying to shrink and the two rooms are not moving at the same rate.

 

[AronSearle]

In the top picture it looks like the skirting is removed and the floor is tight to the wall.

On thing to bear in mind is that bamboo also moves on it's length (timber only moves on it's width), so this will further compound movement issues compared to what a normal timber floor would encounter.

 

[milgo]

The gap is smaller there I think. It was a bit of a faff getting it in and out. There is still a good 6mm or so though.

I guess longitudinal expansion will make it twist in some cases. Clearly chose the wrong flooring :/

 

[AronSearle]

Running the floor through the rooms was probably a mistake, as you say with the hall it may be moving more than another room, this may be further compounded by the lack of expansion around doors.

I am assuming you glued the T&G together.

It may be you can take the door framing off, and if the floor is tight against the wall, cut into the board to create more clearance, if there is still room between the floor and wall, it may simply be that running it through the rooms has caused to much differential movement.

You might decide that's to much effort though.

 

[milgo]

Yep glued with a bead along the bottom edge of each tongue.

There is probably more expansion space between the doors than anywhere else, so I don't really think that is it. I guess if I had laid the floor at 90 degrees to its current position I may not have had the same problems. It must be the weight of the rooms holding those sections in place and forcing the weaker centre to split.

I have given it a few goes with a damp mop since last night and put out some bowls of water. Last night it was 4.6mm wide and tonight it is 4.41.

Not getting my hopes up though!