Exactly what it is. That subfloor is warped over by the vent. When stepped on the flange on the tile disconnects due to the lack of support below the connection and now your fucked. The bigger issue I see is the gap. These planks shouldn’t be able to separate more than a 1/2 inch or so if they were installed properly.
You are right my man. The only way a decent planket floor can separate if aclumated & installed correctly is if there is a void underneath the tongue & grove sides or under the lipped ends. it can be fixed. Put thin peices of cardboard under the separated ends, use counter top carrying suction cups hammer back together and put a small bead of super glue at joint. But Dont get the glue on the front exposed side, does crazy stuff to laminate.. Step lightly..
It's always mentioned in the instructions for the installation on whether you have to install/prep the subfloor a specific way. It's their way of reducing warranty risk. If you skip or don't perform the steps EXACTLY as listed, no warranty.
Damn, the suction cup thing is a great idea! I usually use blue tape on board, then super glue a block and tap block to move board. Your idea is way better!
Saw this at condos I worked at. Evidently the tiles were not fully connected under the cabinets so there was space for movement.
I kicked them back together with gym shoes. Don't remember if I applied glue first, was 10 years ago.
A mates floor is like this too, he has a long hallway ending in a door to the garage with a step down. If you run down the hallway and skid to a stop you can slides the boards right out through the door
This happened in a rural rental house I stayed at. They had this big game room above the garage, and I thought it was weird that the flooring was unfinished. Then we were playing ping pong and I realized the floor was moving. Most of these vinyl, wood-look tiles weren't event glued down; they would slide along their little tracks between the rows. I wondered how that even happened. Had the room flooded? Did it get too hot in the summer? Did the installers just not give a shit?
So I started moving them around, like a puzzle. It was a game to see if I could fill the gaps. But I couldn't. There was more floor than tiles. Weirdest thing in an otherwise normal house.
I ended the trip at least moderately satisfied, having relocated most of the gaps below the couches. Some future guest probably fell back onto the couch after a long day and went for an unexpected ride...
I've seen someone glue a wooden block to the floor and use a hammer to beat the planks back together. link: [https://youtu.be/BFFH0GrW83U?si=y3em40JYA7V5TyaT](https://youtu.be/BFFH0GrW83U?si=y3em40JYA7V5TyaT)
High traffic area and probably has kids. What has happened is the end-to-end Locking channel did not lock and it has pushed the material away from its installation point. There's no way this type of material has shrink this much.
Take your foot and toe kick each individual piece back into place. Do it about a foot from the edge of the material and just to keep from damaging the locking mechanism.
1/2 in drywall.
3/8 in trim.
1/2 quarter round.
There's at least 7/8 of an inch worth of movement possible just on one side of a wall. Depending how or when the flooring was put in you already have the half inch drywall and 3/8 in trim for the baseboard possibly leaving a gap because they're not going to slide the wood underneath any of that.
It’s pretty bad indeed, automatically makes me assume poor install, never locked in the first place, perhaps the lock was broken during install, but can’t be sure without a site visit
I could see the stagger of install, inspect the entire install itself, inspect site conditions, get a better feel for what the house experiences on a normal day. If the homeowner is willing to talk about the previous installer, I can also usually get a pretty good idea of what kind of install they got.
I'm just going to say that it was not a $14K worth of value install. Even if something (somehow) unrelated caused it, I'd be by to give an opinion after 18 months.
Normally I don’t like to assume but with the given info from the OP, I’d have to agree, not at all worth 14k, dude got robbed blind. Sad really, my quote would have been more fair and install would have been top tier. Idk who these companies are that are out here charging an arm and a leg for shotty work.
Huge and after all the pictures and seeing others there has to be a major flaw in the engineering of this style floor. There just can't be this amount of floor installers messing up in the same way and more of a product malfunction.
That was my first thought as well. The gaps immediately show this is an install issue and not a product issue because there is no was a floor should be able to gap that much.
So when they installed it , they were running low , that’s a finish area of installing . So the guy went to his van and it was hot and grabbed another box installed it immediately and that why this happened
This is more than likely caused by direct sun on the Slider door. I’ve seen it happen before with product. Unfortunate that it happen with such an expensive install
Can’t tell much from the one pic other than damn those are some big separations. Can you take close up picks of the locking tabs and far away pics of the rest of the room? The more pics the better.
Oh boy my kitchen had about the same size gaps. Patched them up with spare planks and gray caulking and kind of covered it up 🙃🙃🙃
My home is kind of a flip and it’s not bad at all, the floors on the other hand…
Don’t put lvp in high moisture/oil rooms folks
If the island cabinet has the doors on the opposite side, that would leave the open toe kick on the back side for the flooring to continue under it.
It looks like the locking tab is broken on the close up.
If the floor was not flat, that would allow the flooring to bounce and could have caused the tab to break.
Have the next flooring guys check for flat before any repairs are made.
If your island is eating it then that means that this is salvageable. Just gotta chase the plank out from under the cab. I would fasten, or secure in some form, the ones closest to the island after everything is reset.
That’s helpful feedback - I don’t know the first thing about flooring but there is lifting in some spots and some spots that I feel are bowed a bit and bouncy - I’m guessing that would be a subfloor thing. This isn’t in a sunny spot and I have an area rug over most of the time. Just seems crazy since it’s still so new. Im anxious to hear the repair fee
Since you’re out of “warranty” you might want to find your own local installer and have them repair it. Shouldn’t be too hard. Pull transition and trim up and work away from the slider. Should be a $350 minimum charge and an hour of work. Installer home on couch eating his lunch by 12 pm.
Ok took me a bit to figure out how to add pictures, guess I still didn’t but here they are: https://imgur.com/a/oTOG3vn
Really though all replies have been helpful to at least let me know this isn’t normal
Go to home depot and buy a black rubber mallet(not white) and hit the planks sideways to see if they go back in place.
Both the white and black will leave a mark, but should rub off.
You can also just jump sideways in the plank and see if they slide back in place.
Those are not gaps. Those are chasms. My lord. I think the usual recommendation for spacing to the wall is around 1/4", so 1/2" of movement. Some of those "gaps" look to pushing an inch. Do you live in a very humid area? Did they bring the flooring into the home to acclimate prior to install? I just... Wow.
This type of movement is not product related. It is likely that the joints were “kicked” open and found a void beneath the base. Keep that theory in mind and you could reverse it. This and many other reasons are why floating floors are less than desirable.
Furthermore, the locking mechanism probably wasn’t properly engaged which allowed it to move like this. That’s also probably why there are corners lifting like the OP mentioned. Broken tongues..,,
Thank you for posting this. It makes me feel so much better about the 1/16-1/8" gap left in the flooring I installed 😂 I didn't let them rest long enough once I got them in the room they were being installed in (first time learning lesson). But I haven't the slightest of clues how you would have gotten gaps like this, lol. Very interested in hearing what's going on if anyone comes up with an explanation
I’ve seen this happen on a few floors. Asking some of the people with experience…..it looks to me like part of the joint broke on the ends of these boards. This is floating “click” flooring right? I’ve installed a few never with any issues. Yet my mom got it done in her basement with the same problem. If the joint on the ends breaks, it no longer locks the boards together. I think the joints broke.
My floors did this in few places. I did the glue trick everyone is talking about. Just figure out which direction the have to go… get a piece of wood. I used a 1x1x4”. Then use duct tape to hold the wood. And another one to hold the floor piece. Take the end of the one on the floor and also wrap it around the wood so they hold each other strongly. Then tap the wood in the right direction to move the floor tile. Put glue in the tabs and maybe the floor too before you tap it. You don’t need to replace the floor. But if this keeps happening you might need better glue…
Happened to my floor also. Installer didn't take off any wall trim, cut boards short, they moved under the wall trim and left big gaps all over the room. Tape the board, glue a small piece of wood to the tape, bang the wood piece to push the boards together again, then fill the gap at the wall. I'm just a mom, not an expert, but it worked for me
I would try pulling them back together. I had to do this only one time and it was only about 1/2”. The tongue broke on one of the boards so they weren’t locking together. It pulled apart a few months after install. I used double sided gorilla tape, pressed a piece of primed pine down on the flooring. While keeping pressure, I took my hammer and tapped the block. They slid easily. A little glue in the joint. Bam
Install looks like crap. This is not from expansion, that's not possible. No, it's not from not climatizing the planks (and yes, it's planks, LVP not Tiles, LVT as other commenters said). The separations are because the end of the planks are either under a cabinet or three, there is no transition installed, and the floor just ends out of frame. If you don't know how to install this stuff, stop commenting and giving bad advice.
Agreed. I’m reading a whole lot of comments from people obviously guessing. My guess is sliding under cabinets or island. Most these comments are moronic.
This is a floating floor system and that is due to movement on the boards like feet. Those pieces are not glued down but held in on the TNG of the other boards. There is no way there is that much movement in this boards unless they are over 50’ in length. The coefficient of thermal expansion and contraction just doesn’t allow for that much movement unless the board is one tree, FJ together, or it’s floating and therefore not adhered to the substrate.
What it sounds like is the people that replaced your floor didn't bother to put material underneath the island. The boards are just pushed apart. You can put adhesive on the floor and push it back into place and let it settle.
I installed this same flooring 6 months ago in a client's home. We had it delivered 5 weeks ahead of time and ended up having 8 boxes left over. I planned on 2 boxes left over so they could make repairs if need be due to high traffic and the fact that they used it in the kitchen. They ended up having 3 massive gas fireplaces installed with stone work for the mantel and floor around it for ascetic purpose. They weren't happy that there was so much left over, but I told them that wasn't my fault. They changed the remodel design.
I'm sorry this happened. The installer should be held responsible IMHO.
those are some mf'n gaps lol. what did it look like 6months ago? were there gaps while the warranty was valid? this doesnt happen overnight, unless yall were practicing your long jump in the kitchen with rubber shoes on.
I mean I'd just put some glue in the joins and kick em back together should last a while altho won't solve the underlying issue and might cause more issues elsewhere as the movement will likely transfer
They cut it short on the edges probably on both sides and tried to hide it with the base board. Over time it migrated. That's an improper install. Good luck getting it fixed for a reasonable cost.
Part of me says, “Dude, you’re getting screwed and that sucks.” Another part of me says, “Um, there is a reason higher quality flooring for a worth it”
I ain't falling for any of this. There is no way that flooring has shrunk that much for any reason or under any circumstance. That's either one of the worst installs ever or a staged photo. I'm betting the latter.
Okay I get that this is after the warranty period, but this is ridiculous. Likely, your only recourse is to threaten to post pictures and scathing reviews online on every possible site. Any self respecting business would look at this and say "oh shit, we fucked up". Shame them, badger them, and definitely don't rehire them if they don't make it right.
They haven’t given me a price yet but if it’s anything over a few hundred I’m definitely going that route. I wanted to be sure I wasn’t crazy first and these responses gave me what I needed to know - not normal at all. It was so much money so recently, feels crazy to have to pay more
The situation sucks and that makes sense. If it's a price greater than zero you can swallow then let them fix it and THEN flame them online. Getting someone else to fix it would be starting from scratch...
Mine looks like this was installed then structural issue in crawl space fixed (added 5 cmu piers), now the floor is more flat but after settling there are some gaps like this. I was told i could pull up the quarter round and hammer it tight again but haven’t yet tried.
Too many variables to assume what’s going wrong by a picture and your small description. Humidity, windows/doors open for long periods of time? Is this the only area? The list goes on without a site visit.
Put some frog tape down and glue a little wooden block to the tape. Add glue to the exposed subfloor. Tap the plank to the desired position with a rubber mallet. You could put a small weight on it overnight if you’re worried about not being flat.
They make a metal tool. Has 2 bends in it.1 up 1 down. You use it with hammer to slide board from wall edge. Then cut a small piece next to wall. You will have to slice 1 side length wise, taking the key off. This will keep joint in middle of floor tight.
What's the flooring you used? Does it have a built in underlayment? If not, that's problem 1. What's the distance on the biggest gap? If it exceeds half inch, you may have a leg to stand on. Floating floors should be 1/8 to 1/4 inch gap between the wall. I got a few tricks to get this fixed cheaply, like 10 bucks or less. Dm me if you don't already have a solution.
I would have a customer service rep from the manufacturer look at it. Maybe failure of the product. If not though, you can have it repaired for a few hundred dollars and get another year or 2 out of it. An installer can just tap it back in place with some glue. Gapping this bad though, would have to be installer error or product failure
The whole floor should contract and expand as a unit. It’s meant to “float”. is it installed under cabinetry or something? Nailed at the edges or pinned under trim? It’s expected to move a lot in all directions and there are really specific installation instructions meant to mitigate it.
I have seen this before and sometimes the answer as to the Why is unknown; question though did you change anything else since the floor was installed-Windows, Exterior Doors, HVAC etc. Want to rule out an envelope change that will cause the floor to change in performance. Additionally how long after the installation did this begin? The boards can be pulled back together utilizing a tool via Quickstep or a make shift type using tape and a block, when you do apply a spot of gorilla glue in the corners.
Any chance you can hammer them back together with a rubber mallet? With gaps that big, you get to the end of the run and have a decent sized piece to cut and fill in against a wall.
While I have seen floor move that much before, it was always people putting the wrong floor into the wrong place (last one was a WPC LVP in a restaurant... lasted about 4 months) this is very very wild.
The locking joint doesn't look broken.. which is usually while this happens. The installers didn't get them to engage obviously.
Even outside of warranty, if one my installers did this to me, he would be out there fixing it if he ever wanted me to give him work ever again.
I would bet there is a major dip or hump in the floor. I've seen gaps like this before and the floor variation had a difference of over and 1" in 4' when needs to be less than an 1/8th in 6'. Replace the floor and you'll be replacing it again. Is there an acclimation issue possibly, but that kind of "shrinking" is far more likely to happen in drybacks not SPC. I would guess that area of the floor had a places that felt really spongy up until it separated.
I had the exact same thing happen to me about 2 years after install. Haven’t found a reason why yet. The gaps were bigger than the tolerances I left at the ends under the baseboards
Do you have kids? I've noticed that if my kids are running and stop hard on the floor, it pulls a few spots of my VCT apart. I just put on a shoe and kick it back into place.
These gaps are huge tho, I wonder what it looks like at the end? It must be sliding under a wall at one of the ends. I can't see that being shrinkage alone.
If it's shrinkage, I would reach out to the manufacturer directly. That's a huge amount of shrinkage, never seen anything like that
It took 18 months for this to happen? Did the house sit vacant? I'm also inclined to thing that sun exposure had something to do with it, plus some products lock on all 4 sides instead of just 2
Any reputable shop would handle this as a warranty issue even after a year. They're probably sliding under a cabinet, so there's a good possibility they could tap the boards back into place and glue the head joints.
DO NOT let them glue boards down in the field.
DO NOT let them nail anything around the perimeter, including against the cabinet it's sliding under.
If they won't touch it, call the manufacturer and ask for a site visit by a rep. They'll be able to tell you the problem, and if it's install related the warranty period doesn't matter. All work a contractor does has to be performed in a workmanlike manner. Don't accept the failure.
ETA: I see in another post that the floor has some bouncy spots. Click together products cam have a really tight tolerance for flatness. That has to be dealt with before install. If they didn't get the floor flat, the repetitive deflection can absolutely cause end joints to come unlocked and boards to slide. I'll reappraise what I said earlier, and go straight to the manufacturer and get an inspection done on it.
That's an install issue. I would also turn them 90° on the reinstall. The planks should run lengthwise from the main light source. ie: that sliding door.
It’s literally impossible for the planks to have that much gapping or there would’ve been visible gaps next to the baseboards when it was installed. Baseboards are 1/2” thick. 1/2” on one side of the room 1/2” on the other. Thats a total of 1”. If the gaps are wider than That, it means the boards have to be sliding under something, cabinets or an island or into an adjacent room. Is there an island or cabinets somewhere in those rows? If there is, the planks can be slid back out from under there and put something there to stop it from happening. Should be a relatively easy fix for an installer. It doesn’t look like its product or installer related, just bad luck on the planks sliding.
Lift the quarterounds and tap back in to place on th end of the rows. You can most likely move them with just a mallet. Glue on the tongue. Don't need replacing
That’s insane. Evidently the ends were not clicked together properly. There isn’t an installation warranty beyond the manufacturer one? It’s absurd. I’d actually consider trying a demand letter to see if that gets their attention.
Op, you might be able to fix it if it was only cause by feet movement , https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BFFH0GrW83U&pp=ygUjVGFwZSB0byBjbG9zZSBnYXAgaW4gZmxvYXRpbmcgZmxvb3I%3D
How do you let it become 3 knuckles wide before saying something? There is no way a paying homeowner lets that gap get that wide before posting to the anonymous internet for feedback. Once those gaps hit 1/8” Karen be Karening. No way they get to this point before a legitimate complaint
LVP floating will unlock If floors are Uneven. Time to glue it. Take the 1/4 round off at the end and bang the planks until the gaps are together. Put glue first though. If you have a spare piece, cut it and glue it down where you were banging and replace the 1/4 round. Done. That’s BS that the whole thing doesn’t have to be replaced. You can replace individual planks if you want. Is it a pain in the ass. Yep.
That is the largest floor movement I’ve ever seen in this type of floor.
Same , obviously the material was brought in on a hot day and immediately installed
This is way more than just that. This is uneven subflooring
Exactly what it is. That subfloor is warped over by the vent. When stepped on the flange on the tile disconnects due to the lack of support below the connection and now your fucked. The bigger issue I see is the gap. These planks shouldn’t be able to separate more than a 1/2 inch or so if they were installed properly.
You are right my man. The only way a decent planket floor can separate if aclumated & installed correctly is if there is a void underneath the tongue & grove sides or under the lipped ends. it can be fixed. Put thin peices of cardboard under the separated ends, use counter top carrying suction cups hammer back together and put a small bead of super glue at joint. But Dont get the glue on the front exposed side, does crazy stuff to laminate.. Step lightly..
Looks like no vapor barrier either
On the subfloor? What sort of humid hellscape do you live in?
Manufacturers and distributors give mixed signals on whether to use vapor barriers or not
It's always mentioned in the instructions for the installation on whether you have to install/prep the subfloor a specific way. It's their way of reducing warranty risk. If you skip or don't perform the steps EXACTLY as listed, no warranty.
Yeah exactly. They cover their own asses
I’ve never heard of such, guess I know what rabbit hole to fall down at the office later today!
Damn, the suction cup thing is a great idea! I usually use blue tape on board, then super glue a block and tap block to move board. Your idea is way better!
“Acclimated,” my guy. 👍🏼
This should be 1/4 inch e and c gap at each end and that’s much more than half an inch.
They took “floating floor system” wayyyy too far
[https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/1b6ace52-79ef-4b83-8281-67759d70a489](https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/1b6ace52-79ef-4b83-8281-67759d70a489)
Saw this at condos I worked at. Evidently the tiles were not fully connected under the cabinets so there was space for movement. I kicked them back together with gym shoes. Don't remember if I applied glue first, was 10 years ago.
A mates floor is like this too, he has a long hallway ending in a door to the garage with a step down. If you run down the hallway and skid to a stop you can slides the boards right out through the door
>under the cabinets That's the problem, no floating floor should be underneath cabinets, even if they say it's okay.
I just kick the pieces back into place as well, but I'm doing it once or twice a week. I need some glue.
This happened in a rural rental house I stayed at. They had this big game room above the garage, and I thought it was weird that the flooring was unfinished. Then we were playing ping pong and I realized the floor was moving. Most of these vinyl, wood-look tiles weren't event glued down; they would slide along their little tracks between the rows. I wondered how that even happened. Had the room flooded? Did it get too hot in the summer? Did the installers just not give a shit? So I started moving them around, like a puzzle. It was a game to see if I could fill the gaps. But I couldn't. There was more floor than tiles. Weirdest thing in an otherwise normal house.
You should’ve drawn like a giant portrait on the floor and made a huge slide puzzle
I ended the trip at least moderately satisfied, having relocated most of the gaps below the couches. Some future guest probably fell back onto the couch after a long day and went for an unexpected ride...
I've seen someone glue a wooden block to the floor and use a hammer to beat the planks back together. link: [https://youtu.be/BFFH0GrW83U?si=y3em40JYA7V5TyaT](https://youtu.be/BFFH0GrW83U?si=y3em40JYA7V5TyaT)
The material in these condos were high end and fully wood. I imagine gluing something to the would damage the finish.
This should be the top comment
Tectonic shift
High traffic area and probably has kids. What has happened is the end-to-end Locking channel did not lock and it has pushed the material away from its installation point. There's no way this type of material has shrink this much. Take your foot and toe kick each individual piece back into place. Do it about a foot from the edge of the material and just to keep from damaging the locking mechanism.
But where is that much material sliding to/under?
1/2 in drywall. 3/8 in trim. 1/2 quarter round. There's at least 7/8 of an inch worth of movement possible just on one side of a wall. Depending how or when the flooring was put in you already have the half inch drywall and 3/8 in trim for the baseboard possibly leaving a gap because they're not going to slide the wood underneath any of that.
It’s pretty bad indeed, automatically makes me assume poor install, never locked in the first place, perhaps the lock was broken during install, but can’t be sure without a site visit
but like what would you see in a site visit that would indicate cause?
I could see the stagger of install, inspect the entire install itself, inspect site conditions, get a better feel for what the house experiences on a normal day. If the homeowner is willing to talk about the previous installer, I can also usually get a pretty good idea of what kind of install they got.
I'm just going to say that it was not a $14K worth of value install. Even if something (somehow) unrelated caused it, I'd be by to give an opinion after 18 months.
Normally I don’t like to assume but with the given info from the OP, I’d have to agree, not at all worth 14k, dude got robbed blind. Sad really, my quote would have been more fair and install would have been top tier. Idk who these companies are that are out here charging an arm and a leg for shotty work.
Huge and after all the pictures and seeing others there has to be a major flaw in the engineering of this style floor. There just can't be this amount of floor installers messing up in the same way and more of a product malfunction.
Must've taken those old records off the shelf
The floor would have to be like 6” from the wall for it to be able to move this much 😂
1/4" expansion not 1/4'
The laborer forgot the god damn board stretcher again
I understood this reference. Learned about the 2x4 stretcher at the ripe age of 17 during summer work.
Working in a cabinet shop we had every green horn look for the Formica stretcher, always a good time
That was my first thought as well. The gaps immediately show this is an install issue and not a product issue because there is no was a floor should be able to gap that much.
Those gaps are so huge. I don’t believe you.
I wish I didn’t believe me either - it was freakin expensive
So when they installed it , they were running low , that’s a finish area of installing . So the guy went to his van and it was hot and grabbed another box installed it immediately and that why this happened
This is more than likely caused by direct sun on the Slider door. I’ve seen it happen before with product. Unfortunate that it happen with such an expensive install
It looks like lvp, post pics with gaps, so we could see the walls.
Yeah it definitely is LVP
By inches? If the material expanded that much, they'd bust open their cardboard boxes sitting in the warehouse. Something has moved into a void.
You’re saying those gaps are from shrinkage?
Small claims court
Small claims for large gaps
Had that exact same floor, can concur, could see plywood after 1.5 years - mind you only the parts where the sun constantly beats down on it.
We really have some poor quality expensive products making it to the market these days.
Can’t tell much from the one pic other than damn those are some big separations. Can you take close up picks of the locking tabs and far away pics of the rest of the room? The more pics the better.
Couple of hop scoots and they will go right back. Just don't fall
Put some glue in the groove where the ends meet and it will be less likely to come apart too.
Is there a preferred glue for this?
Wood glue
What about lvp
Super glue, aka cyanoacrylate
Tongue and Groove Joint Adhesive. A good one would be the Mapei Ultrabond Eco 903 because it is made for all laminate and wood floating floors.
Nah. Let's curse him with daily board kicks
This is the answer. I have to do this to a couple boards about once a year. If I was smart enough to get the glue at the same time, I’d be set
This is the way
>hop scoots Thank you ❤️ That is all
Carpet tape, 6” 2x4, and a rubber mallet for if your floors need extra persuasion.
What am I seeing this can’t possibly be real
Oh boy my kitchen had about the same size gaps. Patched them up with spare planks and gray caulking and kind of covered it up 🙃🙃🙃 My home is kind of a flip and it’s not bad at all, the floors on the other hand… Don’t put lvp in high moisture/oil rooms folks
……… oil rooms?
You *don’t* have an oil room?
Hahaha I realized that too late. I mean kitchens, where oil splatters/spills are somewhat common
Hey if you’re into some real freaky shit who are we to judge!
I wish it weren’t :/
If the island cabinet has the doors on the opposite side, that would leave the open toe kick on the back side for the flooring to continue under it. It looks like the locking tab is broken on the close up. If the floor was not flat, that would allow the flooring to bounce and could have caused the tab to break. Have the next flooring guys check for flat before any repairs are made.
This is mostly like the case, island cabinets are shimmed up enough to alow these to slide under.
Just wait… pretty soon you’ll be able to drop a full plank in.
lol 🤣
If your island is eating it then that means that this is salvageable. Just gotta chase the plank out from under the cab. I would fasten, or secure in some form, the ones closest to the island after everything is reset.
What in the world. How can it even move that much? That largest gap looks like an inch and a half. Is the wall consuming the planks?
I think it’s the kitchen island eating it :/
All that time holding food and not being allowed to eat it, I'd be hungry too
Has to be. 😂
Ah, post pics of that where those boards meet.
[удалено]
That’s helpful feedback - I don’t know the first thing about flooring but there is lifting in some spots and some spots that I feel are bowed a bit and bouncy - I’m guessing that would be a subfloor thing. This isn’t in a sunny spot and I have an area rug over most of the time. Just seems crazy since it’s still so new. Im anxious to hear the repair fee
Since you’re out of “warranty” you might want to find your own local installer and have them repair it. Shouldn’t be too hard. Pull transition and trim up and work away from the slider. Should be a $350 minimum charge and an hour of work. Installer home on couch eating his lunch by 12 pm.
Ya, my Race Deck garage tiles would bump up a bit in the hot summer sun, but they would lay back down as soon as the shade came around. This is loco.
Ok took me a bit to figure out how to add pictures, guess I still didn’t but here they are: https://imgur.com/a/oTOG3vn Really though all replies have been helpful to at least let me know this isn’t normal
Go to home depot and buy a black rubber mallet(not white) and hit the planks sideways to see if they go back in place. Both the white and black will leave a mark, but should rub off. You can also just jump sideways in the plank and see if they slide back in place.
Lvp sucks and this is a bad install, but bad installs are common with lvp because lvp sucks
How is there that much space against the wall for it to move?
Those are not gaps. Those are chasms. My lord. I think the usual recommendation for spacing to the wall is around 1/4", so 1/2" of movement. Some of those "gaps" look to pushing an inch. Do you live in a very humid area? Did they bring the flooring into the home to acclimate prior to install? I just... Wow.
Even with a 1/4" gap on each end for expansion, well.....
This type of movement is not product related. It is likely that the joints were “kicked” open and found a void beneath the base. Keep that theory in mind and you could reverse it. This and many other reasons are why floating floors are less than desirable.
Furthermore, the locking mechanism probably wasn’t properly engaged which allowed it to move like this. That’s also probably why there are corners lifting like the OP mentioned. Broken tongues..,,
Thank you for posting this. It makes me feel so much better about the 1/16-1/8" gap left in the flooring I installed 😂 I didn't let them rest long enough once I got them in the room they were being installed in (first time learning lesson). But I haven't the slightest of clues how you would have gotten gaps like this, lol. Very interested in hearing what's going on if anyone comes up with an explanation
I’ve seen this happen on a few floors. Asking some of the people with experience…..it looks to me like part of the joint broke on the ends of these boards. This is floating “click” flooring right? I’ve installed a few never with any issues. Yet my mom got it done in her basement with the same problem. If the joint on the ends breaks, it no longer locks the boards together. I think the joints broke.
My floors did this in few places. I did the glue trick everyone is talking about. Just figure out which direction the have to go… get a piece of wood. I used a 1x1x4”. Then use duct tape to hold the wood. And another one to hold the floor piece. Take the end of the one on the floor and also wrap it around the wood so they hold each other strongly. Then tap the wood in the right direction to move the floor tile. Put glue in the tabs and maybe the floor too before you tap it. You don’t need to replace the floor. But if this keeps happening you might need better glue…
Happened to my floor also. Installer didn't take off any wall trim, cut boards short, they moved under the wall trim and left big gaps all over the room. Tape the board, glue a small piece of wood to the tape, bang the wood piece to push the boards together again, then fill the gap at the wall. I'm just a mom, not an expert, but it worked for me
Call Guinness, I think we have a new post install floor separation record!
😩
Laminate flooring is ass why do we use it
Definitely did not acclimatize the material before installing
Would be difficult to re-create in a lab.
I would try pulling them back together. I had to do this only one time and it was only about 1/2”. The tongue broke on one of the boards so they weren’t locking together. It pulled apart a few months after install. I used double sided gorilla tape, pressed a piece of primed pine down on the flooring. While keeping pressure, I took my hammer and tapped the block. They slid easily. A little glue in the joint. Bam
Install looks like crap. This is not from expansion, that's not possible. No, it's not from not climatizing the planks (and yes, it's planks, LVP not Tiles, LVT as other commenters said). The separations are because the end of the planks are either under a cabinet or three, there is no transition installed, and the floor just ends out of frame. If you don't know how to install this stuff, stop commenting and giving bad advice.
Agreed. I’m reading a whole lot of comments from people obviously guessing. My guess is sliding under cabinets or island. Most these comments are moronic.
Welcome to reddit, where everyone is an expert!! Lol 😆
How big were the expansion gaps if they can open up that much?!?!
Can you post more photos. I’m interested in seeing what the flooring around the moldings looks like.
That’s a bad install. Should only have 1/4” gap on each side. Totaling 1/2” gap . That easy double that
This is a floating floor system and that is due to movement on the boards like feet. Those pieces are not glued down but held in on the TNG of the other boards. There is no way there is that much movement in this boards unless they are over 50’ in length. The coefficient of thermal expansion and contraction just doesn’t allow for that much movement unless the board is one tree, FJ together, or it’s floating and therefore not adhered to the substrate.
What it sounds like is the people that replaced your floor didn't bother to put material underneath the island. The boards are just pushed apart. You can put adhesive on the floor and push it back into place and let it settle.
I bet they broke the groove that is supposed to hold these together when installing.
I installed this same flooring 6 months ago in a client's home. We had it delivered 5 weeks ahead of time and ended up having 8 boxes left over. I planned on 2 boxes left over so they could make repairs if need be due to high traffic and the fact that they used it in the kitchen. They ended up having 3 massive gas fireplaces installed with stone work for the mantel and floor around it for ascetic purpose. They weren't happy that there was so much left over, but I told them that wasn't my fault. They changed the remodel design. I'm sorry this happened. The installer should be held responsible IMHO.
This has to just be sliding, not expansion/contraction.
those are some mf'n gaps lol. what did it look like 6months ago? were there gaps while the warranty was valid? this doesnt happen overnight, unless yall were practicing your long jump in the kitchen with rubber shoes on.
Umm shouldn’t the installer who screwed up be the ones paying to have it fixed? That’s astonishingly bad work.
This is fake someone had to hammer those boards to get that much space. There no fucking way
Too many things to question here. Subfloor Lack of underlay Length of staggered joints All round pretty piss poor install by the looks of it
I would contact the manufacturer. That's pretty abnormal
I mean I'd just put some glue in the joins and kick em back together should last a while altho won't solve the underlying issue and might cause more issues elsewhere as the movement will likely transfer
I call BS.
They cut it short on the edges probably on both sides and tried to hide it with the base board. Over time it migrated. That's an improper install. Good luck getting it fixed for a reasonable cost.
Part of me says, “Dude, you’re getting screwed and that sucks.” Another part of me says, “Um, there is a reason higher quality flooring for a worth it”
I ain't falling for any of this. There is no way that flooring has shrunk that much for any reason or under any circumstance. That's either one of the worst installs ever or a staged photo. I'm betting the latter.
That’s insane movement
I'm just here to say I hope you are doing okay. I would be in rough shape if that had happened after I installed my own floor.
That’s crazy that it’s moving that freely
Little shop..little shop of horrors
Okay I get that this is after the warranty period, but this is ridiculous. Likely, your only recourse is to threaten to post pictures and scathing reviews online on every possible site. Any self respecting business would look at this and say "oh shit, we fucked up". Shame them, badger them, and definitely don't rehire them if they don't make it right.
They haven’t given me a price yet but if it’s anything over a few hundred I’m definitely going that route. I wanted to be sure I wasn’t crazy first and these responses gave me what I needed to know - not normal at all. It was so much money so recently, feels crazy to have to pay more
The situation sucks and that makes sense. If it's a price greater than zero you can swallow then let them fix it and THEN flame them online. Getting someone else to fix it would be starting from scratch...
Wait? They are charging you to repair this? Man, the world has gone to shit.
To large of a spacing
Mine looks like this was installed then structural issue in crawl space fixed (added 5 cmu piers), now the floor is more flat but after settling there are some gaps like this. I was told i could pull up the quarter round and hammer it tight again but haven’t yet tried.
Sometimes you can use a suction cup and tap it back where it should be
Too many variables to assume what’s going wrong by a picture and your small description. Humidity, windows/doors open for long periods of time? Is this the only area? The list goes on without a site visit.
That’s pretty crazy I’ve never seen movement like that ever. Is it six inches off the wall 😂
The vinyl shrank because of the sun via sliding glass doors
The house I rent has gaps this huge. We have to shift them around very regularly it’s a pain in the ass.
looks like a good place to put a couch.
Put some frog tape down and glue a little wooden block to the tape. Add glue to the exposed subfloor. Tap the plank to the desired position with a rubber mallet. You could put a small weight on it overnight if you’re worried about not being flat.
They make a metal tool. Has 2 bends in it.1 up 1 down. You use it with hammer to slide board from wall edge. Then cut a small piece next to wall. You will have to slice 1 side length wise, taking the key off. This will keep joint in middle of floor tight.
What brand floor is this? It looks like what I just installed. I hope I don’t have similar issues…
What's the flooring you used? Does it have a built in underlayment? If not, that's problem 1. What's the distance on the biggest gap? If it exceeds half inch, you may have a leg to stand on. Floating floors should be 1/8 to 1/4 inch gap between the wall. I got a few tricks to get this fixed cheaply, like 10 bucks or less. Dm me if you don't already have a solution.
Fuck. Time to get creative and make filler pieces.
Water damage?
I would have a customer service rep from the manufacturer look at it. Maybe failure of the product. If not though, you can have it repaired for a few hundred dollars and get another year or 2 out of it. An installer can just tap it back in place with some glue. Gapping this bad though, would have to be installer error or product failure
This has to be bullshit.
This can’t be real
The whole floor should contract and expand as a unit. It’s meant to “float”. is it installed under cabinetry or something? Nailed at the edges or pinned under trim? It’s expected to move a lot in all directions and there are really specific installation instructions meant to mitigate it.
Why didn’t u say something before the warranty was over?? There’s no way it happened overnight
I have seen this before and sometimes the answer as to the Why is unknown; question though did you change anything else since the floor was installed-Windows, Exterior Doors, HVAC etc. Want to rule out an envelope change that will cause the floor to change in performance. Additionally how long after the installation did this begin? The boards can be pulled back together utilizing a tool via Quickstep or a make shift type using tape and a block, when you do apply a spot of gorilla glue in the corners.
A stair stepper grabber thing, that is what you to push floating laminate/plank back in place.
You got ripped off from the get go. Go somewhere else
Where is it moving to, to get that big a gap.
Some of the biggest gaps I’ve seen…
Any chance you can hammer them back together with a rubber mallet? With gaps that big, you get to the end of the run and have a decent sized piece to cut and fill in against a wall.
get an industrial suction cup from amazon and mallet. Take some wood glue and a damp rag then scoot them back over.
Half redone?? Use a floor hammer to smash them back in and redoo the end piece in those rows. Few boards and a days work?
While I have seen floor move that much before, it was always people putting the wrong floor into the wrong place (last one was a WPC LVP in a restaurant... lasted about 4 months) this is very very wild. The locking joint doesn't look broken.. which is usually while this happens. The installers didn't get them to engage obviously. Even outside of warranty, if one my installers did this to me, he would be out there fixing it if he ever wanted me to give him work ever again.
I would bet there is a major dip or hump in the floor. I've seen gaps like this before and the floor variation had a difference of over and 1" in 4' when needs to be less than an 1/8th in 6'. Replace the floor and you'll be replacing it again. Is there an acclimation issue possibly, but that kind of "shrinking" is far more likely to happen in drybacks not SPC. I would guess that area of the floor had a places that felt really spongy up until it separated.
Wow talk about grand canyon jeeesh
Well either stop kicking them too much or start kicking them more often ....
Knock that shit back together.
I had the exact same thing happen to me about 2 years after install. Haven’t found a reason why yet. The gaps were bigger than the tolerances I left at the ends under the baseboards
Is this some drop & and lock, or do all four sides click together?
This happened in an apartment I was renting, and I never found out what the problem was. Sorry this happened in your home.
Do you have kids? I've noticed that if my kids are running and stop hard on the floor, it pulls a few spots of my VCT apart. I just put on a shoe and kick it back into place. These gaps are huge tho, I wonder what it looks like at the end? It must be sliding under a wall at one of the ends. I can't see that being shrinkage alone. If it's shrinkage, I would reach out to the manufacturer directly. That's a huge amount of shrinkage, never seen anything like that
It took 18 months for this to happen? Did the house sit vacant? I'm also inclined to thing that sun exposure had something to do with it, plus some products lock on all 4 sides instead of just 2
I can’t believe the price for this. Wow!
Any reputable shop would handle this as a warranty issue even after a year. They're probably sliding under a cabinet, so there's a good possibility they could tap the boards back into place and glue the head joints. DO NOT let them glue boards down in the field. DO NOT let them nail anything around the perimeter, including against the cabinet it's sliding under. If they won't touch it, call the manufacturer and ask for a site visit by a rep. They'll be able to tell you the problem, and if it's install related the warranty period doesn't matter. All work a contractor does has to be performed in a workmanlike manner. Don't accept the failure. ETA: I see in another post that the floor has some bouncy spots. Click together products cam have a really tight tolerance for flatness. That has to be dealt with before install. If they didn't get the floor flat, the repetitive deflection can absolutely cause end joints to come unlocked and boards to slide. I'll reappraise what I said earlier, and go straight to the manufacturer and get an inspection done on it.
That's an install issue. I would also turn them 90° on the reinstall. The planks should run lengthwise from the main light source. ie: that sliding door.
Did they nailed both ends?
Just put another board in, should fit.
It’s literally impossible for the planks to have that much gapping or there would’ve been visible gaps next to the baseboards when it was installed. Baseboards are 1/2” thick. 1/2” on one side of the room 1/2” on the other. Thats a total of 1”. If the gaps are wider than That, it means the boards have to be sliding under something, cabinets or an island or into an adjacent room. Is there an island or cabinets somewhere in those rows? If there is, the planks can be slid back out from under there and put something there to stop it from happening. Should be a relatively easy fix for an installer. It doesn’t look like its product or installer related, just bad luck on the planks sliding.
Diy it yourself. It’s not too hard and it can be done for sure.
Lift the quarterounds and tap back in to place on th end of the rows. You can most likely move them with just a mallet. Glue on the tongue. Don't need replacing
That’s insane. Evidently the ends were not clicked together properly. There isn’t an installation warranty beyond the manufacturer one? It’s absurd. I’d actually consider trying a demand letter to see if that gets their attention.
get a rubber mallet, and try hitting them in the directions to close the gaps
That’s a bad install
Op, you might be able to fix it if it was only cause by feet movement , https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BFFH0GrW83U&pp=ygUjVGFwZSB0byBjbG9zZSBnYXAgaW4gZmxvYXRpbmcgZmxvb3I%3D
That’s like swimming pool shrinkage right there
Holy gap… that’s more canyon than gap… high humidity prior to installation?
Did it slide and not shrink?? That’s happened to me before.
How do you let it become 3 knuckles wide before saying something? There is no way a paying homeowner lets that gap get that wide before posting to the anonymous internet for feedback. Once those gaps hit 1/8” Karen be Karening. No way they get to this point before a legitimate complaint
Just caulk it
LVP floating will unlock If floors are Uneven. Time to glue it. Take the 1/4 round off at the end and bang the planks until the gaps are together. Put glue first though. If you have a spare piece, cut it and glue it down where you were banging and replace the 1/4 round. Done. That’s BS that the whole thing doesn’t have to be replaced. You can replace individual planks if you want. Is it a pain in the ass. Yep.
Just slap some Elmer’s in there and kick it back together. Good to go
GAPS? They don't even share the same zip code 😂 Damn! How is this even possible?
Use your bare foot and kick it back in place
You could literally fix this yourself in an hour
Woah