Laminate floor has disturbing squeaking noise. Need help!?
Question:I have finished installing the Harmonic laminate wood floor bought from costco for my family room and it has a squeaking noise when we walk on it (at certain spots). We used the underlayment (looks and feel low quality) that Harmonic required in order for them to honor the warranty. I ripped out the carpet and installed those laminates on the concrete subfloor. The subfloor is not quite even or level at certain places and none of the floor is leveled anyway. I am not sure the problem because of uneven floor or the laminate itself. I plan to do another room as well but afraid that it will make this crazy wood squeaking noise again. What can I do to level the floor and how? should I put double underlayment where it's needed? Any suggestion or advice is greatly appreciated.
Answers:
It squeaking because you got an unleveled floor base or the gap between the floor boards is too big so it produces too big of friction.
First of all, you have to get your concrete floor leveled by putting another thin layer of cement, or you can use additional timber structure usually only 2 cm high to have a leveled flooring base.
Lay the underlay on top of the newly leveled floor and that's it (need a nail gun to fix the laminate flooring to the timber structure)
You could try putting baby powder in the cracks between the boards. If that doesn't work, I think you should use a quick-set concrete to fill in, and level the concrete subfloor in the next room before installing the underlayment.
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