Hardwood flooring question

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Hi,

Over the past few days I've been working on laying some bamboo flooring in our bedroom. By the time I've been getting home there hasn't been much daylight and so progress has been slow. The room is 2/3 complete and yesterday I decided to have a walk on the floor. There is an area of about 1/2 m2 that is quite springy and dips. Should I be at all concerned about this? The floor comprises of original floorboards, 3mm hardboard and then underlay. Could it be that the floor needs to rest and settle a little more and the dip will be less pronounced in time?

The house is a 1900 build and so is far from even or square. Do I just accept this and try and suppress my mild OCD? Or do I look to try and slide another layer of underlay underneath to try and raise it a little?

Thanks very much.
David
 
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Personally I wouldn't be happy with this, but have walked on some floors that people are happy with that are like trampolines. This can be an issue when laying floating floors over old boards. It might settle but it might get worse as you finish off the floor too. Is it somewhere it won't matter much such as under the bed or a piece of furniture, this again might help, if it's slight or hidden or might transfer the bounce to elsewhere.
How much is it moving by I assume it's not that much if it's only over such a small area. You could give it a go with some extra underlay but that might still end up being a springy area.
 
Thank you, for the question and I totally agree with chappers. Its absolute thing he mentioned and I would like to specify the same.
 
Thanks for the reply chappers. I spoke to the flooring company who suggested instead of using another piece of underlay to use an offcut of hardboard instead. The problem with using underlay is that over time this will just compress and put stress on the joints of the wood. Tonight I'm going to try some hardboard just to even things out a little and see how it goes. There won't be a lot of footfall over the area and I'm slowly coming to realise that things in this house won't always be perfect. I would however like it as solid as possible.

I'll finish the install off over the weekend (chippy needs to come in and plane the underside of the door) and see how it looks/feels with the furniture on. Thing is by then it may be too late!

Cheers
David
 
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If it genuinely is such a small area hopefully the furniture on the floor will sort it, but if it doesn't there is nothing worse than every time you step on it things are rattling about on your dressing table on the other side of the room.
 
I do not want to hijack this thread, but have got a "Bamboo" question. I have just ordered / started to put down bamboo flooring on underlay on a concrete floor. They recommend to leave a 15 - 20 mm gap all around. I have put flooring down before and never had a problem with expansion gaps even where I had left them between 5 and 10 mm.
How much expansion is there effectively in a 16m2 room?
 
I've left around 10mm around the perimeter. As long as when I rest the skirting on top there are no gaps. I'd say 10mm was more than adequate.
 
more important than the area are the actual dimensions a good rule of thumb is 2mm/m adding an extra mm/m if UFH is used, not so important along the grain as timber tends not to expand along the grain and to be honest bamboo is pretty stable.
So 10mm all round ie 20mm expansion should be fine for most domestic rooms and for any floor bigger than 8-10 m depending on timber type should have extra expansion fitted within the floor run itself anyway.
 
Going back to your first post chappers, I managed to get a piece of hardboard under the area concerned. That along with it settling has meant it's nowhere near as noticeable or bothersome. Thanks again for your advice.
 
glad it's all worked out and by the simplest method too and you're most welcome, anytime!
 

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