Laminate floor repair - Contractor Talk - Professional Construction and Remodeling Forum

HandyHails · 02-28-2009, 05:58 PM

I went to look at a perspective job today. These folks have a laminate floor (Pergo?) installed for the last 5 years. Recently they have been having problems w/ the pieces unclicking and sliding all over the place. This was obviously marketed as a no-glue install, but now the pieces have just enough dirt and such in around the seams that they won't click back together well enough to hide the seams.

There are a few replacement pieces available to me. Honestly I don't feel that the time and effort to fix this will be worth my hourly rate for these folks. I'm gonna try my best to sell them on a new floor probrably bamboo. I told them I would look into what it would take to fix it if it is at all possible.

Any ideas on what can reasonably be done to solve this problem? I want to give them a few options here in the next few days.

Thanks,

Josh

Mike Costello · 02-28-2009, 08:27 PM

Not really enough info to give you a good answer. How many sq ft? What percentage of it is coming apart? Are you sure its a click and not a glue together?

HandyHails · 02-28-2009, 10:02 PM

o.k. Sorry.
About 100 square feet. 30 to 40 percent is loose. Just a small kitchen really. She said her father in law put in down 5 yrs ago and couldn't believe that it would work without glue. It has held up until now. The pieces move easily and are tucked as they should be under the base w/ plenty of space for expansion. The homeowner says they are looking to move within the next year so they don't want to spend too much getting the house in order. I'm really just looking at this as a gateway to open up some more work down the road.

I'm thinking if I have to pull the floor up from beginning to end and relay it, I may as well have them drop the $400 bones for some new flooring.

I know I could yank the base mouldings and just pull the boards and glue them back in place after trying to scrape the yuck off of the tongue and grooves. I'm just trying to see if anyone has come across this and found a way to repair without having to yank up the flooring.

silvertree · 02-28-2009, 10:05 PM

First I heard of that happening. Those are so cheap to do its too bad they want it fixed. Follow up on your results OK?

Mike Costello · 02-28-2009, 10:23 PM

Ahh ok . If there is crud keeping them from re locking I would say pull it out.

You can get a base grade lam for 1.25 a ft and just use the same underlayment. Its not a Cadilac fix but its better than loose flooring

If you have a really good shop vac you can try getting the crud out . If you can skid them back together with your feet you could add a litte wood glue first and see if that makes them stay.

Can you snap a pic?

wyoming 1 · 02-28-2009, 11:29 PM

they make a laminate flooring glue for the joints called blue fussion. We have had some mfgs recommend it for our altitude. The glue may work if you can get the flooring back together as previouly stated. My biggest concern would be them wanting you to waranty it " gosh we allready paid you to fix it once" ect.

Jerry T · 03-01-2009, 08:37 AM

There is tool for fixing this problem quite easily.... i have one and you will need to glue up the butt joints to keep this problem from reoccurring down the road.

Take a look at this video if I can find the link..... http://flooringinstaller.ning.com/video/torlys-bulldog

HandyHails · 03-01-2009, 10:26 AM

Cool. Thanks Jerry. I can now talk to them intelligently about what needs to be done. Since so much of the floor is loose, I think I will suggest to them that I pull it up and use some standard laminate floor glue and reinstall. I'll be able to use any new pieces they have during the install and I shouldn't even need a saw to cut anything as the floor is arleady installed. I should be able to make this happen in about 4 to 5 hours. What do you think?

I like the idea of the bulldog. It looks like the only innovation is using their special tape. It seems to me I could rig something like this up w/ a small piece of rubber roofing or something under a 2/4. I couldn't find a price on this little contraption though. Any idea on what they are asking for it?

Jerry T · 03-01-2009, 11:34 AM

I said I own one, but in truth mine is called the Quickstep UniFix repair tool...... same thing. Here is a link to it, http://www.1877floorguy.com/qustuntorela.html

I have no good idea how long it might take you to do this

It should not be coming apart like that, wonder if it is a version that needed to be glued up to start with?

3rdFloorDesign · 03-01-2009, 07:00 PM

unclick it and replace the pieces that are sliding with the extras, then click it back together. Ive seen this happen before.

Another trick i've used is to pry together the boards so they are tight, and them shim that row in place against the baseboard. This is not a great long term solution but it will fix the problem for now, or until they can replace the floor.