Help, joint opening in laminate floor

cyclonebri1

keystone wrote: »

There seems to be a bit of a clue here as to why it has happened and it will only get worse if you continue to do this. Laminate flooring isn't designed to be washed - sorry. If you had intended to "wash" it then the joints should have been glued/sealed in the first instance but even so its not 100% neither the floor layer nor B&Q can really be held liable for this situation which seems to be of your own creation.

I too would go with the Unika products but it won't be a universal panacea and you must stop putting water on the floor deliberately.

Cheers

God, why do you beat me to it every time????

The highlighted bit is the whole point, laminate is made out of wood rubbish.

It's compressed sawdust and I mean DUST, it has no resistance to water ingress and when it happens, which it will if you swill it with water, the swell and shrinkage will ruin it.

Harsh reply? yes it is, but you need a more resilient floor covering for that area.

keystone

derrick wrote: »

Because the laminate is suitable for bathrooms and kitchens, hence the usually premium price, it is suitable to be mopped albeit not soaked.

Of course and Kitchen and Bathroom paint is specifically designed for use in a kitchen and bathroom and you pay a premium orice for it. Wrong - its carp retail stuff and you pay a premium price for the name. You actually have no idea at all whether the OP has flooded it even by accident and yet you still seek to blame the installer.

The reason I would "pin it on the installer in those circumstances?", is he obviously did not install it correctly,(didn't glue it?), if he thought there would be a problem with it being in a bathroom he should have said so and, being a tradesman, should have refused to fit it, onus definitely with him.

Wow. I wish I had your crystal ball. How do you know that he "obviously" didn't? You don't and are guessing. I notice OP has not yet replied to my implied question earlier up the thread on that very issue. How do you know that he didn't point out the potential problems but OP said just do it anyway and he did so but under a serious caveat? BTW the offending is in the kitchen not the bathroom.

Cheers

keystone

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

God, why do you beat me to it every time????

Because God knows and sees everything? I'll ask him/her next time we meet.

Heh, heh, heh.

Cheers

Innys

There's no way I would regularly wet mop my laminate floor in the hallway. I always take my shoes off as soon as I come in the house and insist all visitors do the same.

I use a microfibre cloth type mop to clean it every couple of weeks. It has been down a year and in that time only once have I mopped it with a very slightly damp microfibre mop. Of course, it helps that it's a very dark colour so any muck is not readily visible.

I simply do not believe laminate can ever be waterproof, despite the manufacturers' claims. In my kitchen I have ceramic tiles.