Laminate Floor Buckling

[Nick R.]

I bought this house in January and it was a complete rehab including the foundation. Now, the laminate floor is buckling in a couple of spots in the living room and am trying to figure out why. I had the foundation contractor come take a look and he surveyed the house using a ZIP level and there was very little variance in the house pertaining to the foundation. The general contractor I paid to install the flooring apparently did not glue the laminate floor boards and suspect this is the reason the flooring is buckling. The house has been vacant for awhile, so I have not had the A/C on and think the warmer summer air in the house has caused these unglued floor boards to buckle up? I need to figure out if the GC should have glued the floor boards in order to prevent a scenario like this? Is it common to NOT glue the laminate flooring??

[Korey Enstad]

If it is the laminate that pops together (usually looks like wood floor)

you do not glue them together. They are snapped together on top of a moisture barrier and are basically floating. One reason they could be buckling is the GC did not leave a big enough gap on the edge of the wall. They recommend at least a 1/4 inch on all side to allow for the expansion during hot weather. Not 100% sure if this is the problem, but defintely something to look into if it is this type of flooring. You could just pop off trim and see what the gap looks like.