Laminate flooring is considered one of the best materials for flooring. Such a coating looks very impressive and solid, and also serves for a long time. The pluses of the laminate include, including ease of installation. Often, owners of apartments and country houses mount this material even with their own hands.
Usually after laying no problems with the laminate occurs. However, sometimes it happens that such a coating begins to creak. What could be the causes of such a problem and how are they easiest to eliminate? Further in the article, we will examine why the laminate creaks. What to do (indiscriminately and with coverage analysis) in this case, you will learn in full detail from the article.
The main causes of the problem
Laminate - the material, unfortunately, is quite moody. The coating of this variety can lie on the floor without causing any problems for its owners for decades. And it can manifest itself in a few days after installation. If while walking on the floor the boards began to make annoying sounds, first of all, of course, you should find out why the laminate creaks. What to do indiscriminately or with a parsing of the coating in this case? The answer to this question just depends on what exactly caused such an unpleasant phenomenon.
The laminate in the room can creak due to:
- violations of the required technology in preparing the foundation;
- too thick or thin substrate;
- lack of a temperature gap between a covering and walls;
- poor quality of the material itself;
- aging of the rough floor.
Violation of foundation preparation technology
It often happens that indoors only in one single place the laminate creaks. What to do indiscriminately or with a parsing of the coating in this case - we'll talk about this a little later. First, find out what could be the reasons for just such a creak. The appearance of annoying sounds in only one place most often means that during the installation of the coating the preparation technology of the base was not followed.
Before laying the laminate, the rough floor is necessarily leveled. In this case, either a cement mortar or a special mixture is used. Defects in the base under the laminate should not be left. If you step on the lamella, located above the hole in the draft floor, it will bend a little. As a result, the elements of the locking connection will move relative to each other. And, as a result, a creak will be heard. Measures in this case should be taken immediately. Otherwise, after some time, the castle connection will become unusable and a noticeable gap will appear in the coating.
As usual, level the base
It would seem that in order to get rid of the squeak that arose due to violations of the preparatory work technology, you just need to remove a few lamellas, eliminate existing defects and put the material in place. But in practice, unfortunately, everything is far from simple. The fact is that the dismantling of part of the boards not from the edge of the coating, but directly on its area is impossible. This is primarily explained by the design features of the lamellas themselves. Therefore, when annoying sounds appear even in only one place, the coating usually has to be dismantled almost completely (from the wall to the problem board itself).
Laminate creaks: what to do and how to solve the problem indiscriminately
Dismantling such a floor is an operation technologically quite complicated and costly. The fact is that the laminate (and especially the Lock system) has very weak locks. Therefore, disassembly without loss of material is almost never possible.
That is why the owners of apartments and houses often have almost a panic if the laminate creaks. “What to do indiscriminately cover?” - almost all real estate owners begin to ask this question. In any case, in specialized forums you can hear it quite often. And the answer to it, of course, exists.
So, how do you avoid unnecessary expenses if the laminate creaks? What to do indiscriminately (bumps will have to be eliminated not somewhere, but under the boards) coatings? It turns out that getting rid of squeaking in one place of the laminate floor is possible only with the help of PVA glue and a large medical syringe.
A hole is drilled in the problem board using a drill first. Then glue is pumped into it with a syringe. As soon as the substrate is saturated and the PVA begins to protrude from the hole outward, the operation is terminated.
Than to drill a covering
So, in the problem board, you need to drill a hole and fill it with glue if the laminate creaks. What to do indiscriminately covering and how to fix the problem of uneven ground in this way, we have found out. Now let's take a closer look at how to perform this procedure according to all the rules. And let's start by finding out what technology exists for drilling holes in the laminate.
Unfortunately, it often happens that during this seemingly very simple operation, a large and ugly chip appears on the board, which is difficult to mask in the future. Or the board simply cracks. In order to avoid such troubles, before you start drilling, you should take care of choosing the right tool. That is, the drill must be properly equipped. For laminate, as well as for wood, twist drills made of hardened steel are best suited. And you should choose not their standard version with a sharpening angle of 118 °, but more acute. Otherwise, during operation, the drill will necessarily begin to deviate to the side, and in this case, the risk of chips or cracks increases significantly.
How to close the hole
In the next hole made with a sharp drill, the PVA glue is squeezed out of the syringe in the event that the laminate creaks. What to do and how to fix this problem indiscriminately covers this way. However, after carrying out such a not-too-complicated procedure, the owners of the apartment have another completely logical question: “How to mask a hole drilled in the floor?” You can do this using:
- putty or sealant;
- special wax pencil ;
- epoxy resin;
- self-adhesive film;
- with mastic.
At the final stage, the excess of masking material must be carefully removed from the laminate with a clean rag and very carefully treated with a fine sandpaper. Then part of the board with a closed hole should be polished with a cloth and covered with a single layer of colorless matte varnish.
Creak due to temperature gap
So, we found out, if only in one place the laminate creaks, what to do indiscriminately. The reasons for the appearance of annoying sounds, however, may lie not only in the unevenness of the base. Sometimes creaking occurs not in one place of coverage, but immediately over its entire area. Such a problem appears among the owners of apartments and houses most often due to the fact that when laying the laminate, a too narrow gap was left between the extreme boards and walls.
The coating of this variety, like wood, with fluctuations in the room humidity or air temperature can expand or contract. Therefore, along the perimeter of the walls when laying the laminate, a small gap is arranged. Its width directly depends on the area of the room. If the gap is too small, when the coating expands, tension arises in its thickness. As a result, the elements of the locks begin to press against each other, which becomes the cause of the creak.
To fix the problem in this case is also quite simple. To do this, remove all the skirting boards. You can increase the temperature gap itself to the required width using a grinder. Of course, you need to do this job correctly.
How to cut a coating
Next, let's take a closer look at what to do if a laminate creaks due to an insufficiently wide temperature gap. What to do indiscriminately (the problem is solved by sawing off the "extra" part of the boards) - in this case it is clear. But how to reduce the coating area by a few centimeters and not spoil the boards?
Laminate is a material consisting of several layers. Therefore, a disc with the smallest cutting structure should be put on the grinder. In this case, the saw line will be very smooth.
Instead of a grinder, you can also use a jigsaw. For this tool, of course, you also need to choose a suitable file. Otherwise, the cut will be sloppy. In this case, you can use either a narrow metal file with small teeth, or a special one designed specifically for working with a laminate.
Eliminate other causes of squeaking
Thus, now you know, if the laminate creaks, what to do indiscriminately (the unevenness of the base can be eliminated with PVA glue, and the temperature gap can be expanded using a grinder). But, of course, annoying sounds can appear not only due to violations of the technology for preparing the rough floor or laying the boards themselves. The causes of this phenomenon often become: poor quality laminate flooring, improperly selected substrate or aging of the subfloor.
In all these cases, it will not be possible to do without dismantling the coating. A poor-quality laminate or an unsuitable substrate will have to be changed. If the creak is caused by aging of the finishing floor, an even more complicated operation will have to be performed. In this case, you will have to not only remove the laminate, but also dismantle the leveling screed. Squeaks in the rough floor appear mainly due to the departure of boards from the lag. Therefore, in order to get rid of annoying sounds, they will need to be knocked out with nails or tightened with screws.