5 Things that could go wrong with your engineered wood floor

Solid engineered wood flooring is both beautiful and long-lasting, provided that you ensure proper installation and maintain proper care over the years. Popping and squeaking sounds are not ideal when walking through your home. This could be caused by incorrect levelling in glued down installations.

Your engineered planks make popping and squeaking sounds

The Reason

Is your engineered wood floor glued directly onto a solid concrete sub-floor? Generally, in these types of installations, hollow spots between the subfloor and the boards are responsible for squeaking and popping in hardwood flooring. Before gluing down a solid engineered wood floor, adequate levelling needs to be done to prevent gaps and the resultant irritating squeaks that come of it.

The Solution

Voids and gaps measuring 150mm mean that planks need to be removed and replaced. In smaller instances, a trained installer can employ an injection repair kit offered by adhesive manufacturers. The installer or contractor can inject the gaps and fill them, thus alleviating the popping and squeaking sounds that occur. In cases where the sub-floor is made from a different material, other options are available such us fixing the floor from below. Once the plank has been drilled and the hole filled, the hole needs to be plugged.

Before gluing down hardwood flooring on a concrete sub-floor, the contractor should ensure the sub-floor levels are within tolerance, if necessary ideally grind down the concrete to a tolerant level and only fill uneven gaps if required, using compounds that cure to an adequate strength. The longer and wider your planks, the more care needs to be taken in perfecting the level of the subfloor in order to prevent squeaking.

Alternatively install a product that uses a floating installation method with a strong locking system that does not make use of adhesives.