Engineered wood fitting - bouncing

Davidben83

Hi 

Really grateful for advice please. Having engineered wood laid at the moment with the job ongoing but areas of it are very bouncy. The job spec was agreed to include levelling of the chipboard floor. Plan to talk to the fitter when he comes back in. Welcome advice on what to ask to happen now.... 

grumbler

I am curious how chipboard can be levelled...

If the joists aren't level, I think the boards have to be removed and some packers added between the joists and the boards. It's a big extra job, especially if the boards are glued together.

travis-powers

It’s almost impossible to get a floor perfect, bit late now but I use adhesive for engineered flooring

grumbler

travis-powers said:

I use adhesive for engineered flooring

do you mean glueing to the chipboard?

travis-powers

grumbler said:

travis-powers said:

I use adhesive for engineered flooring

do you mean glueing to the chipboard?

Yes can’t for the life of me think what’s it called but 10mm beads at 150 centres or there’s a system you can use with a notched trowel.
 

FaceHead

Flattening the chipboard - i.e. plane off any ridges and fill and holes - is clearly a necessity, but is no substitute for putting plywood down. It's the quicker, cheaper install method but you're never going to be starting from a dead flat surface, meaning there will be some bounces where it doesn't sit flat, and any spring in a joist - which there will be some - will translate into creaking of the new floor. 

The adhesive based methods (basically tiling) Travis mentions solves the flatness problem (if done well), but not the fundamental problem that a suspended timber floor has some flex in it by design. And it's incompatible with having an underlay, which you probably want. 

I think on a suspended timber floor there is no option but to plywood and underlay when laying wood or LVT floor covers. I know it's too late to hear, but a little bit of bouncing and creaking is what you get for saving 20% on skipping laying plywood and just giving the chipboard a clean up. 

How bad is it (photos)? And what are you paying for what? It could be that this is what you've bought, or it could be an awful job. It's hard to know based on 3 lines of text.