Select Surfaces 14mm urban wood laminate flooring seam help. To glue or not to glue?

[Stihl-learnin]

Ok let me start with admitting that I went cheap...I purchased several boxes of laminate flooring from an online auction. they said some were damaged but in the pictures it looked like most were good. I got them all unboxed and sorted them according to pattern and as I was sorting I noticed that a lot of them are damaged...like most of them . Most have only one or two spots where one of the seams got hit and is deformed or crushed and some of larger areas but its pretty much all seam damage. It is going in my dining room over a plywood floor that I leveled after removing the carpet. With three kids and another on the way carpet in the dining room just wasn't working! I also screwed down all the plywood as some of the nails were starting to come up and there were creaks and groans everywhere when you walked on it.

Question 1. Is it salvageable? How big a deal is it that there are damaged spots on the seams. Some are long like 6" to 12" and some are small like 1/4" to 1/2". Is there a solution? Can I just glue the damaged spots? Does it matter if its on the male side vs the female side? I am not concerned about the warranty and If I have to do some minor repairs over the years no big deal...I just don't want to have to replace the entire floor in a year or the first time my 2yr old spills something.

Question 2. Is it ok to let them acclimate in my unfinished basement as that is where I have the saw set up for all my cutting or do they need to acclimate in the dining room where they will be installed. I don't think the humidity is much different but the basement does seem to run a bit cooler then the 1st floor.

Here is a link to the product that I am planning on installing:

https://www.selectsurfaces.ca/products/laminate/elite-collection-laminate/urbanwood.html
Thanks in advance for your help and advice with my install!

 

[havasu]

If this for a floating floor, or glue down? If the tongues are damages, that piece is toast. Sometimes buying cheap ends up costing you more money.

 

[Commercial Floor Rep]

Laminate flooring really cannot be directly glued. The problem is that the product expands and contracts so much that adhesive simply will not hold the product well enough and the movement will find the weakest spot in the installation and it will either buckle, split, raise, etc. Laminate core is made from high-density particle board. A normal piece of solid wood expands and contracts in the length of the product following the graining of the wood. With particle board it expands and contracts in all different directions and it does so unevenly based upon the random orientation of the particles.

As Hav stated, if the locking mechanism is damaged then it's not going to lock together correctly and it's toast. With a click-lock floating installed product the strength of that floors performance is in the locking system. Any damage to that locking system and it will fail relatively quickly. I'd say 6 months or less depending on amount of traffic and maintenance. This is also true of click-lock LVT as well.

You asked about acclimation. The answer is that if the conditions are the same in both locations - temp, and relative humidity, then yes you could work like that. However, with some laminate as much as a 5 degree temperature difference or a 5% swing in Rh can mean the difference between a board seating correctly and a board not seating correctly or even being able to seat at all. I've experienced that first-hand. The low end stuff will just about fall together because the milling is not as precise. The higher end product will have a much greater precision and will not tolerate as much difference in the ambient conditions on the jobsite. The short answer is it's always best if possible to acclimate in the space it's going to be installed.

This product is made in Germany. Europe was building and using laminate flooring way before the product came to the States around 2000. Germany had some of the best product on the market (Witex) for many, many years and it was known for it's precision milling. The product doesn't really look like a lower end laminate. It's 12mm and it carries an AC4 (commercial) wear rating so I'm thinking it's at least a mid-grade product if not better. If it was made in Asia, I'd say just throw it away and start over. But if you have enough product without damage to do something with it should make a good floor. It's also got a beveled edge and appears to be a painted or foiled bevel, meaning the print image is also on the "cut" beveled edge. These features are generally not found in lower end products as they add a significant amount of cost to produce.

I wish you success with your project and let us know how you make out.

 

[Tile Tom]

You already have it so it is what it is.

I would make sure there's no big clumps that will cause the material to not engage together. Any you find either cut out or shave down so the planks fit together. Then I would use a good T & G laminate glue and glue them together whenever the locking mechanism is still good.

This is not ideal but I would think you could possibly get a few years out of it. Shoot, there's a chance it might make it a long time too. Just no promises.

 

[Stihl-learnin]

Thanks everyone for your input and guidance. While I do try to save money where I can I also hate doing something twice or doing poor quality work/installations so while I don't want to spend the money to go get all new flooring, I am not about to install a product that is not likely to last very long.

Ok question: Is it possibly/would it be a viable or a long term solution to glue the floor down? Like can I take a floating floor and make it a glue down floor? What if I cleaned up the tongues and grooves laid the floor and then poured a clear epoxy coating over the top? Any ideas that might work? If I am simply grasping at straws then what product would you recommend for someone on a budget?

Thanks again everyone!

 

[C.J.]

Thanks everyone for your input and guidance. While I do try to save money where I can I also hate doing something twice or doing poor quality work/installations so while I don't want to spend the money to go get all new flooring, I am not about to install a product that is not likely to last very long.

Ok question: Is it possibly/would it be a viable or a long term solution to glue the floor down? Like can I take a floating floor and make it a glue down floor? What if I cleaned up the tongues and grooves laid the floor and then poured a clear epoxy coating over the top? Any ideas that might work? If I am simply grasping at straws then what product would you recommend for someone on a budget?

Thanks again everyone!

If you can’t get a flush fit with the planks locking together then anything you do will simply be a bandaid. Moisture will get in between the planks and cause the edges to blow up then you have a glued down ruined floor to deal with. It sucks but hopefully a lesson was learned.

 

[C.J.]

Are the edges of the planks themselves in good shape and it’s just the tongues and grooves that are damaged? If that’s the case you could run the planks through the table saw to remove the tongues and grooves then route new grooves on all 4 sides and use splines to glue everything together. That’s a whole lotta work but it would get you to the finish line at least.

Just set up a production line and take it one step at a time. Set the rip fence on your table saw and rip off all the tongues. Adjust the fence the rip off all the grooves. A miter saw will do the trick for the butt joints. Next you will want to set up a router. Preferably a router table but a palm router will do in a pinch. Now you will want to route all new grooves. Do the routing all at once so you don’t have to worry about trying to set the router up again to the exact same height.

Splines, you gonna buy some or make some. For as many as you will need I’d say to make some. Same thing here as routing, make em all at once so they are all the same.

Man just thinkin about it is a lot of work but if you get set up to do it production style it can be done in a day. I guess if you look at it that way then it only cost you a days work for all the money you saved on material. Hopefully the trade off was worth it.

Use a sharp blade and watch your fingers!

 

[Tile Tom]

That's not a bad idea Chris. Yes it will be a whole LOT of work but it is possible.

I wouldn't try gluing the planks themselves down. That'll be a disaster with both the floor and trying to remove that mess in the future.
Also pouring epoxy over it will be another disaster....
No go on either.

I was assuming the locking mechanisms we're beat up in spots. When laminate was the "in thing" I used to cut / shave any damage off and glue the plank all the time if material was scarce. Not one callback for separation issues.

 

[Stihl-learnin]

Well... I should have checked back on the thread one more time before moving forward. I just went through all of them and seperated them by how usable... Or how much damage there was on the tongues and grooves. Then I cut off all the damaged areas leaving as much usable good plank as i could. I will end up with a ripped first and last row to keep the last row from getting to small. As it is I now have less then half of the amount of full planks i need and more then enough edge pieces. I guess you live and you learn. Thanks again for all the advice I will try to post a pic when i get it all done.

 

[highup]

If a plank has a badly damaged edge then you cut right through the damage and you now have two useable pieces with zero waste..... ....well, very little waste.
If you have an entire box and the damage is all at the same location then you're going to be having some waste.

 

[Stihl-learnin]

I have finally started making progress! I did end up purchasing some more new stuff which even some of that has damage from shipping but I have enough to complete the job I believe so hopefully Ill get it done soon.

I am about to hit a spot that I don't know how to do it other then tearing off the trim and possibly even the door jam! I have attached a picture of my progress so far as well as a picture of the area I don't know how to do. The second picture is the issue. It is in that back mini hallway that you can see in the first picture and there is a door on each side. The outside door is already done, the far back door is the laundry and then there is a door to the right that goes down to my basement. I can finish the row I am on no problem (ignore the tiny piece on the end it is just to protect the groove of the last board I laid before quitting for the night so the kids don't kill it while I'm at work!) My problem is when I get to the very last row and the last board how am I suppose to snap it from a 30 degree angle and get it under the trim and door frame of both doors? I have seen a couple of Youtubes where people just cut off the tongue and use Elmer's glue to glue it together but not sure if that is a legit way of doing it or just something that is going to cause problems down the road?

How do I get that last piece under all the trims and frames to look good?

Thanks again for all your help!

 

[Stihl-learnin]

I have finally started making progress! I did end up purchasing some more new stuff which even some of that has damage from shipping but I have enough to complete the job I believe so hopefully Ill get it done soon.

I am about to hit a spot that I don't know how to do it other then tearing off the trim and possibly even the door jam! I have attached a picture of my progress so far as well as a picture of the area I don't know how to do. The second picture is the issue. It is in that back mini hallway that you can see in the first picture and there is a door on each side. The outside door is already done, the far back door is the laundry and then there is a door to the right that goes down to my basement. I can finish the row I am on no problem (ignore the tiny piece on the end it is just to protect the groove of the last board I laid before quitting for the night so the kids don't kill it while I'm at work!) My problem is when I get to the very last row and the last board how am I suppose to snap it from a 30 degree angle and get it under the trim and door frame of both doors? I have seen a couple of Youtubes where people just cut off the tongue and use Elmer's glue to glue it together but not sure if that is a legit way of doing it or just something that is going to cause problems down the road?

How do I get that last piece under all the trims and frames to look good?

Thanks again for all your help!

 

[C.J.]

That’s the fun piece. You will have to shave off the lip on the groove side in order to be able to slip that piece in. Use a chisel or something to remove the lip. Make sure you get all the shavings cleaned up so they don’t get inside the groove and prevent your piece from being able to slide in all the way. Squeeze some Titebond in the groove, not too much that you can’t fully engage the pieces, and slide them together. Put some blue tape on the pieces and there you are.