After being ultra careful with keeping the laminate flooring (fake wood planks) that covers out entire first level for the past 7 years we finally had a dishwasher leak that ran down the seams of the flooring and now have a good 4’ x 4’ section of planks that have the edges lifting and bubbling.
Knowing how the flooring was installed it seems like a major task to remove planks all the way back to the damaged ones to replaced them. I’ve heard that the modern method of repair however is for a professional to “cut out” the damaged sections and somehow replace just those without snapping them under other planks.
Has anyone had this done? Are the results as seamless as they say? Pricey? I imagine this is going to rum me a grand or more. I do have several boxes of extra planks from the original installation.
Having the original planks makes it much easier. What they are proposing is replacing just the area that is damaged and snapping your extras back in place as well as they can until they get to the seam, then just cutting to mate up and gluing it down to mate up with the rest of the undamaged floor.
Since you are supplying the planks, a thousand seems high. Id say more like 4 to 6 hundred would be fair for a half days work.
Will be doing this shortly. I have plenty of planks left. Installers can cut out old planks and install replacements securely. They can also screw that up, then resort to glue to complete the job, which isn’t necessarily all that bad either. But water was the problem. If you happen to end up with two big dogs don’t leave the giant water bowl anywhere near your laminate flooring.
One challenge in getting a person to do it is that the job is pretty small. You’re going to have to pay a lot relative to the size in order to make it worth someone’s while to come out. It may be worth trying to fix yourself. Take a look at laminate repair videos on youtube to get a sense of what’s required. Do you know if the flooring is glued down or is it floating?
Boy, I hate laminate because of water, pets, kids.
I had a ice maker that leaked incessantly. We tried everything. It eventually ruined a 6×6 section from the front of the ice maker over to the island.
Mr. Wrek fixed it the first time because a pro wanted $1000.
I never was happy with it. The glue at the seams eventually failed.
So we decided the subfloor was still damp.
I pulled it all up again.
Realized it was never gonna dry out.
Pulled the icemaker. Replaced that. After a new piece of subfloor.
Hired a crew. They pulled all the laminate up.
I went with full wood.
Water doesn’t do well on it either. But it’s well sealed. All leaks are fixed. As of 20minutes ago.(I always expect disaster, but that’s a personal problem).
The wood makes me happy. I know it can be refinished.
I’ll never do laminated flooring again.
It’s just not worth it.
We were sold a bill of goods.
The repair should be totally fine if completed by a professional. Its done all the time.
I run a disaster restoration business. Mitigation and repair of floors damaged by appliance leaks is a major component of our business. I have been involved with close to a thousand such claims I am sure.
If there is enough remaining material it can be patched in. Detaching and relaying boards is tricky because minor, hard to detect, damage to the mating edges leads to loose boards / squeaks. Sometimes the flooring vendor will coose to this method though.
Patching in is done all the time for both floating and fastened floors. Generally with a patch some of the boards are going to be glued in, so that will lock that bit of floor in place.
No floor is water proof, tile on concrete is pretty much the only floor product that should be fine after water damage, but I’ve seen tile floors fail many times after water damage too. Products like LVP are made of material that isn’t damaged by water but you still have to remove them after a flood to dry the substrate and avoid microbial growth.
Most of the time we end up completing a full replacement because there just isn’t enough spare material to or a partial repair.
Laminate can be junk, but in recent years there has been more and more high quality laminate products. LVP is really popular now as well, and tends to be more durable, but it is still highly vulnerable in a water related loss. Hardwood is extremely vulnerable. I always recommend people choose their flooring based on what they like, not what they think will survive a flood.
Someone I talked to today heavily recommended ‘waterproof’ laminate flooring such as Stainmaster Waterproof. He did not recommend a particular brand but he does home remodels and says the waterproof version do not warp even when extremely wet. He says serious leaks cause problems with the underlayment that should be repaired at the same time and recommends putting tile backer down first if it’s not laid on a concrete slab.
‘Waterproof’ laminate forms very tight joints that water cannot easily penetrate. If you have a small spill and clean it up quick enough it wont be damaged. Its still made of engineered wood and will be ruined if water makes it to the underside. Its better than other laminate, but not that much better. Its BULLSHIT marketing.
It is not going to help a whole lot when your fridge, dishwasher or water purifier leaks. Water will reach the edge and get through.
Even LVP, which is completely and truly waterproof usually needs to be lifted and probably replaced in a water loss situation.
I was told that it was not engineered wood, at last not containing wood product, but all plastic materials. You may be right, I’m going to look for more info. Please provide ant cites you have about this.
I have fully waterproof “luxury” vinyl plank flooring. I put this down in the mostly finished rec room in my otherwise unfinished basement. It’s great. The planks aren’t as realistic-looking as wood, but either is Pergo. I got it 11 years ago and I presume they’ve gotten more realistic since then.
The concrete floor has always had moisture problems and none of the other flooring has lasted - linoleum, carpet, paint, etc. I got the loose-lay stuff, which doesn’t have the tongue-in-groove edges, so when the floor would get extensive mold on the bottom, I would just soak and scrub the planks off in the tub and lay them back in place.
(I found a good and cheap underlayment a few years ago which has eliminated the mold growth.)
A few weeks after I installed the flooring, I had a minor flood down there. I was very grateful I’d chosen it.
You appear to be correct. Every type of laminate flooring seems to have a fiberboard type of core. Usually made with melamine resin it will have some moderate water resistance. I had no trouble finding multiple marketing claims that waterproof laminate flooring was made from solid vinyl but each time that turned out not be true.
Based on the post above from @needscoffee waterproof laminate flooring could be a much more water resistant product than the conventional type.
Interesting, I was going to reply to your earlier post as I had wondered if they were going to start using non wood products. My floor vendors have told me so far it is still all wood based.
Laminate and LVP have gotten very similar, and high quality laminate has really improved. Like I have said though get the floor you want. No flooringvis guaranteed to survive a thorough soaking.
I’ve soaked all the planks underwater in a bathtub several times now for up to 30 minutes (as the mfr claimed was do-able. I watched a YouTube where it was soaked in an aquarium). I don’t know what the core is made of, but the planks are fully flexible. I can bend a 36" plank 180 degrees. The bottom layer looks kind of rubbery, but it’s not rubber. This particular brand doesn’t appear to be made anymore, but it’s called “Supreme Elite Freedom Loose Lay”. I had it shipped from floorstoyourhome.com. The salespeople were very knowledgeable and could probably tell you more about it or what is comparable.
Here’s a scrap piece:
The surface scratches pretty easily.
There are no human proof floors. Some like stone will last a long time but it will scratch and gouge, then there’s the grout to deal with.
My sister thought she’d done it with Ceramic tile. Til she dropped a skillet and broke two large tiles right in the middle of her kitchen.
Wood is next, I guess.
A few scratches and scuffs give it character. That first one is hard to take, tho. Once you get over the preciousness of it all you’ll live a happier life.
Laminate, YMMV is not worth the money. If you have it and it’s near a water source, have a good floor guy on tap.
Never had a repair done. Damage was too extensive.
This last time we went with LVP. Very nice looking and seems pretty bullet proof.
We live on a gravel road with a gravel driveway with two active dogs running around. I never take my shoes (hiking shoes that love to collect rocks) off inside. Don’t see a scratch on it.;
My LVP floor in the kitchen area was ruined by a fridge leak from the ice maker. It was summer and very humid so at first the mildew that cropped up in lower cabinets and musty smell iI attributed to the season but something didn’t seem quite right. Then I stepped into the kitchen one morning and the floor went squish. It was flooded from the bottom up. No problem we started pulling it up and oh shit. Called the insurance company who sent out a team who quickly shut down the kitchen ripped out all the floor boards and lower cupboards and 3 Ft of drywall. Installed big fans and heaters to deal with the mold that was climbing the walls. Good times.
It was a concrete base floor in that area, next we covered it with a metallic epoxy. Best floor ever!
Huh. Never heard of it. Pretty cool looking.
I’m not surprised flooring could be made sufficiently waterproof to do that. The type you have seem to have some kind of composite core which might contain some wood product. It will be the resin used in the composite that makes a difference. There could be products made of solid vinyl or laminates that use a foam core vinyl material also, though something like that might be porous.
The trouble is determining what the actual materials are used. I’ve seen several that claim to be made of solid vinyl but further checking shows a wood composite core. Without more details there’s no telling how waterproof they actually are, but wood composites can be made as waterproof as solid plastic. Your account aligns with what I was told yesterday, some currently available laminate flooring will not warp from contact with water, or even immersion as you say. I’m going to consider replacing my entire kitchen floor with something like that.
I got more information from the reps at Floorstoyourhome.com than anywhere else - they have a massive selection and have all the specs. You might want to just give them a call and see.