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A "bubble" has appeared under my living room floor.

Hi all

I live in a mid-terraced house. On the ground floor living room floor, there is a slight "bubble" that has appeared. Almost like the wood flooring does not quite fit but I think it is getting worse.

You notice it a lot when walking as you step on one hump and it will move it to another location. I initially dismissed it as poor flooring (we've been here for years" that has somehow got worst but it now looks like it is expanding in length. Any ideas?
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Comments

  • Could be a leak. My parents had this,  warping of the wood and it was a few days later major leak found and all the floor ruined. 
  • Lift the wood floor at that point and investigate.
    Impossible to diagnose from your limited description.
  • JP, what kind of flooring is it? And what's underneath - 'solid' or 'suspended' timber floor construction?
  • Ganga
    Ganga Posts: 4,253 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Is it your house ? inspect ,if rented ,ask the landlord to investigate.
  • JP, what kind of flooring is it? And what's underneath - 'solid' or 'suspended' timber floor construction?
    Wood flooring and no idea what is underneath. I'm assuming suspended allows for insulation/wiring to go underneath? I don't think it is suspended as it seems more solid that upstairs which is obviously suspended
  • just your standard wood floor. When I knock on the affected area, it definitely sounds hollow in comparison to the rest of the floor. Anyway a pretty hopeless DIYer can pry one of these off to see the issue? 
  • Grenage
    Grenage Posts: 3,113 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    My money is on lack of expansion space where it meets the wall.
  • GDB2222
    GDB2222 Posts: 25,730 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    Grenage said:
    My money is on lack of expansion space where it meets the wall.
    I'll bet on that, too.

    Can I ask Jonathan when the floor was laid, and who did it? 

    It looks like engineered wood flooring. Do you know what it is, exactly?


    No reliance should be placed on the above! Absolutely none, do you hear?
  • Jonathan_Powell
    Jonathan_Powell Posts: 188 Forumite
    100 Posts First Anniversary Name Dropper
    edited 29 September 2021 am30 3:40AM
    GDB2222 said:
    Grenage said:
    My money is on lack of expansion space where it meets the wall.
    I'll bet on that, too.

    Can I ask Jonathan when the floor was laid, and who did it? 

    It looks like engineered wood flooring. Do you know what it is, exactly?


    Thanks for the reply. We moved in 6 years ago and have had the same flooring since. The house is filled with issues like this as whoever the person used to get everything from the boiler, window flooring and more done was obviously the same incompetent person. Not too sure exactly what type of flooring it is. 

    The lack of space seems like the obvious thing but why is it getting worse? If it was simply a lack of space, wouldn't it be the same since the day it was laid? 
  • Grizzlebeard
    Grizzlebeard Posts: 305 Forumite
    Third Anniversary 100 Posts Name Dropper
    edited 29 September 2021 am30 9:29AM
    I would suggest maybe floorboards aren't nailed down but glued to an underlying substrate. In one room in my house this was hardboard and the adhesive under the hardboard failed with age and perhaps the slightest damp causing it to expand and bubble. As you experience this moves around as weight is transferred (with none of the traditional floorboard creaking either). My floor was on a solid concrete base with a 1930s tar based damp course.

    Wibby
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