Bowed Engineered floor. Is this normal

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Just taken delivery of some V4 Engineered wood. This is 189 MM X 21 MM X 1830 MM with a 6mm top layer. We searched for AGES to get the wood we wanted and this really looks lovely stuff. Being 21mm thick too it oozes quality.


However I split a couple of the packs (just to check) and have noticed a very pronounced bowing in the boards. Putting it up against a known straight edge I get a 10mm gap between the board and edge in the middle. If I put pressure on the middle of the board I can push it flat but it’s a fair force I have to apply. I phoned the manufacturer and after being told not to split the packs (Hmm) until the lay I was told that this is normal and the board will pull together during a staggered fit.

Is this normal for an engineered board of 21mm? After much research I was intending to lay these boards on T2 liquid battens but with boards this bowed it going to be a complete nightmare getting the board straight enough for the glue to meet the board - I'm imagining laying the boards and using lots of sand bags to keep the floor down whilst the glue dries!?? Even worse I can imaging the mess trying to slot in bowed boards requiring Herculean force to get flat into pre-laid strips of glue - yuk! If I float the boards then I’m for sure going to get raised boards that will drive me nuts - exactly why I wanted to glue in the first place.

What should I do? Is this a normal effect I should accept from these boards or should I send them straight back? What fitting method would you advise? Will the passage of a few weeks level the boards out a bit?
 
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10mm is not that much (we've had board with a bow like that of 4cm once!).
When you start to install the boards staggers it might take a bit of more force to get the T&G's in, but the weight and mechanics of the staggering will assist you in getting the floor down into the adhesive.
 
Thanks for that. It’s reassuring to hear I'm still on the right track. But it then begs the question of how someone would float this stuff? Or would they just have to accept that spongy feeling?
Do you have any knowledge of the Sika T2 product? Does it really do what is says on the tin?
Again, thanks for you invaluable help.

Toby
 
Floating, glueing, it makes no difference. Just a little bit of time and practise.

Sika is a good, although rather expensive, product.

What are you glueing onto? Concrete? Is there Underfloor heating involved?
 
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The sub-floor is a Concrete screed. It’s not 100% flat but within 3-4mm across 3 meters, which is why the T2 looks just the product we need.

It had stick down tiles (now removed) with the usual residual bitumen problem underneath. With the T2 Liquid Battens the plan is to clean the lines where the glue will ultimately go with a sander/grinder/etc down to the sub-floor and avoid both a full removal of the bitumen and the self levelling.

Luckily the floor is dry and has a DPM installed from new ('68)

I would appreciate anyone’s comments. I think it might be interesting to keep a log on how this goes, hoping it doesn't end up in the DIY disaster section ;)

Again, thanks for your help Karin.
 
Understand where you're coming from, but...
Adhesive is NOT a leveling compound (little dips are fine - don't expect it to fill large dips and still bond with your floor) and any residue bitumen will effect the bonding time.

Keep us posted
 

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