Laminate Floor Install Tips

Originally Posted by jakejorgenson

So, here are the final results. I got a call earlier this week saying the floor was buckling and popping up. I had installed the flooring exactly how the instructions stated. I ended up having to go meet with the mfg rep and the company that sells the product at the house this morning. Basically, they came to the conclusion that it was both a bad product and lack of installation experience (I've only done a couple laminate jobs). The problems we found with the product itself was that many boards weren't perfectly square and straight and there were also boards that were misprinted in the pattern. They never really agreed that the core was bad but after all, they didn't install it themselves so how would they really know that. The "buckle" was really only about 1/32 inch at the most and was barely visible unless you were looking for it and was in a couple places, all caused by the bad core on the materials. They agreed to pay to have the floor redone completely with a different lot of the product. I tore it all out today and then got them to agree to put the new one back in themselves as I've already been paid for the first round of installation and was concerned about ever getting paid the second round. They agreed to that so all in all, lesson learned, if I get any further than a row or two, even when the builder won't listen to me say the product is bad, I should just stop and walk away from the job and call the rep myself to get a resolution instead of installing the floor per the builders instructions. Hopefully I'll learn from this and hopefully this can come as a suggestion to anybody else in the same situation. I've also learned that laminate flooring is total crap and I agree with others that there is no reason not to just pay the small amount extra and go with engineered or solid wood. The product was a Tarkett brand floor of which they said they hadn't had any previous problems with, but they had also never gone to look at it after installation was completed.