The appearance of a creak floor covering Few can please. If nothing is done, the creak can become stronger. Can creak different coatings floors, including laminate. This material is classified as a high-strength, wear-resistant coating, but it wears out over time. When walking on a laminate floor, unpleasant sounds can be observed, which can become more distinct and louder. Noise can not only get on your nerves, but also be the first signal that the flooring needs to be repaired. So why does the laminate creak what to do indiscriminately to quickly eliminate such a nuisance.
Laminate is considered durable material, but it also wears out. This is due to the fact that it is constantly under pressure, which causes the appearance of various defects. It is necessary to carefully find out why the laminate can creak and what to do in these cases.
Often the occurrence of a creak is due to the uneven surface of the base on which the laminate was laid. Perhaps it was not well prepared before laying. Small pits, bumps, deformations can be the main factors in the appearance of an unpleasant sound coming from the floor when walking.
A few tips to prevent this annoying problem:
Sometimes thick substrates are purchased in order to smooth out all the pits and irregularities. However, this is not a solution; on the contrary, things will get worse. A few tips to prevent defects due to the substrate:
Substrate for laminate To prevent noise from the floor, it is necessary to remove the entire coating and lay a thinner underlay. If you don't want to take the floor apart, you'll have to get used to the noise until the floor is completely replaced.
In order to avoid noise from the floor, when installing the floor covering, a gap must be left between the laminated floor surface and the walls. The gap width should be 7 mm. In spacious rooms, the gap can be 2-3 cm, it all depends on the parameters of the width of the skirting boards being laid.
The presence of a gap allows the laminate flooring to diverge, so that in the future it will take a comfortable position. The gap relieves stress from the joints of the locks, and the surface of the flooring protects against squeaks.
If there is no gap or its size is small, then during the expansion, the laminate will stop against the walls and skirting boards, which will lead to noise, creakiness of the floor surface.
In order to eliminate this problem, it will be necessary to remove the skirting boards, reduce the width of the edge panels of the laminate to form an optimal space between the laminate floor and the walls. After that, you need to install the plinth back, fix everything. 
Gap between skirting and laminate, wall and laminate boards
Laminate material can react to changes in humidity. With a sharp increase in the level of humidity in the room, the laminate flooring begins to crackle and creak. In this case, the noise does not appear in one place, but throughout the floor. When the humidity level changes, the squeaks disappear.
A creaky floor can be brought back to normal with the help of tips:
Because of high humidity there may be problems with laminate flooring During the installation of the floor covering, it is necessary to ensure that the entire surface is clean. It is advisable to constantly remove dust, all dirt, sand from laminated boards, substrates and bases. Therefore, when laying laminate flooring, you must have a vacuum cleaner with you. In this case, the base for the floor should be sawn in another room.
What consequences can cause dust, sand on the laminate:
Before laying the laminate, you need to clean the floor surface as much as possible. If the laminate creaks when walking, and the reason lies in the accumulation of dust, sand, then it is quite difficult to eliminate this problem, especially if dust accumulates in the area of joint locks. If the whole thing is a poor-quality screed, then for this you will have to disassemble the area with a creak. The screed must be refilled cement mortar, smooth, dry, primed and clean. After that, the floor covering is installed again. During laying, the screed must be well primed, this will protect it from further shedding.
Another reason why a laminate floor creaks may be poor quality. floor material. When laying a low-quality laminate, even the main qualities of the floor covering will not be able to prevent creaking:
Use of poor quality laminate Main weak point low-quality laminate has locks, they are of different sizes. There may be an unpleasant creak when walking on the floor. These squeaks are eliminated only by a complete change of flooring.
Advice for the future should be purchased material only from trusted manufacturers. He must have high quality, good toughness, wear resistance. Of course, the cost of this coating will be much higher, but after laying it will not creak, crunch, and also swell, deform.
Another cause of laminate floor creaking can be pressure at the joints of the locks. This problem is quite common. Moreover, it can appear in a material with high quality. With a high quality coating, noise is observed for several weeks and lasts up to a month. 
Laminate lock - the main place where creaking occurs
Laminate with high quality can maintain a stressed state in locks for a certain period, after laying it floats for some time until it reaches the desired position. During this process, the coating adapts to the shape of the room, to the surface of the base, as well as to the characteristics of traffic.
Therefore, when laying the laminate, you should leave the necessary gaps near the walls. If they are, then the laminate flooring will take a comfortable position. As a result of this, all extraneous sounds, creaks will disappear, the floor will become even. This process usually takes 2-3 months. 
Lock not fully latched
If the installation of the laminate flooring is done correctly, there is a gap in the space between the wall and the floor, but unpleasant sounds still come from the flooring. There may be debris under the laminate. In this situation, it will be necessary to dismantle the flooring.
Tip if laminate good quality, you don’t want to disassemble it, then you can leave everything as it is. All garbage will be ground, all grains of sand, various rubbish will disperse. Over time, the creak of the floor will completely disappear. But there is also negative side- the bottom layer can be seriously affected by this, which as a result will adversely affect the quality of the entire floor covering.
How to clean up garbage:
Carefully remove laminate slats 
Surface cleaning 
Laminate panels put in place If you hear a creak in your house or apartment, then you need to figure out why the laminate is creaking. Many immediately think about parsing or completely changing the flooring. But it is not always necessary to parse to eliminate the hated noise when walking on the floor. If the laminate suddenly began to creak in the house, then what to do in these cases, and most importantly, how to fix it indiscriminately?
Laminate skirting board - minimum clearance required 
Joints are sealed with glue To prevent the creak of the laminate floor from appearing in the future, it is worth using important recommendations:
Laminate floor squeak is an unpleasant floor defect that can cause serious problems. As a result of the appearance of this malfunction, the entire coating may suffer, up to complete wear. If an unpleasant noise began to appear when walking on the floor, then it is better to eliminate it immediately, otherwise you will have to change the entire floor.
The view shows how to properly lay the laminate so that in the future there are no extraneous sounds when walking on it.
Sometimes it happens that when walking on laminate floor, the laminate creaks. Often this is not even related to the age of the flooring or the intensity of movement on the laminate.
Most often, if the laminate creaks, then the laying technology is broken. But what to do if the floor is already laid? How to eliminate the creak of the laminate without parsing the coating?
It is important at this stage to prepare a flat surface of the base. Allowed height difference per 1 m2 is not more than 3 mm. If the difference is greater, then over time there will be a creak and the floor will crackle when walking, and the locks of the laminate board will quickly fail. In the case when the height difference is more than allowed, the floor is leveled.
It is allowed to lay the material on a wooden floor, concrete pavement, linoleum flooring, underfloor heating, etc. If concrete surface does not have differences in height, but has cracks and potholes, then they are puttied. If the surface is uneven, then a self-leveling mixture is used to eliminate the differences. After drying, the surface is sanded and cleaned of dust.
When an old wooden floor is used as a base, low-quality boards are replaced with new ones. If wooden floors creak when you walk on them, then laminate flooring will also creak. Therefore, it is necessary to carefully prepare a wooden base.
For alignment wooden surface use plywood boards.
Therefore, at this stage they are swept with a broom and, if possible, vacuumed. Debris that gets under the board will cause it to squeak under load and cause the floor to crackle.
Attention! A dry surface is necessary because laminate flooring can swell over time from moisture and require replacement of damaged boards.
When laying the board on concrete base it is necessary to lay a vapor barrier layer of polyethylene film or a special membrane material that does not allow changes in the moisture content of the base of the board: it does not allow moisture to pass from the concrete floor to the board and prevents the concrete from drawing moisture out of the material. If the board is too dry, then the floors will also creak.
It is possible to lay a soundproof underlay made of cork material or polyethylene foam. It is recommended to use a substrate no thicker than 3 mm.
Boards are laid along the walls, across or diagonally.
A prerequisite is that when laying near the walls, leave a technological gap of 8-10 mm. The fact is that when laying the laminate, the “floating method” is used. Under load, the boards are deformed and free space is needed where the edge of the last row of material would move. Otherwise, the edge of the board will rub along the edge of the plinth and creak.
So, the reasons for the creaking of the laminate are as follows:
In addition to those already discussed, a creak from a laminate flooring appears in cases where:
A creak can appear when the temperature or humidity changes in the room. This effect occurs if the laminate was used in work immediately after purchase and did not have time to adapt to the conditions of the room. Unfortunately, not every cause of creaking is corrected in such a way as not to remove the flooring.
But if the laminate suddenly creaked, then what to do if it is impossible to dismantle the coating? What to do if the laminate begins to creak? First you need to establish the cause of the creak and then try to fix it. Consider options for eliminating sound with and without disassembling the laminate.
This error, which caused the flooring to creak, is self-correcting and does not require the removal of the laminate flooring.
Remove the plinth and edge plates located near the wall. Using a jigsaw or grinder, cut off the excess part of the board and perform the laying again.
In this case, the creak is eliminated as follows: the tightness of the locks at the joints of the boards is checked. In this case, the coating is dismantled and the boards are re-fixed with the help of locking elements.
In this case, disassembling the laminate is indispensable. It is necessary to dismantle the flooring, clean the subfloor from concrete chips. Then the surface is primed. If necessary, the screed is re-screed with a self-levelling compound. Next, the laminate is installed again according to the technology. Worn out lining is replaced. The reverse side of the material is wiped.
How to remove the creak of the laminate in this case?
First you need to determine the location of the creak.
Attention! With the second option, damage to the bottom of the laminate panel is possible.
If the creaking of the laminate occurs throughout the area of the room, then it is possible that the builders leveled the subfloor using an increased thickness of the material. In this case, in places of recesses, the laminate sags and this causes a creak. If walking on the laminate makes a sound for this reason, then the flooring is removed, the base is leveled and the substrate is re-covered.
If the laminate creaks for this reason, then it is not necessary to dismantle the laminate. After a while, the laminate will take the desired position and the creaking will stop.
A creak may appear if a low-quality laminate is used. In such material, locks are a weak point. In this case, to get rid of the creak, you will need to replace the old laminate board with a high-quality one. Saving on the price of the material, you need to be prepared for the fact that the panels will quickly fail.
Option 1.
If the creak is localized in one place, then it is possible that the problem is with the locks. To eliminate this problem, heat a candle and pour hot paraffin into the junction between the boards.
Option 2.
If the creak occurs due to an unprepared base. How to fix this situation without removing the laminate?
To do this, you need to eliminate the pits in the base, which are located in the places of the creak. They are foamed with mounting foam (make a hole in the board Æ 0.6 mm). You can also pump PVA glue into the hole with a syringe and let it dry for 2 days.
Option 3.
The creaking occurs due to the fact that the threshold "walks" when moving. To get rid of sounds, you can put the threshold on silicone.
Option 4.
Creaking occurs near the walls, but the technical gap between the flooring and the wall is maintained. In this situation, the skirting boards are dismantled and the laminate is fixed with PVA glue.
Option 5.
The creak appeared due to a violation of the technological gap between the plinth and the board. In this case, the board is strongly pressed. To remove the creak, you need to dismantle the plinth and fix it higher.
Laminate flooring looks modern, elegant, and seemingly does not require special skills when laying. But is it really so? For any repair and construction work, it is important not to forget the fact that before starting a business, you need to study it in detail. Laminate flooring is no exception. Inattentive and careless work leads to an unpleasant creak underfoot. Let's look at why the laminate creaks, find out the origins of extraneous sounds and possible options elimination.
First reason. The most popular reason is the unscrupulous preparation of the base before covering the floor of the room. Most people make this mistake, deciding that negligence will not be noticeable. Perhaps you hear not a creak under your feet, but a crunch. The reason for this is the garbage left behind. To prevent this problem, the floor must be thoroughly cleaned before grouting. Do not be lazy and limit yourself to a broom, you will need a vacuum cleaner or a wet rag to completely remove dirt and dust.
How to solve the problem if there is debris under the laminate? It will require complete dismantling of the coating and accurate, even scrupulous cleaning of the base floor. The surface should be free of dust, grains of sand, chips, sawdust and other debris. A clean base floor is a guarantee of no squeaks after laying the laminate.
Second reason also is poor-quality preparation of the floor before laying. IN this case you hear exactly the creak, and it occurs when you move around the room. This problem arose due to an uneven floor. Under the laminate there are cavities with a depth of more than 2 mm per square meter, in which you step when walking, causing deformation of the coating. At the junction of the locks, the strips of the laminate are shifting, which is why we hear a creak. The result of long-term operation will be broken lock joints and deformation of the seams.
The only way to solve this kind of problem is full analysis coating and subsequent laying, as in the first case.
Correcting the root cause depends on the actual condition of the underlying floor, which you will see after removing the laminate and underlay. If the pits on the base slightly exceed a depth of 2 mm, then they can be eliminated using gypsum putty and a wide spatula. Otherwise alignment may be required. self-leveling floors or . Leveling the floor before laying any floor is rule number one and should not be forgotten.
Third reason laminate squeak - expansion joints made incorrectly. During the laying process, the seams are not given due attention, although this important element coating technologies. There are errors such as the absence of an expansion joint or its incorrect size. The appearance of a creak is the best option in this case. It will be much worse when your coating puffs up.
Even if in one place, the laminate rests against the wall, you are guaranteed a creak. Just as in the second reason, extraneous sounds occur when walking due to the displacement of the locks relative to each other. There are two ways to solve the problem in such a situation. With a one-time emphasis of the laminate on the wall, you just need to pick up a hammer or chisel and chop off the element of the coating or wall that rests against the wall. If the problem arose along the entire length of the room, you will need a grinder or any. It is necessary to disassemble the extreme row of slats, file them along the contact line by 8-10 mm, and then lay them back.
Be sure to thoroughly clean the floor after cutting to avoid squeaks.
Fourth reason- obsolete wood flooring under the laminate. Of course, in such a situation it is difficult to determine true reason squeak: this is the coating itself or the floor under it. You should start looking for a problem by inspecting the surface of the laminate and checking the expansion gaps. Everything is in order, and the laminate bends when walking, which means the source of the creak is under the coating. If there is an old wooden floor, then there is a high probability that it is he who gives you inconvenience. Such a result should have been foreseen before the start of laying, since removing the sound after it is quite laborious.
To solve this problem, you need to remove the laminate. The fastening of the wooden floor must be strengthened in those places where the floorboards are attached to the logs. At an angle, screw self-tapping screws into each board where it connects to the joists. Old rotten boards should be replaced. After that, make sure that the base has stopped creaking. Next, check the surface for evenness and return the laminate to its place.
This is a common cause and is much easier to fix before laying the floor.
Fifth reason. The creaking may begin due to changes in humidity. The sound will not be heard locally, but around the entire perimeter of the coverage. In this case, it is worth waiting for the change of season. If you did repairs in the summer, wait for the winter, and vice versa. Over time, the laminate will get used to the new microclimate, and the squeak will stop. If this does not happen, then you will have to remove the cover and continue to search for the cause.
Sixth reason. There is another option for a creaky laminate - this is it. poor quality. Panel edges and locks have inaccurate geometry. They do not fit snugly together during installation. Because of this, dust and sand from the floor surface gets into the cracks, causing creaking when walking. Often manufacturers from China sin with this. The cheapness of the laminate should alert you.
Approach the choice of coverage with all responsibility, if you do not want to enjoy serenades during its service life. You should not save, at least, on your peace of mind. The result of negligence when buying can be not only a creak.
In any case, laminate creaking is a problem that is best addressed before it occurs. Do not neglect the choice of material, specialists and process technology (if you decide to do the repair yourself). The process of laying laminate flooring is quite simple, but, like any other stage of finishing, it requires thorough preparation and a rational approach.
First, do not rush when buying coating material. Secondly, be careful and careful before you start laying. Do not disregard any oversight, and the laminate will not creak for the entire service life.
Laminate deserved people's love due to the fact that it is easy to fit and not very demanding on quality installation work. But sometimes inattention or obvious amateurism of the installers, not taken into account the features of this flooring lead to defects - creaking, knocking when walking, undermining the joints of the plates. Defects, as a rule, are interconnected and follow one after another. They can lead to a violation of the integrity of the locks and the final damage to the coating.
For some time after laying, the laminate "lays on" - it takes the form of the surface of the screed. During these several weeks or even months, when walking, the joints of the boards take on a large load, they rub in. Therefore, a slight creak is possible, you should not pay attention to it.
After laying the laminate, you need to wipe and process protective compounds silicone-based - they will penetrate the locks and reduce friction between the individual slats.
This defect occurs if the laminate is laid without gaps or tightly pressed along the edges with a plinth or door trim. It got warmer, the linear expansion of the boards presses on the walls, the boards rise. The large “bubble” that occurs in this case bends when walking, the boards rub against one another, there is a creak and tapping on large areas.
If such a defect occurs, you need to remove the plinth, check the gap between the coating and the wall. It should be 8-12 mm. If the gap is smaller, you should increase it - sort out the floor or carefully cut it with a vibrating saw.
If the noise comes from one particular place, it is worth assuming that there is a small hole there. Laminate always strives for perfect even coverage, if it is laid on an uneven base - the floor will make sounds on irregularities. Diagnosing is quite simple - you need to find an even plaster rule, attach it to the floor and step on a creaking place. If a gap appears, then the cause has been found.
Only the dismantling of the floor covering, substrate, retraining of the base will help.
If the laminate has been laid on wooden floors, the fasteners are recessed, the coatings are ground rough sandpaper. Flatness is controlled by laser level or rules. If the coating "plays", it needs to be strengthened and the amount of fasteners added. The surface can be covered with widescreen OSB boards or plywood - they will smooth out bumps.
An uneven concrete base should be leveled with a second screed or using self-levelling compounds.
A brittle or crumbling coating that deforms under load must be removed and a new one poured. In rare cases, a primer will help deep penetration.
Grains of sand that have fallen into the locks create an additional gap and emit a nasty creak under load. Sand can get into castles different reasons:
To identify and correct the defect, you will have to disassemble the entire coating. Vacuum the base, prime it, re-lay the lining carpet wiped with a damp cloth. Before laying, the locks of each plank are wiped or vacuumed to remove every grain of sand.
The base under the laminate must have certain shock-absorbing properties, but be quite strong in compression. For these purposes, polyurethane foam sheets are excellent. They have sufficient strength, elastic, easy to fit. However, for various reasons, sometimes there is a desire or need to replace the material with something cheaper, for example, foamed polyethylene. It is too soft, so the laminate locks will easily “flex” under the weight of a passing person. The only way to fix the defect is to replace the wrong substrate with a more suitable one. ABOUT right choice you can find out from experienced stackers or sellers - they have probably already encountered the issue and have everything you need on sale. The most popular solution is 3 mm polyurethane sheets.
In order for the floor to have maximum rigidity, there should be a distance of at least 1/3 of the length of the board between the short sides of adjacent boards. In order to save money, irresponsible stackers violate this rule and during operation it is revealed that three or four joints converge at one point. The laminate will sag and creak even with a solid, even base - the substrate will make it possible to indent by 0.5 - 1 mm, which is more than enough.
To fix the drawback, you will have to work - you need to sort out the laminate so that the joints fall in the middle of adjacent boards, this is called laying apart, or "deck".
All of the above methods helped to identify and eliminate the cause of the creak. There are methods of "symptomatic" treatment aimed at reducing friction between the mating surfaces of the locks.
First method- this is to rub the locks of the laminate with wax or paraffin before laying.
Second method- a silicone spray polish for cars is applied to the joints in a creaking place. After a couple of minutes, the greasy place is removed with a clean rag, wiped with an alcohol-based damp cloth for degreasing.
Both methods are aimed at lubricating creaking surfaces and can only be used for emergencies. It is still more correct to determine the exact reason why the laminate creaks and remove it, since further operation can damage the flooring.
Laminate flooring transforms any room, giving it a respectable look. But this one too new material for a number of reasons, it can become a source of certain inconveniences, for example, in the form of creaking of individual floorboards.
If the laminate creaks what to do? This question arises for almost every homeowner if such noise accompanies residents when moving around the house. Do not think that such a phenomenon is the norm. This sad fact only says that during the installation of the flooring, the process technology was somehow violated. Any defect that causes unpleasant noises can be corrected, but only first you need to find out the cause of its occurrence.
It should be noted right away that even experienced specialists who have been installing this coating for a long time always talk about the “capriciousness” of the laminate, since it first of all requires a perfectly even base.
Some customers refuse to listen to the master's warnings and ask to install on an existing base, without his careful pre-training. But this may be the first reason for the creaking of the laminate. However, it also happens that everything goes well, and the coating serves for many years without any negative manifestations.
Quite common are cases when work is carried out in full accordance with all developed technologies and on an absolutely even basis, and, after it proper styling, it still makes unpleasant sounds to the ear. Sometimes, after some time, the panels rub against each other, sit down and the creak disappears, but this does not always happen, and you have to make efforts and look for a way out of this situation.
There can be several reasons for noise and creaking, and it is not enough just to list them. You should consider each of them separately in order to figure out how to deal with the noise of the coating.
As mentioned above, most often the cause of the creak is an uneven or shaky base for laying the material. To be sure that it will not cause an unreliable squeaky floor, although covered expensive laminate, you need to align it.
One of the most common causes is an uneven base surface. If, nevertheless, the laminate has already been laid on an unprepared base, and the creak has appeared in some of its sections, then in these places the base of the irregularities (depressions) are maximum, and decorative coating gets the ability to bend when a load is applied to its surface. When changing the position of the panel while pressing it, friction occurs between the individual adjacent elements of the laminate floor, which causes creaking.
If, when walking on the floor, a creak is heard not on separate sections, but on almost the entire surface, then the entire base definitely requires
- After removing the laminate panels and making sure that it was the recess in the surface of the base that was the culprit of the creak, the flaw must be eliminated.
- The leveling process is best carried out with a quick-hardening mortar, which is leveled with a spatula to general level main floor.
- After the mixture has dried, the leveled area must be sanded, since even a slight elevation or depression may not fix, but aggravate the problem.
- A thin cardboard is laid on the dried surface of the base, the substrate is returned and the laminate is mounted again.
- In this case, you will have to do a great job. First of all, you will need to remove the baseboards and thresholds, and then the entire laminate.
- Then you have to inspect the wooden floor and find "problem" areas on it. Special attention is given to floorboards that have obvious signs of "decrepitude" of wood, spots of mold or fungus - such parts are subject to unconditional replacement
- If it is not possible to carry out the scraping process, then the boardwalk can be leveled with plywood with a thickness of at least 10 mm. Plywood must be mounted on glue with fixation with self-tapping screws.
From above, the boards or sheets of plywood are covered with a substrate, on which the laminate is subsequently mounted according to all the rules of technology.
Laminate panel manufacturers usually recommend substrate types - these tips should be followed Cracking and creaking when moving on a laminate flooring can also come from if the base, before laying, was not sufficiently well cleaned of various debris, such as small pieces construction debris, ordinary sand or small pebbles.
Poor cleaning is a direct cause of “noisy” laminate floors Foreign elements that have fallen under the laminate may not manifest themselves immediately, as they will still be covered not sagging underlay. However, over time, under the influence of loads, the material of any substrate is necessarily crushed, and if even small solid fragments of debris remain under it, then squeaks will be heard when they come into contact with the laminate. Little of, decorative panels these can be damaged by the same and will have to be completely replaced.
Due to such an oversight as a poorly cleaned base, you may have to completely redo all the voluminous and costly work.
To remove all unnecessary from the base, it is necessary to carry out the following manipulations:
A sharp, abrupt change in one of the parameters characteristic of the prevailing normal indoor microclimate can also negatively affect. Under the influence of high humidity or a dramatic change in temperature, the decorative coating may begin to creak or even deform.
For example, after autumn cool weather begins heating season, and the material must adapt to more high temperatures and dry indoor air. Humidity rises during rainy autumn and spring days, and its effect on laminate layers is especially detrimental. Floor panels may swell or shrink. It is these processes that lead to the appearance of unwanted sounds.
After a recent laying of a laminate and during the period of its adaptation to the conditions of a certain room, similar phenomena can also occur. In this case, you should not rush to correct them, since, perhaps, the material needs to be given time to “get used to” the new conditions.
If the laminate creaks only in the off-season, and “calms down” at steady temperatures and humidity, then there is only one effective remedy avoid this negativity. It is necessary, if possible, to try to maintain indoor humidity and temperature at the same level all year round. Climate change can help equipment - air conditioning and a humidifier, and for control, special measuring instruments are needed - a thermometer and a hygrometer.
The laminate will not have enough space if the installation was immediately carried out incorrectly, or rather, without leaving compensation gaps, close to the walls. In this case, there is simply no free space for the expansion of the material when the parameters of its environment change.
That's why experienced craftsmen know that around the entire perimeter of the room where the laminate is laid, a gap of 10 ÷ 12 mm must be left between the coating and the walls, depending on the area of \u200b\u200bthe room. In halls with a large coverage area, where voluminous skirting boards will look perfect and are able to close fairly large gaps, even 20 ÷ 30 mm recede from the walls.
In the rooms large area gaps can even reach 20 - 30 mm By the way, even special skirting boards are produced for laminate, which have an elastic soft layer from below. This is necessary so that when expanding, the material can easily move to the required distance. Well, if there is no gap at all, then not only creaking and crackling, but also, possibly, significant deformations of the entire surface of the laminate will be provided.
If the laminate begins to creak, you should immediately check for gaps. This can be done by removing one of the skirting boards. If there are simply no gaps, or they are extremely small (less than 5 mm), it is urgent to start correcting this violation during installation, otherwise the coating panels, their locking connections may be damaged, and you will have to seriously spend money on replacing them.
In order to correct the situation, you need to leave gaps of the desired size. This is done in the following way:
The second option is much more difficult to make - similar specialized tool not even all masters have it, so it’s better to use the first one.
It should be noted that sometimes the baseboard itself can also cause a creak if it is very strongly pressed against the laminate. To correct this moment, you need to slightly raise the plinth, or better, fix a tape of thin polyethylene foam on its lower part, or purchase this finishing element with an existing soft bottom plane.
Attempts to save money often lead to the purchase of low-quality flooring material. You should not expect long-term service from such a laminate, since manufacturing inaccuracies can be made in the design of its locks, and this panel element is very often the cause of creaking.
It is difficult to understand the logic of people who save on quality. Perhaps they are led by the confidence that they will “carry over”, everything will work out and it will work out. It is possible that they heard enough "good advice" from acquaintances who had already once walked along this "slippery" path. But the logic here is clearly lame - it cannot quality material top or first grade cost very cheap.
Even if at least one of the layers of the laminate is made of low-grade materials, this can cause delamination of the entire coating. Such material can generally react unpredictably not only to changes in temperature and humidity, but even to ordinary wet cleaning.
To get rid of the creak of a low-quality laminate, you can take all the above methods of repairing it, but the most the best option the cover will be completely replaced. Therefore, when choosing a decorative flooring for the floor, it is necessary to carefully study its characteristics and be sure to find out the warranty period that is set for it by the manufacturer. It is very important to purchase such materials in construction stores with a good reputation, which do not allow counterfeit products on their shelves. And you can find out more in the publication of our portal specially dedicated to this issue.
A new laminate flooring must adapt not only to its environment, but also to the substrate as well as the substrate. At first, it may not behave quite the way you would like, and when walking on it, creaking, rustling or clattering may appear, slightly noticeable instability. Experts say that this is quite normal, since the laminate flooring must adhere well to the underlying surface. In connecting locks, the tension that occurs during installation will be relieved over time individual elements. The laminate flooring is floating, that is, it is not fixed to the base and to the walls, and therefore it must be sure to find and take its stable place in a limited space.
A new coating at first can also make squeaks - this is not a "pathology" If during installation the process technology was fully observed and the manufacturer's recommendations were not ignored, then after a certain time (usually no more than a month ÷ two), the floors will settle down and stop "floating" and creaking. The stabilization period depends on the quality and material of the laminate, as well as on the substrate and the type of substrate used during installation.
Of course, if after six months nothing has changed, and the coating will still be “naughty”, then it’s not at all about the novelty of the laminate - it’s worth looking for one of the reasons described above.
Strict implementation of all technological recommendations the manufacturer of the selected laminate flooring model - this is the main condition for the floor to be as for a long time pleased with its beauty, comfort and quietness. Well, in order to get rid of the problems that arose during operation, it is necessary to take one of the repair methods proposed above.
