Wooden flooring

[bretts]

Hi Members

I am a newbie so I might have posted this in wrong place please correct me if it is so.
I have asked a builder to do wooden flooring in my bedroom and living room but after doing the living room there are huge gaps appearing between the tiles. He says that the floor is uneven and there is nothing he can do and he tried to tighten it as much as he could but cant do anything anymore. In the end what he did was filled it with some sealant and now in just a week the sealant is coming off and the spacing is almost 2mm which is looking really odd, he still has to do the living room so was wondering if someone could help me with this, is this right that coz of uneven floor boards the final result could be that bad. I dont know if I can post the pics of it here or no but if you can tell me how to I could do that now.

 

[foxhole]

Real wood floor, engineered or laminate,? all require a fairly even subfloor, if you don't have one then it would need sheet ply to level it before anything is laid on it.

 

[bretts]

Thank you so much for your reply, the builder has not put anything and did not suggest this either or we were not even told about the floor board not being ok till we saw the wooden flooring with huge gaps in between them.
Its solid wood flooring and after that is on the floor it looks so ugly, what are my alternatives?
I still have not done the living so I can make the ammends there, sorry I am new to DIY so have no knowledge what so ever.

 

[bretts]

Thank you so much for your reply, the builder has not put anything and did not suggest this either or we were not even told about the floor board not being ok till we saw the wooden flooring with huge gaps in between them.
Its solid wood flooring and after that is on the floor it looks so ugly, what are my alternatives?
I still have not done the living so I can make the ammends there, sorry I am new to DIY so have no knowledge what so ever.

 

[foxhole]

How was it fixed?

 

[bretts]

Hi Foxhole

They did not fix anything and now i am left with very uneven flooring with huge gaps between them which he tried to cover by sealants but they look really ugly now. They did not fix the bedrooms but I can ask them to fix the floor in living before they start putting the floor but I need to know what to ask them to put underneath else they will just try and cut the corner and put the remaining flooring on uneven floor

 

[foxhole]

Floor must have been fixed in place with glue or nail or both?

 

[Norcon]

You would have been better off with laminated mdf . More stable and harder wearing.

The floor needs to be level before laying wood flooring.

 

[Burnerman]

It sounds like the joiner has used traditional floor boards?
If so, they should be in the house for a month to acclimatise, and when its fixing time, clamps are secured to the open joists that allow you to squeeze the planks tightly together before fixing. Absolutely essential to avoid gaps (which may still appear to some degree.)
John

 

[bretts]

Hi all

Thanks a lot for your replies, they just put everything on the old floorboard. There was carpet and underlay there I think, they just pull that out and put wooden flooring underlay and wooden floor board on it.
It is the same downstairs and wanted to know what all should I ask him to do coz I think he is just trying to finish the job off in whatever way and go.

 

[Corazones]

Whatever you do, don't pay him off until you are really satisfied with this job. Wooden flooring of all types needs to be conditioned before laying, which means laying it out in the room for a period of time (the manufacturer will tell you exactly how long), so that it adjusts to the relative humidity of the room. Then, when it is laid, it will neither shrink nor expand. Are you sure this was done? I urge you to check the manufacturer's instructions and make sure they were followed before considering the job finished.

 

[bretts]

Hi

Thanks a lot for your reply, yes it was left in the room for about a week as I bought it but they had not put it but prob is the huge gaps between the tiles, I have told them and they are coming to relay the floor boards as they did a fantastic job in the living room, earlier they were blaming floor boards but now I told them its same upstairs and downstairs so they will relay it on this weekend.

 

[foxhole]

Hi

Thanks a lot for your reply, yes it was left in the room for about a week as I bought it but they had not put it but prob is the huge gaps between the tiles, I have told them and they are coming to relay the floor boards as they did a fantastic job in the living room, earlier they were blaming floor boards but now I told them its same upstairs and downstairs so they will relay it on this weekend.

Tiles what tiles I thought it was solid wooden floor.?
They floor has to be fixed in some manner?

 

[bretts]

Hi Foxhole

Yes i mean wooden floors but they are redoing the bedrooms coz they realised that they dint do the work properly up there as I saw a lot of videos online and asked him to do it same way.

 

[Corazones]

It's a sorry state of affairs when a customer has to educate his builder - but well done for your persistence!