Laminate creaks: reasons and solutions

Despite the widespread popularity of laminate flooring today, this coating is quite capricious. It so happens that after some time after the repair, the laminate begins to creak, which irritates and alarms the owners. Our advice site decided to figure out what causes the laminate flooring to creak and how to solve the problem.

You all know that squeaking wood floors are not uncommon. The capriciousness of laminated panels, laminate, is explained by the fact that these are just pressed wood panels decorated with a film on top. There are two types of lock:

• Lock. Simple snap-in;
• Click. Plates can be disassembled and reassembled – up to 4 times.

Knowing about these design features of the laminate and remembering the correct technology of its laying, there are several reasons for the creaking of this coating..

Let’s highlight the main reasons for the creak of the laminate:

• The base has not been aligned. According to the current SNiPs, under thick lamellas, drops of 3 millimeters per square meter are allowed. Under a conventional laminate, the subfloor must be leveled so that the differences do not exceed 2 millimeters for every 2 square meters. There should be no recess more than 3 millimeters deep! An uneven base will lead to the fact that the lamellas lying over the floor defect will move the locking joints. And this will happen every time someone steps on them. As a result, a nasty creak will appear, and then the lock connection will completely break, a gap will form in the laminate;
• Another problem with subfloors that causes laminate flooring to squeak is its gradual deterioration. The base crumbles, grains of sand fall under the castle joints, spoil them. This can also happen if the base is poorly cleaned of debris and crumbs before laying the laminate;

• No temperature gap is left, that is, the distance between the wall and the floor covering. It should be at least 3 millimeters. If there is no gap, the lamellas are under tension, pressure and may begin to creak. As the portal already wrote, for the same reason, swelling of individual laminate planks may occur;
• The owners have neglected or chosen the wrong substrate. For example, if the substrate under the laminate is too thick, the lamellas will bend, the lock connection will be deformed – that’s a creak for you;
• And finally, you just picked the cheapest, low-quality laminate. It can have an uneven interlocking connection, with the result that squeaking is almost inevitable..

If the reason for the squeak of individual lamellas was found to be problems with the base, it is uneven, you can try to eliminate the defect in a simple way:

• To begin with, we take a drill, the drill of which has a sharpening angle of more than 118 degrees. We drill the floor covering to the base. Of course, this should be done in the place where the lamella creaks;
• Now we need a medical syringe, a large one filled with regular PVA glue. The syringe is inserted into the drilled hole, the glue is poured inside;
• Excess glue, and they should appear so that you make sure that the hole is completely filled, wipe off;
• The hole is closed with putty, sealant or other material matching the color of the laminate. Everything, the site is polished.

If the laminate floor creaks due to the lack of a thermal gap or its too small width, you will have to remove all the skirting boards. Then, with a grinder, a special file for a laminate or a jigsaw, the edges of the material along the wall are cut to make the gap wider. Then the skirting boards are installed back and there will be no traces of the work done.

If the cause of the squeak was problems with the locking joints, you can lubricate them with ordinary candle paraffin or special compounds. Warmed candle wax or a special preparation is poured into the joints of creaking lamellas and leveled with a soft spatula.

Important! If your laminate floor squeaks immediately after installation, don’t panic. Wait a month. According to experts, sometimes it takes time for the material to take the optimal position..

All the methods described by us will not help if the laminate is initially of poor quality, there are serious problems with the base and substrate. In such cases, it remains to either endure a creak while walking around the house or dismantle the coating to do it all over again..