Had a laminate floor fitted and there's a spongy spot near the fireplace - advice?

PopeSock

Could anyone offer me any advice on a laminate floor I've just had fitted? It looks good, but there's a spot by the fireplace where it's slightly spongy. Eg, if I stand on it I can see the laminate dip slightly, not the joints, the laminate itself. 

The workmen pointed out that the floor wasn't 100% even in some places. Which leads me to a few questions:

a) Can anything be done about the sponginess? I've heard about drilling a hole and spraying some kind of foam in but I don't trust myself not to mess this up.

b) Is this something the installer/company should be sorting? Both the workmen and the sales guy advised me the floor would need to be even and there were creaking floorboards (house is from the 50s) before. I suspect the answer is no, but I'm planning on asking them on Monday anyway. 

c) Apart from the sponginess being mildly annoying - I mostly don't walk on that bit as it's so close to the fireplace - could the laminate pop free/get damaged? I went with 12mm laminate. 

Advice would be appreciated. 

tacpot12

Laminate is a pretty strong, and if you are not going to walk on it often, it will hold up fine. I had the same laminate down for 15 years plus and it was fine. I also had one soft spot. 

It is possible to drill a hole in the laminate and inject foam through the hole. The foam expands into the gap. I think that it would take a certain amount of experience to be able to judge how much of a squeeze on the nozzle to give to fill a void of a certain size, so I would ask the installers to do this for you, providing they claim to have some experience in the matter. How the hole is repaired is another matter - I think that some laminates will hide the hole quite easily, whereas others will show it up badly. If these is still an offcut of the laminate available, I would grab this, and ask them to show you how the repair will look so you can see if you want to risk it. The hole needs to be quite small, otherwise the foam won't do its job of filling the void, but it also needs to be big enough to get the tube into it. It strikes me as being a difficult size to be able to repair the hole invisibly, but again having an offcut would potentially allow a small plug to be cut and glued in with Superglue or epoxy. (Hopefully the installers will have a plug cutter set and can cut a plug from the offcut to show you how the repair will look.)

If it we me, I would only attempt to fill the void if the sponginess was really noticeable or if it was bothering me.

The responsibility for ensuring that the floor was suitably flat should have been agreed in the contract for the fitters to lay the laminate. As a homeowner, you have to assume that if you haven't clearly given the job to the contractor then it remains your responsibility.