You do not want to glue(lock in) and section or place in a floating floor. Drilling and injecting adhesive is for hollow areas in a fully bonded gluedown wood floor, not a floating floor. Strike two (first strike was not prepping the substrate in the first place)

Removal and correcting the substrate, then reinstall if it can be saved. That is the only way to correct the most important part of a floating floor.... The floor prep!

The bounce that you describe can start to loosen the locking sytem. The first thing you would notice is end board gaps.

"You do not want to glue(lock in) and section or place in a floating floor. Drilling and injecting adhesive is for hollow areas in a fully bonded gluedown wood floor, not a floating floor. "

On a nail down t&g floor (3/8"), can areas be injected with glue to stop crackling and popping in areas? Would that be any different than face nailing those areas? What else would you suggest?

"On a nail down t&g floor (3/8")"

Most strip floors are 3/4 inches thick.

3/8 sounds like an engineered floor, and those can be either fastened or floating depending on their design.

It could also be parquet, and that is another item all together.

This just went down. It's engineered and was fastened poorly using finishing nails instead of cleats or staples. So it might have problems down the road. That's why I'm wondering if the high traffic areas get unpleasantly noisy down the road if they can have glue injected underneath to secure them better or if that would be a bad thing to do. I read above that mixing how a floor is installed is not a good idea.

I had locking bamboo flooring installed in December last year in San Diego. 6 months later when we had some rare hot humid weather, it buckled down the middle. Installer said they left gap and even removed some of the baseboards and showed me. He cut new boards thinner and replaced the boards that bulged and glued them in place. Looked fine until the weather got cold (for SD) this month and it SHRUNK, leaving a big gap in the middle of the floor. From what I've been reading here I don't think my installer knows what he's doing. He also used glue with the original installation. What now?

Gluing planks together on a floating floor is ok. It sometimes needs done when you go under a door or around an obstacle. Gluing planks to the subfloor is NEVER a good idea. The floor needs to move as one big piece.

When a bamboo floor buckles in front of the kitchen island and the length of the room, can you just replace the buckled boards? It looks like there was a gap around the island and the oposite wall. Thankyou

Carbonized strand bamboo installed as a floating floor one year ago - 20 x 27 ft LR/DR open connection, and a hall. Currently there are gaps up to 5/8 inch on EACH side of the floor where the length of the boards abut the baseboard trim - ? horizontal ( not the cut board side), gaps where the trim/transition piece to a ceramic tile insert floor near the front door in one instance, to a gas fireplace trim and to a laundry room trim/transition. In addition, there are tiny gaps visible between some boards but this is not the major problem. Brand is Morning Star 1/2 in x 5 in. carbonized strand bamboo. Installer who has been installing floors for over 20 years said he has never seen anything like this much shrinkage - and he was astonished. But he has not done many floors with bamboo. Sealer was put between each board as I have 2 cats and a dog and did not want any "accidents" to leak through and leave odor.

Has anyone experienced this problem? We are just starting to investigate this problem and the installer is going to contact the company from which the bamboo was purchased. I won't name the company yet, until we see if they will be willing to stand by their product.
Would anyone suggest placing wider woodwork and wider quarter round trim?

Your problem seems to be with the product itself and not the supplier, although the supplier (dealer) acts as an agent of the manufacturer and, as such, is involved in any product defect or nonperformance claim.

As you say, if you keep the floor, then you will have to find a way to cover the gaps in a cosmetically acceptable way.

This winter has been hard on wood flooring and similar hygroscopic building materials.

We installed this carbonized & matte 1850x122mmx14mm Strandwoven Bamboo Flooring (click system - made in China) through most of the house about four years ago. We purchased the boards from Ultimate Flooring. Gaps are getting bigger (I worry I might get swallowed by the gap). This is our kitchen floor but gaps are also forming/getting wider in low traffic areas. I started googling looking for answers when I came across this forum. Not long after we installed the floor a visitor told me he had to rip his floor up as the floating boards started popping. We live in a mild to hot climate (in summer) in Australia. We are very unhappy with the floor now and wish we had known of this problem before installing it. The problem started within about six to twelve months of installation. We spent a lot of money on getting the floor levelled prior to installation. Any solutions would be gratefully received.

Bab2003 I have the very same issue with the very same floor. Morning star strand bamboo. 5". Shrinkage is so bad that I now have gaps along one walls' quarter round. We had s cold winter but we are talking Shrinkage of an inch. This goes beyond seasonal. floor has also bowed in some places and one end board completely warped. This is terrible! We don't know what to do as we installed ourselves and so the company likely won't replace it. I really think the floor is faulty.

I went thru Lowes and installed Locking Bamboo Floors in Palm Springs. (no brand name, ROC. made.) The did install gaps along all walls and leveled floors as needed. The floor began popping and cracking, loud enough to wake people sleeping in the night in every room and hallway.......I complained, went thru 2 inspectors and several meetings with the installers. Everyone wants to avoid the isses and blames everyone else.........the word "clusterf**k" almost covers the grief of not have a house to use for nearly 6 months.........Lowes has not yet stood up for their "we do it right, nor their "we guarentee" our work, the wheels of taking care of their customers grind slowly.......

I would NEVER install this kind of floor again,....I am on a slab so limited in flooring choices.

Looks like I'm not the only one that is having issues with bamboo flooring

Within a month of installing by a professional our floors started to buckle. Had supplier and layer to inspect, supplier was going to check with manufacturer, 8 months later and us calling in every 2 to 3 months they finally got back to us after we threatend legal action they came back with a not at fault stance this is crap and why do we allow this ? Looking on the net it seams to be happening everywhere yet it's allowed? Has been getting worse, more so when it rains for 3 or 4 day's

Stepping up to legal action next

A definite unfit for merchandising product situation. There have been lots of these issues with both floating floors and those manufactured in China in particular. A simple internet search will bring lots of useful minformation about this.

On a side note: I know of a customer who wants a floor installed over an obviously unsuitable substrate. They will find someone to give them that floor and it will look like some of these examples post haste!

if you have a slab, you can float or glue a floor down, either is prone to malfunction. I suggest ceramic tile, or peel and stick vinyl tile, carpeting or polishing the cement rather than those first two choices....however in a house with a wood sub floor, nail down anything you want for almost perfect results......just sayin

We had Engineered Morning Star Bamboo installed in March 2015 and our floors squeak so loud and have a bouncing effect in several areas..The installer did it as a floating floor as Lumber Liquidators told him to do..The installation looks beautiful but now in my den the floor has started to peak up and it looks horrible. .The installer thinks maybe by butting more around the baseboard for shrinkage it would help, but I do not think this is the problem. . It is bowed up to where the floor is about to split..It happened when we had a change in temperature and now it's doing the same thing in our kitchen area.. what does anyone suggest that we do..I'm worried sick as we spent almost $20,000 on putting these floors all through the bottom story of my house..My husband was injured in Afghanistan and now can't go over these areas with his wheelchair. .Should we contact Lumber Liquidators, too see if a Rep would come out to look...any advise would be greatly appreciated..thanks

Get someone to take the floors up and glue them down

Change in temperature = change in dimensions in the planks. Bamboo is NOT hardwood, therefore it has it's own issues outside of the normal issues with hardwood.

And morning star has SERIOUS issues over time (go ahead and google LL and lawsuits....you will find DOZENS of class actions just waiting to go).

I'm thinking this has TWO reasons for happening:

1. Indoor living conditions. Something has changed and that needs to be looked at.

2. Improper install with not enough expansion left at the walls.

As a floating floor, most of them will NEED transition strips at ALL doorways. Your FIRST priority will be to look at all your doorways (and pinch points such as hallways) to see if T-mouldings or thresholds were used.

The SECOND priority is to REMOVE the baseboard in the area where this is occurring and MEASURE the gap between the floor and the drywall/vertical surface. Is it the REQUIRED gap?

Go ahead and do this in an area that is UNAFFECTED and COMPARE the gaps. My spidy senses are telling me that a "too narrow" gap at install + change in household living conditions are to blame. The two put together have manifested itself into an issue.

The fact that you have squeaks and the floor bounces tells me the subfloor condition was probably not dealt with to the degree needed to get rid of the noise.

What is your subfloor? Plywood/OSB or concrete?

Temperature has little effect on bamboo. Some but so very minimal. It is moisture that is woods enemy. Humidity is moisture the air is able to hold.

Wood/bamboo gains moisture from the air surrounding it and/or the surfaces it is in contact with.

Acclimation... It is not a time thing. Acclimation is a moisture thing.

This sounds like acclimation taking place while the heating system might still be in use. Drying the flooring. Come the summer months, and the heater no longer pulling the moisture from the air, the flooring gains moisture from the higher humidity levels. Hygroscopic materials absorb moisture, They expand with an increase in moisture content and shrink in dimensions with a loss of moisture content. Calibrated quality moisture meters(Tramex, Delmorst) are an installers best friend

Floating installations, all the expansion and shrinkage is at the perimeter. Extra expansion space is always recommended, during winter time installations. Removing baseboards and undercutting sheetrock/plaster, back to the wall 2x4 wall plate. Leave double the expansion space and install baseboards and 1/4 round molding.

Two extremely heavy furnishings on opposite side of the room(bookcases), can also lock the flooring in and cause a buckle when it tried to expand.

Hi everyone

Someone pretend he's a professional floorin,after a few days many spots start floating, I removed the extra baseboard, it's look like he didn't leave any space ,wood is tied to original baseboard. How to cut around the the whole unit,...?..

Thank you