I know we’ve
talked about this before but due to a recent site inspection at a newly
renovated property that resulted in everyone blaming the next man, we thought
we should emphasise the point again…
No matter how good a quality your new floor
covering is, it will only ever be as good as the subfloor it’s being installed
upon, especially when being glued down.
The reason I
mention the ‘being glued down’ bit is that the recent case that I mention had
used this method of installation, but after a few months the bond between the
new oak flooring and the ‘concrete’ subfloor was failing and the home owner
complained of ‘hollow’ parts of his floor echoing and moving when he walked on
it.
Let’s make
this clear from the start, nobody was blaming the actual flooring itself, which
was good for us, but blame was directed at the fitter, the adhesive used, and
the builder who installed and finished the subfloor. Even though we were ‘in
the clear’ so to speak, the whole situation and experience was doing the
flooring industry no favours at all.
No one
involved enjoyed the experience obviously, and the home owner’s opinion of
using wood flooring for his project was negatively damaged, thus reducing the
probability of his next project using wood, whilst also reducing his friends
and family’s confidence in using wood flooring during the process.
Now as
difficult as it may seem to arrange, some contact and discussion between the
floor installer and the subfloor installer is vital for successful glue down
installations because as we’ve already stated; ‘your new floor covering will
only ever be as good as the subfloor it’s being installed upon’.
The reason
for making this point is that if one person is finishing the subfloor and
another actually confirming that it’s suitable for installing new oak flooring
upon it, with no knowledge of what work has been done to it, something is seriously
wrong and worst case scenario is that the finished floor will fail.
When it does,
the subfloor installer will usually blame the floor installer and vice versa…
sometimes with both ending up blaming the adhesive to ‘save face’ and make
claims to their quality of workmanship, even though they both know that it has
nothing to do with the adhesive.
The plain and
basic fact is that most builders will simply finish the subfloor to what they
believe to be a good and acceptable surface (you can't blame them for doing this), but that doesn’t always mean that
the finished surface is strong and stable enough to adhere to flooring adhesive
that is designed with some flexibility to move as the wood flooring above needs
to do itself. They may not even know that there's a wood floor being installed upon 'their' subfloor?
Some possible reasons for failure in
this type of situation when using the glue down method…
- The subfloor has been ‘patched up’ by the builder with an inconsistent or insufficient screed over an uneven concrete subfloor.
- The original subfloor has been levelled perfectly with a screed but the screed hides the fact that there is a coat of bitumen or similar between the old subfloor and the new screed.
- The finished screed or subfloor mix is simply not strong enough due to the incorrect materials, or quantities of those materials, being used.
Let’s face
facts here, all trades people want to get paid for the work they do, so all
will carry out that work to a level of workmanship that meets their personal
belief in what needs to be done. Some subfloor installers (usually builders) will not
even ask what floor covering is being installed because as far as they see it,
that’s not their problem, which is right ‘in a way’.
And some
floor installers will not care about the subfloor because they see that as
being the responsibility of the builder who installed it, which is not right at
all.
But remember
this, when this floor fails after installation, someone will have to pay for
the remedial work required to put it right, or even replace the whole floor
including labour costs, which can bankrupt some smaller companies or sole
traders.
When problems
arise in this type of situation, it’s NOT the home owner’s fault, nor the fault
of the wood flooring supplier… the cause of the failure is purely down to the
subfloor not being suitable to accept wood flooring being installed with the
glue down method.
The only time
this may be the fault of the home owner is when he or she has forced the floor
installer to use this method of installation against their advice… but to be
honest, no floor installer should ever be forced to do something that he or she
does not completely believe as being the best thing to do, unless they explain
the possible consequences and get a signed document to prove that they made the
home owner aware of their opinion and belief before carrying out the work.
This scenario
will usually only happen with renovation projects where an existing ‘old’
subfloor is being repaired but it can happen on ‘new builds’ too, so be aware.
Our advice is this;
Unless the
home owner can verify and confirm that the methods used by the builder for
repairing and levelling the subfloor are acceptable, or the floor installer has
been involved and aware of those methods before floor installation begins, the
best installation method to use is the floating floor one, where the new
flooring is floated above a suitable underlay onto the subfloor.
Otherwise,
everyone involved is risking floor failure, which will become costly and
time-consuming for all involved, and may put someone out of business.
This may be a
little blunt but we prefer to speak the truth, in an effort to educate our
customers towards avoiding costly challenges, which can badly affect everyone
involved as well as the industry itself.
Details of our recommended Fitting Guidelines are available here; http://www.oakfloorsonline.co.uk/?template=fittingGuidlines.html
