Some Common Installation Mistakes of Floating Floor and Their Correction

Transition is usually the last material to complete the floating floor installation. Floating floor is a tool for auxiliary laminate flooring installation. If the transitions are installed incorrectly, they cause noise from the floating floor. In addition, they may make floating floors loose, causing some safety problems. The following describes some common mistakes in transition installation, which may lead to potential risks.

Use Adhesive or Nails to Secure the Transition to the Floating Floor

Floating floors are designed to expand and shrink freely, so they should not be fixed by any object. If the floating floor is fixed, it will bend or deform when it expands or shrinks. In the vinyl wood flooring, the peaking of the end joint will occur, which will eventually lead to the end joint fracture.

Fastening Quarter Round into the Floating Floor

Another common mistake is to use nails or glue to fix the quarter round to the floating floor, which prevents the solid wood flooring from moving freely like a floating floor. This results in a pinch point and creates a gap between the real wood flooring and the floating floor, as well as deforming the premium wood flooring. The quarter round should always be fixed to the bottom plate, which should be fixed to the wall buts or adhered to the drywall.

Install the Floor too Tight to the Transition

Floating floors need to have an expansion gap around all fixed objects. Fixed objects include walls, pipes, decorations and transitions. Floating floor will expand or shrink with indoor temperature and humidity. If the space around the floating floor is insufficient, it will cause the oak wood flooring to bend, make noise and break the end joint.

Not Achieving a Good Bond with the Adhesive

Always make sure that the adhesive used is compatible with the transition and the surface you want to bond. In addition, you need to make sure that the surface is clean and free from any stains, residue, sealer, paint and drywall mud.

Epoxy adhesives, hot melt adhesives and polyurethane adhesives are commonly used. The transition should be in full contact with the adhesive. If there is a gap between the bottom of the transition and the bottom layer coated with adhesive, the quality of the bonding will decrease. You can cut a wooden pad to fill the gap between the transition and the bottom layer. Paste the wooden pad on the waterproof wood flooring, then paste the transition on the wooden pad.

Installing Flush Transitions with a Floating Floor

Flush transitions are usually used to help nails and adhesives fix the wood effect vinyl flooring. However, floating floors require over-lap transition moldings to be used. Over-lap moldings are designed to transition to other floors, while still providing an expansion gap so the wood look vinyl flooring can expand freely and contact with indoor climate changes.

Installing the floating floor on the flush transition molding may cause the vinyl wood plank flooring to bend, end joints to break and make noise. For floating floors installed on stairs, they should be pasted on the existing treads, and if possible, flush stair nosing can be used.

Reference

Lumber liquidators, Avoid These Transition Install Mistakes