Engineered Oak floor (advise required)

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Hello,

During May of this year I laid an oak engineered floor supplied by one of the well known kitchen and joinery companies beginining with H. I have laid this exact floor in two other properties but have never encountered any after installation problems.

The property which this floor I am having problems with was a knock through bringing three room in to one making the whole area about 40m2. The floors as a result of the knock through did not run together and the kitchen floor especially was out of level in itself albeit this was not a structual problem "suspended timber floor" just not level. I expressed concern with this problem to my employer especially where the main knock through had occured where there was a dip of about 20mm at the lowest point in the living room floor where it met the kitchen floor. The solution I was given was to plane the joists of the kitchen floor over an area of about 800mm to bring the two floors together.

"I personally felt this was not a good solution, but I will not argue with my employer, experience has told me to do as I am told"

The underlay supplied was fibre board underlay.

The floor is now laid, there is an expansion gap around the entire perimeter of the room of around 15-18mm. The floor is not trapped, but I did put the range cooker on the floor at the far end of the room because due to line of sight when sitting at the dining room table you can see for quite a distance under the cooker. Other than that it is not trapped at all.

Immediately after installation when the floor was walked on it made a cracking sound under foot over pretty much the entire floor and this is the problem, we hoped in time it would calm down but it hasn't. The customer has had the rep out and the rep is telling the customer that it is because the range cooker is sitting on the floor the floor cannot expand and contract properly and it is this that is causing the floor to crack. Personally I think this is cr*p, the range is sitting on three boards that are 1 metre long. I think the floor is cracking because the floor levels accumatively are not level. Please give your suggestions, thank you.
 
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Both could be the cause of the creaking to be honest. Anything heavy on top of a floating installing can restrict the total movement of a wooden floor, plus the uneveness of the underfloor would not help.
The fibreboards - 7mm thick?
 
Thanks for replying Wood You Like, yes the fibreboard is 7mm thick. But what I don't understand regarding floating floors is that your not supposed to restrict movement with expansion gaps and not placing load on the floor as is the case with the range cooker. But surely the same would apply once furniture has been placed on the floor, I.e three seated sofas, television and cabinets, bookcases etc, they all the same if not more than a range cooker? Thank you.
 
In my understanding a range cooker weights loads more than a tv or sofa. In most cases utilities are placed on plywood and the wood floor installed just a bit underneath it, without the utility item resting on it.

7mm fibre board is also notorious to cause excess movement on a not level floor.
 
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Thank you for your reply I now understand the mistake I have made by resting the cooker on the floor, i think i can resolve it without to much aggrevation to the customer. Your a treasure thank you.
 
Hello again, I went to the job with the squeeky floor today, I released the floor from under the cooker. I took off all the kick boards in the kitchen and where I had left the 15mm expansion gap by the feet of the units I noticed that this gap no longer existed, it is as if the whole floor has expanded. Naturally I cut the floor back where it was pressing against the feet. I also walked over nearly every board and found that every joint squeeks even where the floor is perfectly flat. I don't understand what could be causing this to happen all over the floor?, cheers for any advice.
 
Have you checked the moist content in the wood and the air humidity?
 
No not yet, we are going to leave it to see if it settles, if not then that is the next course of action, thank you.
 

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