"dip" in laminate Floor

transgression1

Hi all

We just had some laminate floor installed. its a really nice job etc but theres a small 1m area that dips slightly in the middle of the room. its noticeable under foot and you can see it dip a few mm if someone heavy walks on it. Had the fitter come back and he said theres not a lot that can be done as the "dip" is where the two rooms join (they were knocked through and this is the concrete "bottom" of the removed wall. this was done before we owned the house).

I am aware the chap likely should have leveled this area better or used some thicker underlay in this area, but obviously barring taking the floor up and starting from scratch there not an awful lot to do. hes claiming we should have specified we wanted the floor leveling fully before hand - but to be honest I think this is bull !!!!.

is there a solution barring refusing to pay him for the reminder of works in the house until its resolved (hes still got doors to hang and has done all the wood work in the house so far as well with no issues).
It annoys me that its there, but i don't think it will cause any damage as the "dip" is very small. Is there any simple thing i can do to fix this? I've read about drilling a small hole and using some sort of liquid..filler? to level the area under the boards but unsure how effective this will be.

DTDfanBoy

If he hasn't got the basics of laying laminate sorted I'd have my doubts that he is competent to hang a door

Grenage

Short of pulling it up and doing it properly, there's not a lot you can do about it. Drilling a hole and pouring in filler is getting into bodge territory.

JEN22

Sub floor is everything. If that's not 100% then no matter how good the flooring, in this case laminate, it will look awful

transgression1

Dammit, I thought this might be the case. The floor looks level and its fitted really well. hes also been really good (genuinely..im very picky) with the rest of his work so far. He said hes done the best he can given there was a small level difference and i do know he took up alot of floorboards to re lay them (under the laminate).

I think this is why its annoying me more then it shoud do!!!

smileygill

I'd be concerned about the laminate cracking and joints opening over time. Definitely needs to be fixed properly. It's not just how it looks. If the panels or joints split, it will end up being a much bigger repair job.

transgression1

See this is the thing, It only dips like 1 mm or 2 at the most. its more the fact that I can notice it when i walk over the area that annoys me. To be honest, we were going to put a sofa over that part of the room anyway, its just not an issue I would expect to have to deal with and id rather it was right in case we do change the room lay out going forwards.

I might just tell the guy to fix it else we will get someone else to finish the jobs we were going to pay him for.

McKneff

I would just take the easy way out, put the sofa over it.

By the time you want to change the layout of the room, carpets might be back in fashion or you might want to move house..

But there, Im an easy going person who wants an easy life

vansboy

Think I'd leave it, if its looking ok, there will be some movement anyway.

VB

TheCyclingProgrammer

A few mm dip will be well within the tolerance of even average quality laminate.

We have Quickstep in one of our upstairs bedrooms and it has a good 6-8mm dip in one section of the room. The fitter, who is a QuickStep approved fitter, said the laminate will be fine as the laminate will tolerate that amount of dip and that over time it would probably take up some of the dip when it has weight on it.

The only way to prevent this with a suspended timber subfloor is to spend time and money getting a perfectly level subfloor. He was willing to fix it if we wanted but it would have involved taking off skirting, lifting and refitting and I didn't want the hassle. I trust the fitter, who has done a lot of work for us, to rectify any issues we have in the future.

Mr.Generous

if your sofa's going there and its a good fit just leave it, you'll never notice again.