Laminate Floor Audibly Cracking When Walked On

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I laid a Balterio ClickXpress laminate floor around six months ago & it's started to "crack" when walked on. It didn't so this initially but is slowly getting worse. It's all over the floor, not in one point. Room is approx. 18' x 12'.

It was installed onto pre-existing thermoplastic tiles on a concrete base with the recommended 3mm foam underlay. Although that appeared to crush to tissue-thin almost immediately.

No significant deviations from flat.

Where the tiles had broken around the edge from previous carpet gripper I cut cork tiles to maintain the level.

The recommended expansion gap was maintained all round & as yet, hasn't been covered (that's another thread!).

I've submitted several support requests to Balterio in Belgium but had no response.

Any ideas please before I rip it up & burn it? :(
 
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Did you lay a DPM between the tiles and the foam underlay or was a DPM included in a layer of the floam underlay?

How level is the floor? Do the planks bounce up and down visibly when you walk on them?

The reasons that floating floors do this are usually a) the floor underneath is breaking up due to age or trapped moisture or residual moisture levels rising resulting in a clicking noise as the floor underneath breaks up. b) grit or debris under the floor can cause a clicking noise, c) the underlay is fitted onto a subfloor which has had previous adhesives on it, the movement of the floor ontop can cause the underlay to stick/unstick causing a clicking noise d) the floor is unlevel and the joints of the boards move excessively causing a clicking noise and/or tongue breakage e) the floor has expanded beyond the expansion gap which can be due to any number of things from not enough gap being left all round including door frames not undercut, moisture/damp issues or very heavy furniture or even units being fitted ontop of the floor stopping the floor from expanding/contracting and movement from foot traffic is causing the joints to move when you walk on it.

One this is for sure, you'll need to lift the floor to find your answer.
 
Floor is pretty level. I admit to not going over it with a spirit level but the tiles seemed pretty flat. No obvious movement in the floor when walked on.

No DPM as I was lead to believe that this wasn't necessary. House is 40 years old I would have thought that the tiles would act as a DPM?

a) Pretty sure the tiles aren't breaking up.
b) The clicking has only started in the last month so can't be grit/debris.
c) No adhesive.
d) As above, I didn't measure it but I'm surprised as just how much the underlay has squashed.
e) Expansion gap is still present all around with no binding point. We do have a couple of oak sideboards in the room but they're not that heavy & there is room for expansion opposite each of them.

The most likely issue seems to be that the underlay (Quickstep Transit) has compressed below the level of deviation in the floor. Maybe another layer of underlay (with DPM to be sure)? My only other experience of laying laminate was over the green fibre Wickes tiles which IIRC, was around 5mm & very flexible. This seems to have been universally replaced by a solid board akin to thick hardboard.
 
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If the tiles are laid onto a concrete floor, you MUST fit a DPM. The tiles will not be working as a DPM. Building regs stipulated DPM after 1963 but it's not unsual for DPM's to fail resulting in residual moisture that should'nt be present, being present. It's best practice to lay a DPM on any concrete based subfloor before fitting the underlay, no matter the age of the property.

As you say, the foam underlay stuff is very thin and is usually stipulated as a minimum requirement when fitting a laminate floor, the fibreboard stuff 4-6mm thick is far the better product. You can't double up the floam, the support will be too soft resulting in pressure on the joints.

The chances of the foam product in itself causing the 'clicking' is unlikely, if the noise is coming from the foam, it will be something causing it.

If you have a 2 or 3m straight edge, lay that on the tile surface, it will soon become apparant if the floor is level, unless you have a builders spirit level of the above length, a normal household spirit level would'nt be long enough to measure although those floors outside of most laminate flooring fitting paparmeters are usually visibly 'out'.

It is possible, that the floor is acclimatising to the warmer weather of recent weeks after such a long, cold winter. Unusual possibly but it is a consideration.
 
Thanks again.

Given that I should rip it up to lay a DPM, would you recommend replacing the foam with boards? I can probably get my hands on a 2m level to check the floor while I'm at it but I'm fairly sure it's OK.
 
Thanks again.

Given that I should rip it up to lay a DPM, would you recommend replacing the foam with boards? I can probably get my hands on a 2m level to check the floor while I'm at it but I'm fairly sure it's OK.

If you simply must get the floor up to look what is going in, then it would be a great opportunity to fit fibreboards I guess it would have the added benefit of eliminating the foam from the possible issues too, it depends how far you wish to take things I guess
 

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