Mohawk Flooring Chipping

jcease10

recently a H.O. wanted me to install some Mohawk engineered laminate flooring tiles 16"x16" in his kitchen. I was busy doing trim at the house so i had 2 of my guys run out the floor. I noticed the corners and quite a bit of the edges were chipping and flaking off. I decided i had better show them that using a little less elbow grease and a little more finess would help. So i grabbed a few tiles and went to town. This was probably the most brittle floor i have ever put down. I could not believe how easily this product flakes. I was just wondering if anyone else has ever had this problem before with this type of flooring. thanks

Floorwizard

were the tiles staggered?

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jcease10

no, the tiles were not staggered, straight rows

Mike Costello

Ive had the same problem with the Mohawk and also certain grades of Pergo.

Take a close look at thickness of the core above the tonge and groove. Ive found that inconsistency in the top layers seemed to be the culprit. Not really delamination as much as looseness or somthing .

Ive had luck unpacking them and stacking it about 3 ft high for further acclimation. .....Not always practical or or always effective.

Then I just pretty much put the tapping block away and prepared to have sore fingers.

Mohawks locking system can be what I call rocked and locked. It requires some practice and sturdy pulling sometimes but at least you dont have to tap chunks off.

Where I cant get an angle or pull it together I skive off the locking rib on the tongue and glue them old school style

jcease10

thanks for the reply. I've put down tons of real hardwood and quite a few different t&g composite floors, but this one really had me pissed off. I did a search online about the mohawk floors and quite a bit came up saying how great they were. But from my one experience, i wont put another one in.

Floordude

Mike, use the Khar's tools for their rotating lock. You will never have sore hands again. I got mine at a siminar right after they went to a rotating lock, from the glue together. They work on any rotating lock floor, laminate or engineered wood.

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Floorwizard

Doing straight rows also puts a lot of pressure on all 4 points...where a stagger will help distribute the load.

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"in 20 years you will regret more what you did not do than what you did"