Kitchen Laminate Flooring

[cosmo20002]

Originally Posted by Holladay

My German Father in Law put down a laminate flooring system. He said that the floor does not like water.

Needless to say, the kitchen sink cold water shut off valve started leaking over the floor. I thought I caught it soon enough with towels etc. It turns out, the flooring planks are starting to worp a bit.

What to do? Wife put a few bricks on the floor to try and press it down and dry. I think not heavy enough. I will put down a 2x6-2x8 boards with cinder blocks (heavy) for a few weeks (right in front of the kitchen sink) to press down the laminate planks and let dry out.


Thoughts and ideas?

Once its warped, it stays warped. Unlikely you'd be able to flatten that out.
While water is bad for laminate, it usually has to be on there for quite a while to damage it by seeping through the seams, or if the water finds its way underneath. Best to probably tear out the damaged planks and replace them.

[Buehler445]

Yeah, you're probably boned. I would guess it will destroy the finish even if you get it flattened. It gets in the seams and sits there until it gets through the finish.

Originally Posted by Hog Farmer

Laminate has turned out to be a worthless product. You can't even mop it without causing problems. I just did a rent house with a PVC tile type product that is great. Wood grain look. It's real flimsy like that cheap sticky tile but very durable and water will not **** with it. Like 2.99 sq ft installed.

Buddy of mine bought some of that PVC flooring. His was solid - not floppy, but he was in the $3 price range and it looks really good.

When I did my kitchen I ended up with this real expensive tile that I glued down that is made for kitchens. The contractor I had install it said it was the best floor he'd ever put down. But I probably wouldn't recommend it because of the cost. Where my buddy ended up was probably better than what I did.

[Rain Man]

We had the Great Flood of '11 when a water line broke in our house while we were at work. Water was everywhere, and one worry was our hardwood floors on the second floor (which are really softwood - I think they're fir or something). They were swelling and warping a little, and it was a huge downer for us since they're the original 100+ year old floors. We brought in several of those big industrial heaters/dryers and lived in hell for a few days, and they eventually ... unswelled ... or something. They're fine now.

[scho63]

Here is another job I did in a 10 unit building called the Dandy at 704 Broadway.
McCaulay Caulkin, David Bowie/Iman and Ron Burkle (Bill Clinton's rich friend) all were owners here. The famous swimming pool on the roof that you see in "Sex and the City" was improperly drained and came into this unit, destroying the original floors.

We put in wide walnut in the unit.

[kccrow]

Absolutely love wide plank, hand-scraped flooring. It looks phenomenal IMO.

Only regular production flooring we made was Hard Maple, Shagbark Hickory, Yellow Birch, White Ash, and Red Oak. Everything else was per customer request because it was either 1) not a really good idea or 2) expensive to get the wood. When I left doing this, Braz Cherry was somewhere around $3/bf delivered for #1 Com. Hard Maple was around $1.65. Big difference when you have a 67% yield, and so forth.

[scho63]

Originally Posted by kccrow

Absolutely love wide plank, hand-scraped flooring. It looks phenomenal IMO.

Only regular production flooring we made was Hard Maple, Shagbark Hickory, Yellow Birch, White Ash, and Red Oak. Everything else was per customer request because it was either 1) not a really good idea or 2) expensive to get the wood. When I left doing this, Braz Cherry was somewhere around $3/bf delivered for #1 Com. Hard Maple was around $1.65. Big difference when you have a 67% yield, and so forth.

If you are not into a regular import flow for exotics by buying containers, it makes no sense.

I did floors with exotics Purpleheart (Roxinho), Wenge, Ipe, Cumaru, Santos Mahogany, Angelim Pedra, Patagonian Rosewood-pink in color and beautiful, Amendoim-one of my favorites, Bubinga- one of the most beautiful floors I've ever seen, Australian Cypress, Bolivian Rosewood, Tatajuba, and Tigerwood.

[notorious]

Are you going to Vegas in January, Sho?

[scho63]

Originally Posted by notorious

Are you going to Vegas in January, Sho?

No, my former business partner goes all the time. I left the flooring business in 2006

[notorious]

Originally Posted by scho63

No, my former business partner goes all the time. I left the flooring business in 2006

Well God Damnit. I was going to buy you a few adult beverages.

If you let me know who your former business partner is, I will kick him in the balls for you.

[scho63]

Originally Posted by notorious

Well God Damnit. I was going to buy you a few adult beverages.

If you let me know who your former business partner is, I will kick him in the balls for you.

[Holladay]

It's probably toast, but you could try to liberally pour salt on it, cover with plywood, then put bricks or cinder blocks on the plywood. Leave it for several days then clean up the salt.

Seems like this is the best idea to try. We can't get this type of lament anymore (long story, imported from Germany). Thus cutting the bad section would be very hard. It looks really cool and was told by FIL that hates water. The hand writing was on the wall then. What Kitchens have water? Naw.

We did the under flooring heat and love it. The kitchen is on the northern side of the house with a 1 1/2 ft earthened crawl space under neath. Cold. Old "T" shaped farm house. The down side to the heated floor is with 2-3 big dogs, that's where they lay. Trip over them the whole time.

Thanks for all the comments.